Allison Hyatt 'Charisma'

2/8/2013

  Power, domination, discipline and authority. What comes to mind when we hear these words? Is it the discipline we learned as school age children, to walk in a straight line to the cafeteria, to raise our hand to speak? What about power and domination? These words may bring to mind images of appalling historical events such as the power and domination Hitler had over the German people in their time of economic disparity. In the Ritzer piece it is stated that Weber defined domination as “the probability that certain specific commands will be obeyed by a given group of people.” (Max Weber) Weber also defined the legitimate forms of domination as authority. It is like the legitimate domination a teacher has over his or her students; in this aspect the teacher has authority. Authority has three main ‘bases’- rational, traditional and charismatic. In this blog, I will focus on charismatic authority and how this form of power and domination can be admirable and positive, or corrupt and vile and the charismatic leader who, without his followers, would be nothing.

            The first thing that came to mind when I thought of charismatic authority and the charismatic leader was a social experiment called The Third Wave that occurred over the period of one week in California in 1967. In 2008, a German movie called Die Welle (The Wave) was released, basing the plot in a present day German high school. In The Third Wave a charismatic high school teacher started a simple experiment with his high school class teaching them rules and discipline, drills and proper seating, and standing up to speak while properly addressing the instructor. The classroom developed a sense of unity and created a special ‘salute’. The students were improving academically, and this was only over the course of a few days. By the fourth day of the experiment, the situation had gotten out of control for the high school teacher, as the movement had grown to over 200 students.   After terminating this experiment, to the dismay of the large group of students, the instructor, Ron Jones, mentioned that the students had all taken part in an experiment in fascism, and showed them how easily impressionable people will follow the rules and commands of a charismatic leader.

            This experiment makes me think of how easy it could be for this sort of authority to take hold in the present day. All it takes is one charismatic leader, and a compliant population, especially a population that is struggling economically, and just as we saw in The Third Wave, a movement can grow to over 200 people in a matter of days. However, we seem to see ourselves as educated people on the matter. A dictatorship in present day America? Not likely. However look at some of the communist countries in the world that have a so-called charismatic leader. North Korea is an interesting example of how charismatic authority can transform a country into a dictatorship, with an impressionable population at the hands of a leader who is revered as a God. Weber’s view on Charismatic authority is similar to a term called ‘cult of personality.’ Rather than being based on a religious entity, a cult of personality is based on a ‘charismatic leader’. However, a cult is still a cult, and we see this is modern day North Korea.

            Now what can be said of charismatic authority on the other end of the spectrum, of a leader who is seen as a positive influence on the people?   In our country we can definitely view President Obama as a ‘charismatic leader’. Obama comes across as a charming human being, with a sense of serenity and eloquent speech, which calms us to the very core. The Dalai Lama is another charismatic leader of our time, and a symbol of the struggle of Tibet. We also have individuals from recent history, such as Martin Luther King Jr., who led a massive movement in the name of equality, and John F. Kennedy, who the people admired and respected. What causes an authority figure to lead us towards peace and equality, or toward a fierce dictatorship and fascist regime? All of these individuals I’ve mentioned have or have had enough power to influence the people in any direction they see fit. All it takes is for power and authority to go to someone’s head to really cause a problem that may take decades to reverse.

Die Welle 2008 Trailer

7 Comments

Krehbiel

2/9/2013 07:49:59 am

I found your blog on charismatic authority really interesting. Clearly we can look to extreme examples such as Hitler to analyze charismatic authority although what’s interesting about a case like Hitler’s is that he eventually maintained his power through domination and discipline. What I found most interesting about your blog was this idea that charismatic leaders can turn into dominating figures. In other words, that these forms of power are interrelated.
As you mentioned, Martin Luther King Jr. clearly had power as a figure in his community but in the larger societal context he did not. MLK was certainly a charismatic leader but he would have never been able to aspire to a dictator as did someone like Hitler. Obama, on the other hand, is in a greater position of power and I think the argument could be made that given the political system we live in, voters really have very little choice when voting to elect political figures. We may not quite end up with what many might think of traditionally as dictators but the extent to which choice is involved in terms of who ends up governing the nation, is something to be questioned. As you pointed out, we don’t have to look outside of the country to identify clear cut examples of charismatic authority. In thinking about our current political system, are there ways in which we as constituents obey uncritically and without resistance? If so, how, and in what ways?

Maja Despot

2/10/2013 06:02:42 am

Allison, your post was extremely interesting and I found it very applicable not only to Weber’s theory of charismatic authority and charismatic leaders but also to something I have experienced in my own life. I grew up in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugloslavia. The country was headed by Josip Broz Tito, who was always known as a benevolent dictator. Much like Weber described, many thought he possessed numerous super human qualities. Some consider this the best era the Balkans ever had. After the death of Tito Yugoslavia went to ruins economically and politically. Serbians, Bosnians and Croatians were left in economic despair desperate for anything to help bring back the old Yugoslavia they once knew it. Each of the three ethnicities had charismatic figures come out of this tragedy that claimed the other groups as the reasons for the country’s demise. These people were at such a desperate point that the only thing that gave them any strength to move forward was to blame the situation on each other. The charismatic leaders of each group were believed to be saviors, but spewed negative, hateful propaganda. This hate continued to mount until the killing began. This idea of the power of charismatic leaders is so real to me. People have lost their lives by following authority figures that they believed to posses these supernatural qualities, which they actually didn’t. As you said, charismatic leaders can propel us toward success but they also posses the scary ability to brain wash us into committing atrocities.

