This paper analyses the ethical basis of Max Weber's theory of political leadership. It (i) expounds the connection between the ethics of conviction and responsibility Weber outlines in Politics as a Vocation and the ideal-types of value and instrumental rationality he defines in Economy and Society, (ii) examines Weber's commitment to a practical reconciliation of these political ethics/action types, (iii) argues that, for Weber, this reconciliation ultimately is to proceed through the subordination of conviction to an ethic of responsibility.
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