SOURCE: "Political Leadership and the Problem of the Charismatic Power," in The Journal of Politics, Vol. 23, 1961, pp. 3-24.

In the following essay, based upon a paper delivered in 1960, Friedrich compares and contrasts Michels's and Hobbes 's definition of power.

The term charisma and its derivatives, introduced into sociology many years ago by a German sociologist, has lately been spreading into political science here and abroad. The intellectuals' desire to sound profound by the use of unfamiliar words may have a share in this fad, but it would seem that the term also responds to a very-real need. One recent writer goes so far as to define charisma as "the right to rule by virtue of what they (the leaders) have been and are." Needless to say, such vagueness is a far cry from the original usage.¹

In order to be able to assess the utility of the concept...