Max Weber and Modern Nation-Building

Max Weber and modern nation-building.  

Max Weber is in several respects “mossgrown”, since he dealt with contemporary problems of German nation-building and security policy more than a century ago. He has no immediate fresh response to problems of multi-level governance or globalization. He takes the state for granted as the natural unit of analysis and his international community is one of Hobbesian realism. He also overestimates the role of charisma.

He nevertheless remains both a source of inspiration and a sustainable sparring partner to many new approaches, only to mention multi-Modernity paradigm and post-secularism, both challenging Weber’s basic vision of the roots of the dominance of Western rationality.

Weber, moreover, gains new relevance for problems of nation-building, especially among “late children of 1848” in the newly independent states East of the Elbe. Charisma is one concept which gets a second and prolonged life after the implosion of the Soviet Empire. Weber might be a part of cosmopolitan bourgeoisie but is basically a nationalist political economist and his problem agenda – renewal of forms of state, political sociology and political representation - has many parallels today.

It is high time for an inventory of Weber’s work from the vantage point of its relevance and utility in today's world.