Race and its reformulation in Max Weber: Cultural Germanism as political imperialism

Abstract

Weber rejected the notion of race founded on innate characteristics, and instead developed one based on cultural and political factors. The importance of Weber’s distinctive characterization of race cannot be appreciated when consideration is given only to his treatment of minorities. Examination, however, of Weber’s account of the German people as a Herrenvolk, master race, consolidated by shared cultural values and realized through the expansive practices of a Machtstaat or power-state, indicates a complex ethnonational conceptualization of race. Weber’s approach to race as an ethnonational manifestation is important for understanding his sociology as well as his commitment to German imperialism.