Max Weber – náš soušasník

The article was written on occasion of the publication of a Slovak translation of Weber’s study Politics as a Profession. The author of the article considers the study an evidence of the continuing validity of R. Aron’s opinion that M. Weber is our contemporary. Although Politics as a Profession is relatively a rather concise text, it reflects very exactly and adequately both Weber’s political attitudes and opinions that he with little change held during the whole of his lifetime and chief topics of his thoughts on the sociology of politics. The article points out that Politics as a Profession was published in Czech as early as 1929 and its present Slovak translation can be considered an important and in a sense essential addition to the Slovak selection of Weber’s works published in 1983 under the title K metodologii sociálnych vied. In its first part the article considers M. Weber’s general relation to politics and states it was deep and lifelong. Weber’s political interests can be divided in three groups: I. taking a stand toward current problems of both German and foreign political life, 2. personal political activities w thin various clubs and movements, 3. a theoretical analysis of politics as an important part of social life. The ideo-political basis on which Weber developed all three of these fields of his activity is summed up by the author as national-liberal, and its fundamental features, consisting chiefly of polemics with conservativism and socialism, are concisely characterized. The article provides a concise summary of Weber’s political activity which shows that this German sociologist had a lasting interest in political events which, however, never was crowned with any relatively important position in the structure of German political life. The article tries to fin an answer to this. The central part of Weber’s politics-oriented activity was undoubtedly and clearly theoretical analysis of politics as an important pan of social life. Politics-oriented theoretical writings of this author are still valid for us, and Politics as a Profession proves it in a convincing fashion. The main part of the article is devoted to a reproduction and analysis of chief thematic fields of Politics as a Profession. The author considers them to be: 1. The definition, characterization and analysis of such key notions of political theory as politics, state and rulership. 2. Characteristics of professional politicians, their origin, development and types. 3. The definition and development of political parties. 4. Characteristics and analysis of personal qualities expected of one who chooses a politician’s career. 5. The ethos of politics, the relations between ethics and politics, ethical paradoxes of politics, the relations between the so-called ethics of conviction and the so-called ethics of responsibility. The author of the article devotes his chief attention to these thematic fields of Weber’s works, being convinced that there is much in them that may be instructive for present political development of Czechoslovak society.