| Max Weber-The Life and Work of a Social Theorist | | | | imperatives of the latter that determined the |
| (1864-1920) | | | | subordination of the worker at the workplace, not |
| Max Weber is a German political economist and | | | | those of property, and such subordination would |
| sociologist. Weber is considered as one of the leading | | | | therefore continue under a system of social ownership. |
| figures in a new generation of historical political | | | | In Weberian political sociology, alongside the |
| economists in the Germany of the 1890s. Max Weber | | | | 'tradi¬tional' and 'rational' principles of legitimacy was |
| was born in April 21, 1864, in Erfurt, Prussia. After early | | | | a third principle, the 'charismatic'. This indicated an |
| studies in the history of commercial law, Weber | | | | authority deriving from die person of the leader himself |
| established himself as one of the leading figures in a | | | | and the compelling power of his message, rather than |
| new generation of historical political economists in the | | | | from tradition or the rules governing a particular office. |
| Germany of the 1890s. | | | | It was a specifically innovative, non-routinized force in |
| In 1895 Weber "became a full professor in political | | | | social life. |
| economy at Freiburg, and then, in the following year, at | | | | Crucial therefore to asserting control over bureaucratic |
| Heidelberg" (Max Weber, n.d.). | | | | administration and securing innovation in face of its |
| A personal breakdown in 1898 led to his with¬drawal | | | | conservative tenden¬cies, was to ensure scope for |
| from academic teaching, but did little to impair the flow | | | | the charismatic principle in the political process. Weber |
| of his writing, the range of which was enormous. Its | | | | believed this could be provided by the |
| unifying focus was a concern with the mutual | | | | circum¬stances of mass electoral politics. He |
| relationship between legal, political and cultural | | | | observed how elections under universal suffrage were |
| formations on the one hand, and economic activity on | | | | becoming a form of plebiscite for or against the party |
| the other. His concern with these issues became | | | | leaders, and were increasing their scope for |
| increas¬ingly theoretical, involving a systematization | | | | determining policy over the heads of the individual |
| of the major categories of social and political life, both | | | | parliamentary representatives and the party following. |
| universally and as definitive of the specific character of | | | | "The Protestant morality that he had come to accept |
| modern western civilization. | | | | as inescapable destiny came under attack from the |
| Weber made his initial reputation in Ger¬many with a | | | | youth movement, from avant-garde literary circles |
| study of the impact of capitalist organization on the | | | | such as the one centred on the poet Stefan George, |
| agricultural estates east of the Elbe, and its implications | | | | from Neoromantics influenced by Nietzsche and Freud, |
| for the continued dominance of the Junkers over | | | | and from Slavic cultural ideals, exemplified in Tolstoy |
| Germany's political life. It is for a much wider study, | | | | and Dostoyevsky (Max Weber, n.d.). |
| however, of the origins of capitalism itself, that he is | | | | Underlying Weber's conception of democ¬racy as a |
| best known "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of | | | | procedure for producing political leadership lay a basic |
| Capitalism", 1904-1985. The uninten¬ded consequence | | | | philosophical assumption that political principles or |
| of this ethic, which was enforced by the social and | | | | values could not be grounded in reason or in the |
| psychological pres¬sures on the believer to prove his | | | | historical process, but were matters of subjective |
| salvation, was the accumulation of wealth for | | | | commitment and assertion. In their work Hilton and |
| investment. | | | | Turner write: 'Weber and the Austrian School are not |
| The crucial ques¬tion about his thesis is whether the | | | | obliged to deny the reality of institutions or the idea that |
| employment of wage labour that made unlimited | | | | actors may act under institutional constraints, or that |
| accumu¬lation possible in principle, also made it | | | | this constraint may be experienced as an external |
| inevitable in practice; whether, that is, the Protestant | | | | compulsive force or imperative. Nor need they hold to |
| ethic should be seen as providing a necessary | | | | a social contract or design theory of institutions" (Hilton |
| motivation for capitalist accumu¬lation, or rather a | | | | and Turner, 1989, p.43). |
