List of charismatic leaders as defined by Max Weber's classification of authority

This is a list of people whose leadership has been characterized as based on charismatic authority by listed sources. Charismatic authority is a sociological concept and one of three forms of authority as defined by Max Weber's tripartite classification of authority.

Weber defines charismatic authority as: "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him."cite book |author=Calhoun, Craig J. |title=Classical sociological theory |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |location=Cambridge, MA |year=2002 |pages=p.216 |isbn=0-631-21348-1 |oclc= |doi=]

In politics

*William AberhartBarr, John J: "The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Social Credit in Alberta", 1974, ISBN 0-7710-1015-X]

*Fidel Castro [ [http://www.twq.com/winter01/geyer.pdf As Fidel Fades] Washington Quarterly 2001 : Psychology of a Charismatic Leader] [ [http://web.pdx.edu/~tothm/essays/essays/toward_a_theory_of__the_routiniz.htm Towards a theory of the routinization of Charisma] ] [ [http://www.leadershipreview.org/2004fall/article2_fall_2004.asp Leadership Review] Erin Bream]

*Bill ClintonPost, Jerrold M. "The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders: With Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton" (2003), p.379, p.428, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 0-472-09838-1]

*Pim FortuynMargry, Peter Jan: "The Murder of Pim Fortuyn and Collective Emotions. Hype, Hysteria, and Holiness in the Netherlands?" published in the Dutch magazine "Etnofoor: Antropologisch tijdschrift" nr. 16 pages 106-131, 2003, [http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/meertensnet/file/edwinb/20050420/PF_webp_Engels_lang.pdf English version available online] ]

*Mustafa Kemal AtaturkFact|date=June 2008 (Founder of Turkey Republic)

*Muhammad Ali JinnahOakes, Len: "Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities", 1997, ISBN 0-8156-0398-3] (Founder of Pakistan: The greatest force behind partition of India.)

*Mahatma Gandhi (also involved in religion)

*Adolf Hitler [Kershaw, Ian "Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis"]

*Winston ChurchillFact|date=July 2008

*Saddam Hussein

*Gamal Abdel Nasser

*John F. KennedySutton, John,"Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change" () p.112, Pine Forge Press, ISBN 0-7619-8705-3 ] [Clecak, P. "America's Quest for the Ideal Self: Dissent and Fulfillment in the 60s and 70s", (1985), p.306 ,Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-503544-5]

*Rajiv Gandhi [Gupta, Bhabani Sen "Rajiv Gandhi: A Political Study" (1989). p.220. Konark Publishers, New Delhi ISBN 81-220-0120-3]

*Ronald Reagan [Wallison, Peter J. "Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Restoration of the Presidency" (1994). p.94. Westview Pres. ISBN 0-8133-4046-2]

*Lech Wałęsa [Walton, Douglas. "The Place of Emotion in Argument" (1992), Pen State Press, ISBN 0-271-00853-9]

*Yulia TymoshenkoFact|date=September 2008

*Ayatollah Khomeini

*SukarnoFact|date=September 2008 (First Indonesian President)

In religions and new religious movements

* Abraham [Hershey H. Friedman, Ph.D., and Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D., "Abraham as a Transformational Leader", "Journal of Leadership Studies", Vol. 7:2, Spring 2000, 88-95. [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/Abraham-GreatTransformLeader.htm] ]

* A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896 – 1977)

* Swami Vivekananda

* Billy Graham [Judith Smart, "The Evangelist as Star: The Billy Graham Crusade in Australia, 1959", The Journal of Popular Culture 33. [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1999.3301_165.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jpcu] ] (1918 - )

* Charles Taze Russell (1852 – 1916)

* Moses David BergRobbins, Thomas [http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/charisma.htm "Charisma"] in the "Encyclopedia of Religion and Society" edited by William H. Swatos (February 1998) ISBN 0-7619-8956-0] (1919 - 1994)

* Jesus [ Piovanelli, Pierluigi, University of Ottawa. “Jesus’ Charismatic Authority: On the Historical Applicability of a Sociological Model” [http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/2/395] Accessed 30 Jan 2008] [Hengel, Martin & Riche, John, "The Charismatic Leader and His Followers", (1996), T&T Clark Publishers, ISBN 0-567-29165-0] [Keener, Craig S. "A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew",(1999) B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0-8028-3821-9] [Malina, Bruce J. "The Social World of Jesus and the Gospels", (1997). p.130, Routledge (United Kingdom), ISBN 0-415-14629-1] (c. 2 BC - c. 31 AD)

