Causes and Consequences: Responsibility in the Political Thought of Max Weber

Many scholars view Max Weber's exposition of an “ethic of responsibility” in his 1919 lecture “Politik als Beruf” as a defense of pragmatic political action. This article re-examines Weber's argument in the context of his social scientific writings. It argues that Weber's political “ethic” is far more demanding than commentators have hitherto supposed. The conception of responsibility that emerges from Weber's work poses a serious challenge to the conventional modern equation of “acting responsibly” with “pursuing collectively desirable ends in an instrumentally rational fashion.”