Interpretations of Weber's Liberalism - Overview

Overview

Weber's political ideas have inspired disagreement in Germany for decades. His conception of democracy has been the subject of particularly heated debate. Weber rejected the Wilhelmine regime's authoritarian political structure. He advocated parliamentary and democratic reform. Weber championed the freedoms of what he called the "age of the Rights of Man". Some find the liberalism of Weber as problematic.

Raymond Aron has noted that Weber was not a "liberal in the American sense," and not, "strictly speaking, a democrat in the sense that the French, the English, or the Americans gave the term." Aron saw Weber to have looked to place the "glory of the nation and the power of the state" above all other things.

Stephen P. Turner and Regis A. Factor have concluded that Weber rejected the philosophical basis for most Western formulations of Enlightenment liberalism. Weber conceived "parliamentarization" primarily for selecting leaders. Weber was strongly technocratic.