Between Max Weber and Gilles Deleuze: Leadership Democracy within a Society of Control

Gilles Deleuze argued that modern western societies are undergoing or have undergone a shift away from a purely disciplinary formation as articulated by Michel Foucault towards new structures of control. Whereas disciplinary societies were defined by the specifics of certain kinds of confinement, what Deleuze terms societies of control emerge from the dissolution of the separation between these forms of confinement and the wider society. Because of this, social control has begun to pervade the individual lives of persons within a society, where persons are treated as subjects from which data and information can be extracted. However, at the same time many modern western societies are also considered or can be classified as what Weber described as leadership democracies, that is, democracies where charismatic leaders are elected and command large followings. Thus, a theoretical question emerges as to how these two theoretical approaches would interact. A society of control by its nature makes the imposition of control over subjects more encompassing while the charismatic leader at the helm of a political apparatus is theoretically able to overcome the various obstacles that impose themselves over most members of a society. The question is how this would include the overcoming of the imposition of the society of control.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how a leadership democracy under the guidance of a charismatic leader, or leaders, is able to overcome the impositions of a society of control. It shall be argued in due course, despite the presence and impositions of a society of control, that such impositions do not impinge upon the nature of the charismatic leader, or leaders, in such a way or to the extent required to prevent the charismatic leader, or leaders, from operating as this kind of leader, or leaders, by definition. In so doing, this thesis explores the manner in which the charismatic leader, or leaders, can overcome the mechanisms of a society of control and maintain the integrity of a leadership democracy in relation to the manner in which societal control is exerted over a population. Given that this thesis deals with a question of pure theory, the nature of this thesis shall be largely formal and shall rely largely on formal argumentation derived from primary and secondary literature as opposed to empirical research, however, where necessary empirical examples and research shall be drawn on for illustration purposes.