It has been one hundred years since the death of Max Weber and one hundred and two years since
the publication of his classic essay “Science as a Vocation”. I review here several of the main ideas
advanced in the essay. I then seek to apply a Weberian perspective to the analysis of the rise of
national populism by considering first the historical-structural origins of the present situation and
second the meaning that it has for supporters of this movement. The evolution of world capitalism
has had consequences that bear directly on the situation of the middle and working-classes in the
advanced countries and in their subsequent political reactions. Applying a field studies of the populist
grass roots, I seek to understand the meaning that the situation has for supporters of the movement
and its political implications. This understanding has direct consequences for current attempts to
reverse a movement that has changed the course of recent history in the United States and elsewhere
in the developed world.

Bio
Alejandro Portes is Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of (Emeritus) Sociology
at Princeton University and Professor of Law and Distinguished Scholar of Arts and Sciences at
the University of Miami. He is the founding director of the Center for Migration and Development at
Princeton. He has taught at several universities. He is a former president of the American Sociological
Association. Portes is the author of more than 250 articles and chapters on national development,
international migration, Latin American and Caribbean urbanization, and economic sociology. He has
published 40 books and special issues. His books include
Immigrant America: A Portrait; Spanish
Legacies: The Coming of Age of the Second Generation and
The Global Edge: Miami in the Twenty-
First Century. His current research is on the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation
in comparative perspective, the role of institutions on national development, and the comparative
study of global cities. Portes is a former fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral
Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation. He has received honorary doctorates from different
university around the world. He was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize in the Social Sciences
from the Kingdom of Spain.