Hidden Key for Understanding Max Weber’s Politics as a Vocation: World War I, Constitutional Reform, and the Problem of Political Responsibility (2025.06)

  • Author : Chiwon Choi
  • Publisher : Journal of Parliamentary Research
  • Publication : The Korea Parliamentary Research Institute
  • Volume : 20(1)
  • Date : June 2025

Abstract: Weber is never a homo academicus. He is a homo politicus whose facade is the homo academicus. Starting from his Vorschläge zur Reform der Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches(Proposals for Constitutional Reform of German Imperial) in the context of World War I, he reveals himself as a politician of will and passion who, with the perspective of cool reason of scholar, presents his position through public lectures, newspaper articles, and political consultations against the danger of censorship. In the context of constitutional reform and parliamentary democratization, which is the most acute political issues of the time, he develops his concept of responsibility as a quality of politicians who act with political power as a means. Through this, he tries to overcome the overall loss and helplessness of politics that are prevalent in the wartime situation and to restore the meaning and value of politics. In particular, he regards the revision or abolition of Paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Imperial Constitution as the starting point for the formation of Germany’s political will. In other words, by placing the weight of political responsibility on the parliament, he thinks, not only politics based on strong parliamentarism will be activated, but also a strong responsible cabinet that will handle armistice negotiations with the Allied Powers will be formed. The ideas contained in his political statements were never realized, but they nevertheless became an allegory for Politics as a Vocation. Today, Politics as a Vocation has become a kind of must-read for the general public, political experts and scholars, politicians etc. However few people know that the main issues contained in this work, especially the issue of responsibility as a quality of politicians, came from the context of constitutional reform and political reform raised by him in the wartime situation.

 

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Max Weber’s Politics of Civil Society and World War I: The Problems of Constitutional Reform, and the Criticism of Right-Wing Conservatism and Bureaucracy (2025.06)

  • Author : Chiwon Choi
  • Publisher : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
  • Publication : Koreanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Sozialwissenschaften(K-G Association For Social Sciences)
  • Volume : 35(2)
  • Date : June 2025

Abstract: During World War I, Max Weber critically expresses his political position regarding the deformity of the German nation. Its core is the constitutional and political reform. For him, the reform is a demand of the times that has to be resolved in order to achieve parliamentary democracy, the expansion of parliamentary power, and the activation of parliamentary politics. Although he is not a politician with ethics of responsibility, he accepts this demand of the times as his life’s cause more firmly than any other politician and develops his position. His political position, beginning with Vorschläge zur Reform der Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches, continues through his journalistic activities, public lectures, and the publication of booklet. He accepts the historical reality of the Reichstag not being the highest legislative power due to the structural characteristics of German politics, looks for an alternative to the Reichstag and tries to make the Bundesrat as a bridgehead for parliamentary democracy and the expansion of parliamentary power. The point is that, first, politics that unilaterally humiliates Members of the Reichstag and turns them into lower-class people must disappear, second, the path to the political responsibility must be opened for parliamentary politicians. His position on constitutional reform and political reform is sharply revealed in his criticism of the three axes of power that are ideologically and materially blocking reform. In this way, his criticism is directed: at individual politician like the Kaiser; at the far-right conservative forces (linked to big capital) as supporters of the power of the Kaiser; at the conservative bureaucracy system. His political stance not only includes criticism of the political reality of his time, but also includes the dimension of future civic or political education. The intellectual clarity he as a scholar has, serves as a weapon for critiquing political reality. Even in a wartime situation characterized by the loss of politics, his way of grasping politics (as he has always done) in the context of concrete social, economic, and historical relationships without settling for the academic world concretely demonstrates the unique properties inherent in his political thought.

 

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Unipolar Hangover and American Offshore Leadership: Systemic Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine and Gaza Wars (2025.04)

  • Authors : Dong Sun Lee, Sangsoo Lim
  • Publication : Korean Journal of International Studies
  • Publisher : The Korean Association of International Studies
  • Volume : 33(1)
  • Date: April 2025

Abstract: This article examines the dynamic interplay between the international system and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, analyzing how unipolarity has shaped these conflicts and their broader impact on global structures. It argues that the United States’ liberal hegemonic strategy—driven by unipolar preponderance— exacerbated tensions, particularly through NATO’s expansion in Ukraine and unconditional support for Israel in Gaza. These policies intensified regional hostilities, prompting armed resistance from Russia and Hamas. Conversely, these wars have accelerated the decline of US-centered unipolarity, allowing China to rise as a superpower while Russia and India consolidate their positions as great powers. The article introduces “offshore leadership” as a pragmatic US strategy emphasizing maritime priorities in East Asia and strategic collaboration with allies to navigate an evolving security landscape. This approach departs from the traditional liberal hegemonic strategy by advocating realism, restraint, and a reassessment of US global commitments. The study underscores the importance of prioritizing East Asia in response to China’s rise while delegating responsibilities in other regions to local allies. It offers theoretical insights into how unipolarity fosters conflict and how wars reshape international systems, along with actionable policy recommendations for South Korea and the United States to manage emerging geopolitical challenges effectively.

