UNIVERSITA' DI FIRENZE - FACOLTA' DI SCIENZE DELLA FORMAZIONE -

DIPARTIMENTO DI STUDI SOCIALI

MULTIMEDIA SOCIOLOGY LEXICON: THE PROJECT

CHARISMATIC POWER

Unlike different kinds of power, charismatic power is legitimated by the supernatural gift (charisma) that is given to the person carriing such power. The carrier must be acknowledged as the gifted by the people who are subjected to his power. The structure of charismatic power, therefore, depends only on the person who wants to be obeyed and followed because of the mission he claims he is called to accomplish. Acknowledgment on the part of the dominated people "depends on faithful devotion to astonishing and supernatural events, far from any rule and from tradition, and therefore divine". "Success is the suitable criterion to determine whether acknowledgment has been achieved" (Max Weber, Economia e società, it.tr., pp.220-225). Claims for charismatic power, infact, "have no accomplishment if the mission is not acknowledged; if it is acknowledged, then charismatic power will last as long as such acknowledgment can be 'proved'. Nevertheless, charismatic power's right does not originate in acknowledgment: the leader is not elected by people; on the contrary acknowledgment is a duty on the part of the people to whom charismatic power is addressed". Therefore charismatic power "is not limited by abstract rules or principles"; it is not limited by "rationalistic right", but on the contrary "it breaks with tradition and with rules, upsetting any idea of holiness". "It is revolutionary, and breaks with tradition and rationalistic rules, so that, in its purest shape, justice that comes from charismatic power is opposite to formal links and to tradition". "It follows, rather, individual pathways, but aims for universal validity"(...), "the power of a gift, of supernatural personal grace (charisma), absolutely personal devotion and faith in revelation, heroism and other features of of the leader: namely charismatic domination, like a prophet in the field of politic, or a general elected during a war, or the king elected by means of a plebiscit, or a great demagogue, or the leader of a political party".

The concept of Charismatic Power will be developed towards the following directions:

1. Connection to other conceptual "islands", such as "Duty", "Rule", "Justice", and so on.

2. Further information about the concept of charismatic power through the study of other authors (Gramsci, Bergson, etc.) with references.

3. connection to a virtual debate on the subject, to which will take part theauthors who developed the concept, and authors relevant to the definition (Weber, Bergson, Schmidt, Gramsci, and Rosa Luxembourg, Marinetti, Mussolini).

4. Notes concerning events that are regarded as being very important for the development of the concept, both in the form of chronologies and of historical geography: a revolution, the production of a special book, the raise of a "leader".

5. Notes referring to biographies of the authors quoted.

Paterno's HTML