| legitimation for it in the face of prevalent values | | | | He defined bureaucracy as a system of administration |
| favouring conspicuous con¬sumption on the part of a | | | | embodying the following characteristics: hier¬archy |
| leisured class. | | | | (each official has a clearly defined competence and is |
| Weber was only comparatively late in his life that he | | | | answerable to a superior); impersonality (the work is |
| came to think of his work as 'sociology', and it is as | | | | conducted according to set rules, without arbitrariness |
| one of the 'founding fathers' of sociology that he is | | | | or favouritism, and a written record is kept of every |
| now known. "These characteristic features of German | | | | transaction); continuity (the office constitutes a full-time |
| politics during this period are focused in the personality | | | | salaried occupation, with security of tenure and the |
| of Max Weber, Germany's most outstanding political | | | | prospect of regular advancement); expertise (officials |
| theorist during this epoch" (Mayer, 1957, p.13. | | | | are selected on merit, are trained for their function, and |
| Introductory). | | | | control access to the knowledge stored in the files). |
| The issue is probably impossible to resolve | | | | In 1914, Weber finished "Economy and society". Central |
| conclu¬sively, since all later examples of capitalist | | | | feature of Weber's critique of socialism was that the |
| take-off have been influenced by the impact of the | | | | attempt to replace the 'anarchy' of the market and |
| original one. The theoretical importance of Weber's | | | | achieve greater equality through social planning would |
| work, however, lies in the challenge it offers to | | | | entail an enormous expansion of bureaucratic power, |
| reductionist attempts to treat ideas as simply the | | | | and hence of unfreedom and economic stagnation. |
| reflection of material interests, rather than as mutually | | | | Swedberg describes that Weber singles out three |
| interacting with them, or to provide an account of | | | | levels: "economic phenomena, economically relevant |
| social change without reference to the motivation of | | | | phenomena and economically conditioned phenomena" |
| the social agents involved, even though the | | | | He writes: "The first of these categories covers |
| consequences may not be what they intend. | | | | economic phenomena in a strict sense, such as |
| "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" | | | | economic events and economic institutions; and Weber |
| (1904-1905) was only the first of a number of works | | | | has little to say about this category except that it |
| on the economic ethic of the major world religions; the | | | | includes phenomena 'the economic aspects of which |
| purpose of these was not, as has been claimed, to | | | | constitute their primary cultural significance for us'" |
| prove the capitalist spirit thesis by showing its absence | | | | (Swedberg 1998, p. 18-19) |
| elsewhere, but rather to elucidate the distinctive | | | | Sociological theory has been interested in bureaucracy |
| character of modern western rationalism (Weber, | | | | as a social category, representative of the new middle |
| 1958). According to Weber, "instrumental rationality" | | | | class, and distinct from both capital and labour. As Max |
| was a universal character¬istic of social action, only | | | | Weber put it: "The individual bureaucrat cannot squirm |
| in the modern West had the goal-maximizing | | | | out of the apparatus into which he has been |
| calculation of the most efficient means to given ends | | | | harnessed. (...) He is only a small cog in a ceaselessly |
| become gene¬ralized. | | | | moving mechanism which prescribes to him an |
| Weber believed that social hierarchy was inevitable, | | | | essentially fixed route of march" (Weber, 1958). This is |
| and that its analysis lay in the relationship to be found | | | | often referred to as Weber's iron cage. It is possible t |
| between the analytically distinct dimen¬sions of | | | | conclude that "Weber's greatest merit as a thinker |
| status, property and political or organizational power. | | | | was that he brought the social sciences in Germany, |
| Different societies could be distinguished by the | | | | hitherto preoccupied largely with national problems, into |
| predominance of one dimension over the others. If in | | | | direct critical confrontation with the international giants |
| early capitalism this was property, in advanced | | | | of 19th-century European thought Marx and Nietzsche" |
| capitalism it was organizational power. It was the | | | | (Max Weber, n.d.). |