A Little Weber in the Day

(from the "We the chosen" BC thread)

PressingTowardTheMark,
(who refuted a defense of Sunstein's apologia for regulation)
The distinction is between what Weber called Mechanical Solidarity and Organic Solidarity. Mechanical is associated with more primitive societies and designates external controls on conduct while the Organic level of solidarity is found in more advanced societies and indicates that the rules have been internalized. For a democracy to work the people must have attained a level of Organic Solidarity. The rules are transmuted by means of the quality of "Charisma" which in a primitive society is embodied in the heroic leader but which becomes institutionalized over time, first in the monarchy and then in the aristocracy and eventually in the bureaucracy. When the people are not just the objects but the source of the rules and the charisma is held by the State that is created as an expression of the popular will then you have a democracy. This does not refute Solon 2040's contention that a state is needed to be a free citizen but he does get the source of authority, that is the locus of charisma, wrong and he misconstrues the need for coercive or mechanical regulation by the State in the mature democracy.