Soviet Communism and Weberian Sociology

Abstract

Abstract The first section of this article gives a short outline of Weber's view on socialism, communism and the Russian Revolution. It is argued that Soviet communism is neither traditional nor neotraditional, neither charismatic in the sense of the genuine, personal charisma of its leaders, nor rational in the sense of a maximum of formal rationality. It is suggested that another Weberian category, one which until now has received only limited attention ‐ the charisma of reason ‐ overcomes several of the difficulties in which previous analyses have got entangled.