Rambling about Weber and Revive

Sovereign politics and politics of the state have come a long way since Max Weber wrote his famous essay Politics as a Vocation in 1919. I will try to analyze Australia’s still fairly new National Cultural Policy — Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place (2023), while drawing on what Weber wrote in his seminal piece. This is an analysis of text only. The reading of Revive through Weber will appear shrewd, meanwhile, Australia’s policies are completely new to me. Therefore, I may sound naïve at the same time, because I have no clue how the people in the industry are seeing these policy implementations and what their visceral, gut reactions are!

The prime minister’s forward in Revive is crisp, energetic and smart. He talks about “shared purpose and understanding.” Weber stated that parties focus all their energies to stay in office. That is the main objective. Cultural policy is by no means the central thing Anthony Albanese needed to focus on, despite which, Revive seems to have been greeted with relative aplomb by media and academics, hinting some hoo-hah regarding the policy.

Revive appears holistic, securing and allocating major chunks of funding and establishing new institutions like the Centre for Arts Workplaces. The entire world is all-too-familiar with the toxic environment media worksites can become, with every other person in power being outed as a sociopath. This body of the Australian Government seems very relevant. It has the authority to earmark and shutdown companies that do not guarantee minimum standards. Centre for Arts Workplaces is meant to stand by workers for pay, safety and welfare.

In his forward to Revive, Albanese talks about creating a national identity. Revive wants to make it mandatory for international and local streaming platforms to invest more in Australian content production. The platforms countered by saying that AUD $335.1 million is plenty — one-third of the size of U.S. investment in the Australian market (going towards non-local content creation) and probably one-sixth of the recent average, total investment in this market, half of which is not even Aussie content. Even less, if you take the dismal figure of AUD $1.7 billion that was invested in 2023–24.

In his essay Weber goes to some lengths to explain what makes a political leader, how demagogues work and how ordinary voters dictate what the leaders are promoting in their attempt to rise to power. He explains that leaders like Albenese know what the people want and voice those eloquently to get the votes. In a developed country, where the mean income of authors is dramatically below the poverty line at AUD $18,200, Revive’s implementation of measures to increase the income streams of writers, illustrators and editors will have its ramifications. The lending rights scheme with an investment of AUD $12.9 million seeks to see that creators get to keep a share of the earnings when e-books are borrowed by readers. Here, we see the return of an ancient law, befitting web economies.

References:

Burke K (17 December 2024) ‘Investment in film and TV made in Australia plummets by almost 30%, report finds: Global streaming platforms biggest investors but Stan contributed the most locally produced titles’, The Guardian, Accessed 8 April 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/17/investment-in-film-and-tv-made-in-australia-plummets-by-almost-30-report-finds

Caust J (30 January 2023) ‘‘Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life’: what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia — if it all comes together’, The Conversation, accessed 5 April 2025, https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786

Commonwealth of Australia (2023) Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place — Australia’s cultural policy for the next five years, The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Australian Government, accessed 3 April 2025. https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-culturalpolicy-8february2023.pdf

Eklund O (30 January 2023) ‘Streaming platforms will soon be required to invest more in Australian TV and films, which could be good news for our screen sector’, The Conversation, accessed 5 April 2025, https://theconversation.com/streaming-platforms-will-soon-be-required-to-invest-more-in-australian-tv-and-films-which-could-be-good-news-for-our-screen-sector-198757

Galloway A (29 January 2023) ‘Crackdown on sexual harassment, abuse and bullying in the arts’, The Sydney Morning Herald, accessed 7 April 2025, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/crackdown-on-sexual-harassment-abuse-and-bullying-in-the-arts-20230127-p5cfy3.html

Morris L (27 January 2023) ‘Australian authors to receive compensation for e-book loans for first time’, The Sydney Morning Herald, accessed 5 April 2025, https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australian-authors-to-receive-compensation-for-e-book-loans-for-first-time-20230127-p5cfxk.html

Weber M, Owen DS, Strong TB, Livingstone R and ProQuest (2004) The vocation lectures, Hackett Pub., Indianapolis.