on, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him (charismatic authority) (Weber, 1968, p. 46).
Weber interprets the legitimate authority of the charismatic leader, not as the prerogative of power but as "the duty of those who have been called to a charismatic mission to recognize its quality and act accordingly" (Weber, 1978, p. 49). Further, the mission is not permanently self-justifying but inevitably becomes transformed into either rational or traditional authority, and "the purely personal character of leadership is eliminated" (Weber, 1978, p. 55). The issue of transformation of the structure of society is central to Weber's thought and social analysis. Where a rational attitude is at work, so is movement toward an organized and orderly, or at least "thinkable" society. This is explained by Gerth and Mills:
The principle of rationalization is the most general element in Weber's philosophy of history. For the rise and fall of institutional structures, the ups and downs of classes, parties, and rulers implement the general drift of secular rationalization. In thinking of the change of human attitudes and mentalities that this process occasions, Weber liked to quote Friedrich Schiller's phrase, the 'disenchantment of the world.' The extent and direction of 'rationalization' is thus measured negatively in terms of the degree to which magical elements of thought are displaced, or positively by the extent to which ideas gain in systematic coherence and naturalistic consistency (Gerth & Mills, 1946, p. 51).
To get to the heart of legitimacy of law and of state, Weber also focuses on the practical ability to arrive at an ordered sense of such principles as individual rights and a shared sense of "rightness" or legitimacy of positive law (i.e., the artificial covenants under which human beings associate). Further, Weber argues that a sense of state legitimacy and authority can only be tested under real-world c...