SPT Weber

SPT: Max Weber (1864-1920)

1. Max Weber’s work had a profound influence on twentieth century social and political theory. In this lecture, we will consider Weber’s methodological approach, before turning to his account of modernity, bureaucracy and the state. First, the context of Weber’s work.

2. Context. Weber is often regarded as the most important of the founders of modern social theory and sociology. But questions of politics were at the centre of his work. He was born shortly before the political unification of Germany as an Empire, and concerns about the political strength of the German state occupy his thinking throughout. Weber’s insights in to social theory, then, are informed by this focus on the place of Germany within a modernity characterised by the rise of rational capitalism, bureaucracy and the decline of religious beliefs and practices (disenchantment and secularization).

Weber started out as a professional academic in Berlin, with a focus not on sociology but on law, economics, and history. He was associated with the German ‘Historical School’ of economics which saw history, rather than abstract mathematical models, as being central to the study of economics. Weber’s early work looked at questions about economic and social organization in ancient society – e.g. why the Roman Empire declined rather than turning into a thriving capitalist economy. But Weber was also influenced by various currents of philosophical thought that made him turn to the question of methodology – how we should best go about the study of history and of social change. This led to his ideal-typical method.

3. Weber’s ideal typical method, was a way of trying to account for social and political phenomena without falling into the traps of evolutionism, historicism and positivism. For Weber, we can detect patterns or trends in history, but no overall pattern or monocausal theory of development (so against ‘crude’ Marxism which explains all social phenomena by economic relations). This is because what is central in social change for Weber is action. He is against positivism – the view of general laws that shape history and society – but not against the idea that we can have an objective and value-free social science. Rather it is the actions of individuals that matter – he is in this sense a methodological individualist.

When considering social and political phenomena, we must makes two moves – first, an interpretative move, where we attempt to understand the subjective motivations or values that underlie human action, and second an analytical move that involves explaining the causes of particular kinds of values and of the social changes that arise as a consequence of actions motivated by these values. Action can be of various kinds (orientations) exhibiting various degrees of rationality. It can be based on tradition, affection, value rationality, and instrumental rationality.

3. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). Rationality for Weber, in its specific forms, is a historical phenomenon, both a cause and effect of the complex character of human social relations. It is inextricably linked to systems of beliefs and values, economic and social organisation, and the nature of political authority.

This is the central guiding idea of PESC. Weber believes that modernity in the West is characterised by rationalization and disenchantment, the rise of rational capitalism and the decline of religion. But a central reason for this development is religion itself or at least the particular set of religious values and practices associated with the ascetic ethic in Protestantism. The “capitalist spirit” – that is the spirit of rational and systematic accumulation of capital – has as one of its preconditions this Protestant ethic.

Weber starts the book by asking why the West alone in human history has developed modern scientific knowledge and technology combined with economic rationalism, i.e. the capitalist system. Before the 16th C, China and India, for example, had matched if not surpassed Europeans in their scientific knowledge and technology, yet did not go on to develop capitalism and the other distinctive features of Western modernity.

“Capitalism” has appeared at other points in human history, but only as a limited activity (booty and pariah capitalism), and not as the main form of economic organization. “Capitalism” in the modern sense is a rational and systematic practice that seeks the constant accumulation of capital. Unlike these other forms of capitalism it requires:

i. Regular re-investment of capital; ii. A large, disciplined body of wage labourers; iii. A rational system of accounting.

The combination of these factors is unique to the West. Against Marxism, Weber argues that capitalism does not arise because of the independent development of productive technology. The rationality of capitalism is, in part at least, derived from a religious ethic, the ascetic ethic of Protestantism.

Christianity, unlike Hinduism and Confucianism, is this-worldy. But Christianity is around for 1600-1700 years before capitalism emerges. For Weber, it is only with the Reformation that we see the development of the right kind of motivational ethic for capitalism. What is this? Important to Lutheran and Calvinist thought in the Reformation is the notion of the vocation or calling. Coupled with the Calvinist doctrines of predestination and proof, these provide a foundation for the development of the spirit of capitalism. While in modern society the religious significance of the ascetic ethic is lost as a consequence of secularization and the disenchantment of social life, its rational core remains as the psychological, motivational basis on which modern capitalism relies.

4. In Weber’s political thought politics is seen as taking place in many different kinds of human associations. It is principally concerned with questions of leadership and of power (as domination). Force is a central feature of politics, and while Weber wishes to seek ways in which force can be controlled and limited, he does not believe that it can be eliminated from complex human societies. In modern capitalist societies, the primary political association is the state. In “Politics as a Vocation”, Weber famously describes the state as “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical violence”. But there is for Weber, therefore, an important distinction to be drawn between power and authority. For him, we can identify three kinds of legitimate authority or legitimate domination: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal.

In modern capitalist societies legal-rational bureaucracy is an increasingly dominant feature. Bureaucratic organization is not limited to the administration of the state, but comes to operate in all kinds of public and “private” institutions. This is linked to the trend that Weber identifies as being unique in the development of the West –the rationalization of social life according to instrumental rationality (Zweckrationalität). Weber saw the bureaucratisation of modern social life as inherently dangerous – the “iron cage” of bureaucracy. He believed that charismatic authority represented a counter-weight to such bureaucratization. Popular politicians should appeal to the people, rather than to bureaucratic actors. Weber favoured a system of plebiscitary leadership democracy.