* Joseph Smith (1805 – 1844)

* L. Ron Hubbard "Unrecognized charisma? A study and comparison of four charismatic leaders: Charles Taze Russell, Joseph Smith, L Ron Hubbard, Swami Prabhupada." by George D. Chryssides Paper presented at the 2001 International Conference The Spiritual Supermarket: Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century, organised by INFORM and CESNUR (London, April 19-22, 2001) ( [http://www.cesnur.org/2001/london2001/chryssides.htm] Available online] )] (1911 – 1986)

* Moses [ Chilton, B., Neusner, J. "Types of Authority in Formative Christianity and Judaism", () p.73, Routledge (UK). ISBN 0-415-17325-6
" [...] for Judaism, the model of charismatic authority coincided with the model of political authority, namely the person of Moses, ruler and prophet at once"] [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-4078(197906)32%3A2%3C123%3AMCAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R] ]

*Nirmala Srivastava, also called Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. [Coney, Judith. "Sahaja Yoga", Routledge, 1999 ISBN 0700710612 Chapter Five, "Learning to Love Mother" - "By their very nature, new religious movements and charismatic leadership go toegether, and Sahaja Yoga is typical in this respect...Only then is a description given of the ways in which Sri Mataji's charismatic authority is established and maintained...As a result of the intimacy devotees feel they enjoy, and whether or not they are in close proximity to the leader, each experiences him or herself as having a one-to-one relationship with the leader (Weber 1968, 254)...On the other hand, charismatic leaders, As weber pointed out, delight in breaking with tradition (Gerth and Mills 1981 250). This observation begs the question of what other factors have led tot he idealisation of womanhood in Sahaja Yoga as nurturing and passive. Arguably, Sri Mataji's need to retain an elevated position within the community is an obvious consideration. To do so, it is important that she differentiate herself from other women in order to vouchsafe her charismatic status."] (1923 - )

* Martin Luther King Jr.(1929 - 1968)

* Muhammad (570 - 632)