M. Stumpf

2/10/2013 07:24:41 am

I have never heard of Die Welle, but it looks like a very interesting film. It seems like the common theme between all of these situations is unity. When someone can bring a group together there will be a strong bond between them. In Germany Hitler was able to bring everyone together because of the state the German economy was in, in North Korea they are bound together because of their ideals, even Martin Luther King Jr. was able to unite people because of unfair treatment. I am interested in seeing what caused the students in the film to come together like the others. From the description and trailer I can tell that he got the students to dress similarly to make them more equal and retrained how they thought and acted. This also makes me wonder if the student’s age had anything to do with how they were able to be dominated so easily. You would think that if everything was ok it would be hard to assume that much power over a group. It might be easier to exert power over students and train them to have discipline. If you try to do the same thing with adults it might not be as easy. It would be harder to retrain someone that has a developed mind and has been doing things their own way for a long time.

Katie Reyes

2/10/2013 11:46:56 am

Allison, this was a very insightful blog on the notion of charismatic authority and domination. I was intrigued by the fact that a teacher in California would start this type of experiment to see what the response would be and to teach his students about charismatic authority. I would have to say that authority and domination are seen day in and day out in our society. I feel as if we do not notice the domination going on around us because we are so immune to it. I agree that MLK and Hitler were both very charismatic individuals. The only difference is MLK was for peace and equal rights while Hitler was for communism. They were both examples of how someone can have domination over a group of people and their ideas can spread like a type of disease. However, I feel that if it were not for charismatic people, we would not be able to have mass movements of an issue like we see now. For instance, take the Chicago teacher’s strike. A charismatic leader had to dominate over a group of people in order to see change in their pay and how things were handled. I personally do not think they would have gotten as far as they did if was not for that one person’s perseverance. Do you think that charismatic authority can hurt or benefit a society? Would you could consider the leaders of gangs to have charismatic authority for others?

Indira Orozco

2/10/2013 12:24:43 pm

You made some great points in your blog. It is very important to pay attention to what is going on around you. Like shown in the trailer, people do not think anything like Hitler and the Nazi party could happen again, but if you look at the U.S. population, the average U.S. citizen has no idea what is going on in the world. Most people cannot even list a relevant political event that is occurring. Most people pay attention to celebrity news or the latest fashion trends. The U.S. government could be using taxpayer’s money to employ people to go out and assassinate whomever they wanted and many people would be ignorant of the fact. So just like it proved in the film (I assume), a dictatorship could occur right under our noses. Looking at the different types of authority Weber talked about, the teacher in the movie would probably fall under “charismatic” authority. This type authority seems to have a lot of presence in today’s world, and could be the most powerful right now. But also traditional and rational-legal authority could also pose a threat today as well. So who knows what kind of leader could pose anything to the U.S. population. So why are we so susceptible to these authority figures or positions? Does the media distract us from the important events?

Kali

2/11/2013 12:30:44 am

First of all, I love the German film, Die Welle. It definitely shows how a social experiment can take on a identity of its own regardless of the intent of the initiator. It seems to be true that a charismatic leader can push an agenda better than one who lacks that quality. However, the acceptance of the followers is equally as important. In my opinion, that willingness to accept along with the context of the situation, will inform the type of agenda a charismatic leader will pursue. Using these historic examples and more current examples of how charismatic leaders use their charisma to convince people to accept their authority in really insightful. I don't necessarily agree with your comparison of North Korea to a cult. So in your estimation, is charisma enough to make a people accept domination or are their other factors? For example?

Patel H.

2/11/2013 01:17:19 am

I had not see “The Wave” and this was really interesting to read your description of it. I think that it is very unlikely, like you mentioned, to see a dictatorship in America. I also feel that charisma can be in two different forms, in the following towards a negative person and in the following towards a positive person. You mentioned example of both. I think it was interesting, however, that the children in the school you mentioned did well academically, as in their studies and scores were not affected harmfully. It makes me think that maybe we are not doing so well as a country in schools because our attention is off. Maybe our attention needs the structure and rigor of what that school had, even if it is on a less intimidating level. I don’t want teachers to have double and triple amounts of power, or to overuse it, but they should take more control in the smaller grades where children are more malleable and where their focus can be gained and maintained if trained properly. Maybe if a positively charismatic person were to create a structure towards teaching students that took their attention away from the distractions within their lives, maybe they might learn and retain more or just set themselves up to learn as their schooling gets more complex instead of getting discouraged. Overall I feel you explained well both types of charisma to show Weber’s theory.

Allison Hyatt 'Charisma'

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