Political ethics and roles in sociological perspectives

 Sociology

Max Weber defines the modern rational state as a community of human beings living within a territory, successfully exercising a monopoly of coercion within it: physical violence, expressed through military institutions, police forces, etc. Therefore, it is the "association of domination with an institutional character that has successfully monopolized legitimate violence as a means of domination within a territory, concentrating all material means in the hands of its leaders and expropriating all human beings who previously had access to them by their own right, replacing them with its own supreme hierarchies."

Physical coercion for such a state plays a monopolistic role with a permissive view because it is the state's only specific means; individuals are granted the right to physical coercion only to the extent that the state permits it. The form of political organization corresponding to modern bourgeois society stands on the advance of bureaucratization, dangerous for the future of societies, as it will increase its autonomy and limit individual freedoms.

Through the advance of bureaucracy, domination will increase, and one of the forces that can contain it is the advancement of political parties, organized to challenge the bureaucratic apparatus. The author concludes the chapter by affirming that bureaucracy was the present of the state but would also be the future, posing a problem because this growing autonomy of bureaucracy is so great that it limits individual freedoms and turns against the very people. This explains its power of domination based on the belief in legality and rationality, the reality of these ideas.

For Weber, politics begins to be seen from the direction of a group, being the aspiration to participate in power or influence the distribution of power in all positions and institutions of the state. Those who decide to engage in politics aspire to power as a means to achieve other ideal or personally selfish ends. The state as a political association is a relationship of "legitimate domination" of men over men, meaning that the state exercises domination over men based on legitimate coercion, and for that domination to persist, men must obey this regime of power, subject to the authority that dominates them. Moreover, to be legitimate, it must respect certain justifying motives, such as customs, situations of interest, affections, and values.

The motives of legitimacy that justify domination and people obey this regime because there are three types of ideal domination:

• Traditional domination, which is the authority inherited from the past, expressed in monarchies and dynasties. Example: A king.
• Charismatic domination, where people obey based on the particular characteristics of their leaders, based on the extraordinary personal grace, referring to charisma, personal devotion, and trust. Example: A chieftain.
• Rational-legal domination, where people obey because they believe in the validity of the entire legal framework and the objective competence founded on rationally created rules because they deduce it is legitimate. Example: The constitutional president.

Live for politics: Someone who dedicates their life to it, focusing on the influence they wield. Live off politics: Someone who aims to make politics a source of income.

The ethics corresponding to the official or bureaucrat are based on fulfilling orders and administrative tasks, performing their functions impartially according to all existing typifications in legislation related to economic, criminal, etc. Therefore, complying with orders based on this rationalized framework. Additionally, their honor lies in executing orders.

The ethics corresponding to the political leader involve acting based on their vocation for politics and fighting for their political party, considering it a moral discipline. Weber is attributed with an individualistic perspective based on social action to understand any social fact. The author starts from the individual to explain complex facts, analyzing major concepts from the individual because every social fact is composed of the actions of each person. This allows him to explain, for example, capitalism, comparing it with examples from other continents and historical times, as his method is comparative. One of the most important tools of the comparative method is typologies; the researcher selects traits from reality and constructs concepts to understand reality and act based on their criteria. Modern states emerge in the West within the context of rational capitalism, based on professional bureaucracy and rational law.

In contrast, Durkheim differs, doing the opposite of Weber. Durkheim's point of inference starts from society, which is external to the individual and weighs more in understanding individual and personal facts, which can have social level causes or explanations, such as lack of integration, regulation, norms, etc. (these are opposing views).