Introduction

Understandably, in a book on nations and charisma, there are many references to Max Weber and his ideas about charismatic leadership. Here, I consider the different ways in which the term charisma is used by different contributors, relate these to Weber’s arguments and suggest that a number of distinctions be introduced into the use of the concept. This is not intended as an exercise in establishing ‘correct’ usage or what Weber ‘really’ meant, but rather to clarify the range of meanings the concept can bear and what useful analytical work it can do. ¹