* Prem Rawat, known to his students as Maharaji.Schnabel, Paul Dr. (Dutch language) "Between stigma and charisma: new religious movements and mental health" Erasmus university Rotterdam, Faculty of Medicine, Ph.D. thesis, ISBN 90-6001-746-3 (Deventer, Van Loghum Slaterus, 1982) [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/schn016tuss01_01/schn016tuss01_01_0009.htm available online] pp 96-97 "Het is Max Weber geweest, die in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (1922) het begrip ‘charismatische Herrschaft’ introduceerde als een ideaaltype in contrast met de twee andere vormen van leiderschapsautoriteit, gezag of macht: ‘legale Herrschaft’ en ‘traditionelle Herrschaft’. Onder charisma verstaat Weber ‘een bepaalde eigenschap van een individuele persoonlijkheid, dankzij welke hij zich onderscheidt van gewone mensen en behandeld wordt als begiftigd met bovennatuurlijke, bovenmenselijke, of tenminste specifiek uitzonderlijke krachten of kwaliteiten. Deze zijn zodanig dat gewone mensen er geen toegang toe hebben, maar beschouwd worden als van goddelijke oorsprong of als exemplarisch, en het individu dat ze bezit op grond hiervan als een leider wordt behandeld...’ (Weber, 1964 (1922), 358-359; vertaling ontleend aan Wilson, 1978, 15). Het is sinds Max Weber een beetje gebruikelijk geworden, begrippen als charisma of charismatisch leiderschap nog uitsluitend op te vatten als omschrijvingen van intrinsieke kwaliteiten van een persoon, onafhankelijk van de omgeving. Dat is niet de opvatting van Weber zelf. ‘Die charismatische Autorität ruht auf dem “Glauben” an den Propheten, der “Anerkennung”, die der charismatische... Held... persönlich findet, und fällt mit ihm dahin. Gleichwohl leitet sie ihre Autorität nicht etwa aus dieser Anerkennung durch die Beherrschten ab. Sondern umgekehrt: Glaube und Anerkennung gelten als Pflicht, deren Erfüllung der charismatisch Legitimierte für sich fordert’ (Weber, 1973 (1922), 483)."
p. 99. "De meest zuivere voorbeelden van charismatisch leiderschap zijn op dit moment wel Bhagwan en Maharaj Ji. Daaruit blijkt meteen al hoe persoonlijke kwaliteiten alleen onvoldoende zijn voor de erkenning van het charismatisch leiderschap. De intelligente, steeds wisselende en dagelijks optredende Bhagwan is niet meer een charismatisch leider dan de verwende materialistische en intellectueel weinig opmerkelijke Maharaj Ji. Als charismatisch leider hebben beiden overigens wel een eigen publiek en een eigen functie."] [Dupertuis, Lucy. "How People Recognize Charisma: The Case of Darshan in Radhasoami and Divine Light Mission", Sociological Analysis 47 (1986) pp.111-24] [McGuire, Meredith B. "Religion: the Social Context" fifth edition (2002) ISBN 0-534-54126-7 Chapter. 5 "The dynamics of religious collectivities", section “How Religious Collectivities Develop and Change’’, sub-section "Organizational Transformations" page 175"As Weber pointed out, the long-term impact of a movement hinges on transformation of bases of authority and leadership from a charismatic mode to either traditional or legal-traditional rational structures. When a movement becomes established, there is a strong tendency for the organization to calcify around the memory of the early dynamism; its own tradition becomes the rationalization for why things should be done in a certain way.Early stages of a movement organization involve simple structures such as the charismatic leader and followers or leader, core followers, and other followers. The transition to legal-rational structures is typically accompanied by the elaboration and standardization of procedures, the emergence of specialized statuses and roles, and the formalizing of communication among members. The early years of the Divine Light Mission (DLM) in the United States were characterized by rapidly growing, loosely affiliated local ashrams (i.e., groups of devotees, usually living communally), united mainly by the devotion to the ambiguous charismatic figure of Guru Maharaj Ji. As the DLM became increasingly structured and centralized, leadership and power focused in the Denver headquarters. The guru's desire to consolidate his power and authority over the movement in the United States resulted in greater formalization: rules and regulation for ashram living, standards for recruited "candidates", and pressure toward certifying movements teachers. " (Thomas Pilarzyk ‘’The origin, development, and decline of a youth culture religion: An application of the sectarianization theory’’ in Review of Religious Research 20, 1:33-37, 1978) ”] (1957 - )

* Rajneesh, also called Bhagwan and Osho. (1931 – 1990)

* Sun Myung Moon [Bromley, David G. and Anson D. Shupe "Moonies in America. Cult, Church and - Crusade" Beverly Hills, Sage (1979) page 110 "a living, awe - inspiring leader who is the medium of ongoing supernatural revelation" ] (1920 - )

* Werner Erhard (1935 - )

Science or academia

* Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) Physicist [ Galison, Peter L.; Holton, Gerald; Schweber, Silvan S. "Einstein for the 21st Century:His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture". Princeton University Press. 2008 [http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8644.html] This accolade hints at one answer to the question, why is Einstein still so alive today, in the imagination of people high and low, in all segments of the globe—a fact that Einstein, who experienced that phenomenon constantly, was himself completely unable to explain, dismissing it as a case of mass hysteria. But a good part of the explanation may be this: The lives and works of some scientists project to the wider populace a charismatic view of science. Building on Max Weber’s original discussion of “charismatic authority,” this concept has been the subject of scholarly study extending the concept to scientists, for example in Joseph Ben-David’s Scientific Growth and earlier in Robert K. Merton’s book, Science, Technology, and Society in Seventeenth-Century England. The social scientist Bernard H. Gustin elaborated on this perception, writing that science at the highest level is charismatic because scientists devoted to such tasks are “thought to come into contact with what is essential in the universe.”] [Overbye, Dennis. "The Next Einstein? Applicants Welcome". "New York Times". March 1, 2005 [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/science/01eins.html?pagewanted=print&position=] ]

ee also

*Authority
*Charisma

References and footnotes

Bibliography

*Knott, Kim Dr. "South Asian Religions in Britain" page 766, Table 22.1 in the "Handbook of Living Religions" edited by John R. Hinnels (1997), second edition, ISBN 0-14-051480-5