 

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Critique of Myth and Fictionality of ‘Thinking Without a Banister’ or ‘Denken ohne Geländer’ concealed in Arendt’s The Human Condition (2024.12)

  • Author : Chiwon Choi
  • Publisher : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
  • Publication : Koreanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Sozialwissenschaften(K-G Association For Social Sciences)
  • Volume : 34(4)
  • Date : December 2024

Abstract: Arendt claimed to think without a banister. However, as is most clearly confirmed in The Human Condition(1958), she never thought without banisters. What she has thrown away is, however, only the banisters of modernity, not the those of antiquity and the Middle Ages. For her, the loss of tradition is virtually nonexistent or just an empty phrase, since she persistently emphasizes and attempts to restore ancient traditions and authority. This self-contradiction is the characteristic and essence of Arendt’s thinking. Above all, she does not touch at all on the principles of modern practical labor nor considers she critically the problem of private property right as Hegel and Marx did, but deals with ‘labor’ of modern society with banisters of antiquity. This is anachronistic. ‘Labor’, ‘work’ and ‘action’ are merely ideal types(Weber) as heuristic means for thinking about reality, but she is silent about this point. Her banisters, which oppose the modern ideas of Hegel and Marx, is heavily influenced by the legacy of German Historicism and Romanticism as the antipode to the Enlightenment. Her banisters, which are ideational, are supplemented by another powerful ones, the theological·moral logic of good and evil and the esthetic logic of beauty and ugliness. She arranges ‘labor’, ‘work’ and ‘action’ according to ‘the hierarchy of vita activa’ and uses all kinds of literary and poetic symbols, rhetoric, and imagination to blur her ideational banisters, making it difficult to see. The human condition is in this respect a product of literary imagination but spreads a kind of gospel about life. In other words, it retains elements of revelation and prophecy and appeals to Arendt’s believers. In conclusion, The Human Condition has enough value to be evaluated as a beautiful literary work as much as the metaphor of ‘thinking without a banister’, however, this does not mean that her banisters has disappeared or has been abandoned as she claims. Her claim that the banisters have been removed from the thinking herself is either a lie or lip service to deceive the reader. Rather, she shows a self-contradiction in that if there had been no ‘banisters,’ not only would she never have been able to think as she wanted, but her own thought itself would not have been established. All this is revealed in the structure and character of her banisters and in their intellectual origins.

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A Comparative Analysis of Education Marketization by Government Partisanship : Focusing on Private Education Investment and Enrollment Rate in Independent Private Schools in European and North American Countries (2023.12)

  • Author :  HoShin Lee
  • Publication : The Politics of Education
  • Publisher : Korean Society Of The Politics Of Education
  • Volume : 30(4)
  • Date : December, 2023

Abstract: This paper purposed to analyze the marketization of education according to education policy determined by political factors by presenting changes in private education investment and private school enrollment rates in European and North American countries according to government partisanship. As with other policies, it was derived that fundamental changes occur in educational policies because of political factors rather than fragmentary educational considerations.
Based on the main support of the high-income class, the right-wing party revitalizes the education market. It lowers education regulations to increase the effectiveness of private investment in education. As a result, there is a high possibility that education marketization will intensify. On the contrary, the left-wing party supported by the low-income class tries to reduce the effect of private investment. Rather than segmentation according to the special separation of secondary education, integration and education regulation are strengthened to reorganize the system to lower the marketization of education.
This article, I looked at education marketization according to government partisanship and analyzed changes in education policy. Regarding education marketization, the ratio of private education expenditure and the ratio of private school student enrollment were used as dependent variables, and the cabinet composition ratio of left-wing and right-wing parties was used as independent variables. Through panel statistical analysis, this article obtained significant results on the changes in education marketization that differ depending on the left and right-wing government partisanship.
In conclusion, it can be seen that the partisanship of the governments of the left and right has changed the education policies to realize the policies of their constituencies.

Max Weber’s Politics of Civil Society: Beyond Historismus(Historicism) (2023.12)

  • Author : Chiwon Choi
  • Publication : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
  • Publisher : Koreanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Sozialwissenschaften(K-G Association For Social Sciences)
  • Volume : 33(4)
  • Date : December 2023

A ‘class-conscious bourgeois’ as citizen, Max Weber’s politics of civil society is a product of the political-practical attempt to overcome the crisis of Historismus. In the most comprehensive sense, it provides a new ‘Historie’ which corresponds to that of Marx and Nietzsche who are responsible for the crisis of Historismus. It internalizes methods of Marx and Nietzsche, which Historismus couldn’t provide. Above all, although Weber was a ‘child of the historical school,’ he accepts the critical problematique of Hegel and especially Marx: His concept of politics of civil society attempts to preserve the value and meaning of politics in respond to the demands of the times by requestinf a reexamination of the entire Bilder of the existing Historie. His unique ‘source’ of thoughts, which opens a new perspective on society and politics, has its specific content in his concept of politics of civil society. His concept is not related to the traditions of natural rights theory or social contract theory, which equated civil society with political society, nor should it be understood as the product of a naive political interpretation based on the religious ego or self and mentality. A concept of politics of civil society captured not only by moral ethics (voluntarism) based on the ego-idea of Parsonianized Weber but also by a creative individualism in the manner of Tocqueville and Mill, which furthermore is colored by Verba’s ‘civic culture’ and Putnam’s ‘social capital’, vulgarizes, simplifies and misleads Weber’s thoughts. In the academic and intellectual climate of the United States, such Parsonianized romantic version of politics of civil society may be possible. At best, such concept only results in the politics of civil society as Zivilgesellschaft, which has nothing to do with Weber. Weber, with his theoretical and practical cool-headedness, however, would not accept such naive and lax concept of politics of civil society as an ‘Americanized version of Romanticism’.

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A Study on Kim Jong Un’s Historical Trauma Concerning Denuclearization Negotiations : Based on the Extrinsic Meaning of the Korean War (2023.11)