structural:expansion
The state, politics, and government

In political sociology, one of Weber's most influential contributions is his lecture " Politics as a Vocation ", in which he defined the state as an entity that was " based on the legitimate use of force ". Accordingly, Weber proposed that politics is the sharing of state power between various groups, whereas political leaders were those who wielded this power. A politician needed to combine the oppositional gesinnungsethik and verantwortungsethik (the "ethic of conviction" and the "ethic of responsibility"). An adherent of the verantwortungsethik justified their actions based on their consequences. Meanwhile, an adherent of the gesinnungsethik justified their actions based on their ideals. While Weber thought that both of them would ideally be present in a politician, he associated them with different types of people and mindsets. These different types of people and mindsets reflected the pacifists and those who wanted to reverse Germany's defeat in the First World War, respectively.

Weber distinguished three ideal types of legitimate authority:

In his view, all historical relationships between rulers and ruled contained these elements, which could be analysed on the basis of this tripartite classification of authority. Charismatic authority was held by extraordinary figures and was unstable, as it relied on the charismatic figure's success and would resist institutionalisation. It was forced to be routinised into more structured forms of authority. An administrative structure would be formed by the charismatic leader's followers. In an ideal type of traditional rule, sufficient resistance to a ruler led to a "traditional revolution". Traditional authority was based on loyalty to preestablished traditions and those who were placed into authority as a result of those traditions. Rational-legal authority relied on bureaucracy and belief in both the legality of the society's rules and the legitimacy of those who were placed into power as a result of those rules. Unlike the other types of authority, it gradually developed. That was the result of legal systems not requiring charismatic individuals or traditions in order to exist.