The complex relationships between political regimes (bureaucracy) and political leaderships (charisma) is central to the socio-political thinking of Max Weber. This article aims at examining this issue from the perspective of the Weberian concept of plebiscitary democracy. The work is divided into four parts. The first examines the trajectory of the concept in Weber's political and sociological writings. After a reconstruction the biography of the concept, the second topic examines the issue from a systematic point of view. Three sociological types of democracy are, then, distinguished in the Weberian theory: direct democracy, parliamentary democracy and plebiscitary democracy. The third section is dedicated to present the issue under a normative approach, highlighting the motivations that led Max Weber to argue in favor of the enhancement of the Caesarist potential of modern mass democracies. The final part is dedicated to an overall account of the work.
Max Weber; democracy; parliamentary democracy; plebiscitary democracy