This paper analyzes the electoral campaign and election of Donald Trump as an ongoing event – a rupture of known trajectories and narratives. The “eventness” of the election was both orchestrated by the Trump campaign, and desired by parts of the electorate precisely as a rupture in the predictable trajectories of political life. We locate this form of rupture in the tension Weber described between charisma and rational-legal authority, as a tear in the mutual implication of these forms of authority in the ordinary business of politics. We then show how such an analysis of rupture problematizes the usual ways sociologists attempt to understand actors, using Weber’s notion of “verstehen” that focuses on understanding individuals’ alternative motivations, meanings, and alternative trajectories of means and ends. We argue that we must position rupture – the suspension and even rejection of such narratives – as an important aspect of our understanding of action in this case.

中文翻译：

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作为假期的政治

本文分析了唐纳德特朗普作为持续事件的选举活动和选举 - 已知轨迹和叙述的破裂。选举的“事件性”既是由特朗普竞选活动精心策划的，也是部分选民所期望的，恰恰是政治生活可预测轨迹的破裂。我们将这种破裂形式定位在韦伯所描述的魅力与理性-法律权威之间的张力中，作为这些权威形式在日常政治事务中相互暗示的撕裂。然后，我们展示了这种对破裂的分析如何使社会学家试图理解行动者的通常方式问题化，使用韦伯的“理解”概念，该概念侧重于理解个人的替代动机、意义以及替代手段和目的的轨迹。