Max Weber's Politics as a Vocation: Complete Analysis of the State, Domination, and Vocation
Scope of Politics and Conceptual Definitions
Exclusion of Current Practical Policy: All questions regarding what policy should be pursued or what content should be given to political activity are eliminated from this foundational analysis. Such questions do not pertain to the fundamental nature and meaning of politics as a vocation. Actual practical problems of the day are addressed only in a purely formal manner at the conclusion, strictly concerning the overarching significance of political action within a complete way of life.
Broad Definition of Politics: In its most expansive sense, politics encompasses any kind of independent leadership in action. Examples of this broad usage include:
The currency policy of banks.
The discounting policy of the Reichsbank.
The strike policy of a trade union.
The educational policy of a municipality or township.
The policy of the president of a voluntary association.
The policy of a prudent wife seeking to guide her husband.
Specific/Refined Definition of Politics: For the purposes of political sociology, politics is restricted exclusively to the leadership, or the influencing of the leadership, of a political association, which in the contemporary era takes the form of a state.
Sociological Definition of the State and Physical Force
Inadequacy of Functional/End-Based Definitions: Sociologically, the state cannot be defined by its ends, tasks, or substantive goals. Historically, there is virtually no task that some political association has not undertaken, nor is there any single task that has been universally and exclusively unique to political associations or modern states.
Specific Means as the Defining Feature: The modern state can be defined sociologically solely through the specific means peculiar to it and to every political association: physical force.
Foundational Role of Violence:
As stated by Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk: "Every state is founded on force."
If no social institutions existed that utilized violence, the concept of the "state" would be entirely eliminated, giving rise to a condition defined specifically as