Max Weber: Politics as a Vocation

The connections between Weber and nihilism deal with the central conflict of trying to find meaning and purpose in a nihilistic world. For Weber the solution is politics, which he regards as a vocation. Vocation itself refers to a “calling” in the German Lutheran tradition, a specific calling to serve God. Weber draws upon this meaning while redefining it in a secular way, to refer to devotion to one’s work and through that finding a sense of fulfillment and purpose in life. “Vocational training” also refers to the teaching of “procedural knowledge” and is used to refer to the teaching of trades like carpentry or plumbing that require specific technical knowledge. He develops this concept for professional politicians to what he refers to as status honor a sense of achievement deriving from the ability to perform the work processes that are necessary to carry out political decisions. At the same time he says everyone who lives ‘for’ politics (vocation), also lives ‘off’ politics (avocation) in that they are financially dependent upon politics for a livelihood. However, the typical way in which politics, status honor, and vocational meaning intersect and mediate each other is through nationalism. The nation then becomes the substitute for the loss of meaning in traditional authorities caused by the rise of nihilistic thought in the late 19th century. The nation becomes a substitute for God. The concept of civic religion is related to this idea and is closely related to the development of republican states in the ancient world.


Max Weber was a German sociologist whose influence on the discipline of sociology had far reaching effects. In the above passage Weber tries to find reason in a person choosing politics as a career option. He tries to tie the concept with dedication to God by means of devotion to one's work and service to society. There are two ways to make politics your vocation: you can live for it or off it. It you live for it, you make it your life in an internal sense, either because you enjoy power or because you serve some cause. If you live off it, you strive to make it your permanent source of income. All party struggles are struggles for the patronage of office, as well as struggles for objective goals. Setbacks in participating in offices are felt more severely by parties than is action against their objective goals.

This passage typically explains how some people begin to make politics their career option. However the general good of the people is lost as power and money become their motto. This is true in the United States and in many countries across the world. Power corrupts and Weber was critical of this concept and was quick to point out the vocation aspect to bring some understanding in the minds of people to choose politics as a career move. Religion was a dominant force in the lives of people and Weber tried connect politics as service to people which invariable meant service to God.