ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book focuses on Caesarism and Charisma, offered a way of thinking about Weber's arguments about the nature of modern political leadership. It examines the political republicanism furnished a far longer trajectory than is usual to locate Weber's own distinctive contribution to, and the distinctiveness of his stance towards, the Caesarism debate. Translating Schicksalsgemeinschaft as "community of fate", the book discusses the connections between Weber and Durkheim. Weber offered a way to think about the significance of military metaphors and about what he called the "ritual regulation of life". But it was Durkheim (and Goffman) who helped us decipher how this ritual regulation actually works, how groups manage to cohere under conditions of duress. Weber remains a towering figure in the human sciences that no educated person can sensibly ignore.
