Conflict Liberalism: ‘Realpolitik’ in Max Weber’s Circle

Abstract: This is a translation of Chapter 19 ‘Konfliktliberalismus. “Realpolitik“ im Kreis Max Webers’ of Max Weber. Stationen und Impulse einer intellektuellen Biographie (Mohr Siebeck, 2019). It argues that Max Weber’s liberalism assumed that democratic constitutional politics involved conflict and conviction of one’s political beliefs. This contrasts with the idea that politics should yield to the authoritarian leader. There existed an indissoluble tension between the economic power of capitalism and the political order of democracy Max Weber’s own distinctive political habitus is brought out through the description of circles, both to which he belonged and those he opposed.