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European Journal of International Relations
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Reimagining Weber:

Constructing International Society and the Social Balance of Power

JOHN M. HOBSON

University of Sydney, Australia

LEONARD SEABROOKE

University of Sydney, Australia

This article `reimagines' Max Weber, who is conventionally thought to be one of realism's founding fathers. While Weber's work had various ambiguities and tensions, we suggest that his conception of IR had much in common with liberalism, and especially the English School. Nevertheless, our `reimagining' of Weber augments in a sustained and particular way an area of analysis that has not been consistently or sufficiently developed within the English School; namely an emphasis on the social legitimacy of a particular form of state-society complex that is constitutive of international society. In contrast to Hedley Bull, who viewed sovereignty and diplomacy as sufficient criteria of legitimacy, Weber insisted that international society could only be successfully reproduced once the constituent state-society complexes had become `socially embedded' (comprising a domestic social balance of power between a democratic state and a strong civil society). Weber, unlike Bull, advocated a social domestic analogy.

Key Words: English School • historical sociology • international society • social balance of power • social legitimacy • state-society complex • the state • Max Weber

European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 7, No. 2, 239-274 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/1354066101007002004
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