Lesson 6 Max Weber Robert Wonser SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory Spring 2014.

Lesson 6: Max WeberClassical Sociological Theory 1

Lesson 6Max Weber

Robert Wonser

SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory

Spring 2014


Karl Emil Maximilian "Max“ Weber

Born in Erfurt, Germany in 1864eldest of seven childrenfather was a lawyer, judge, politician, and stern

patriarchfamily moved to Berlin in 1869the family values generally revolved around hard-work,

asceticism, and personal moralitythe contradictory behavior of Weber’s parents created

a tension within Max that would guide his life and workWeber became very ill at age two and was a very

small child; thus, he was less physically active, but more intellectually engaged than his peers

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1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg, studying economics, philosophy, theology, and history, and joined his father’s fraternity

1883 year of military service from which he enrolled in, and graduated from, the University of Berlin – lived at home and came to identify more with his mother

Weber maintained a very strict work ethic, and was by modern terms a “workaholic.”

Weber pursued both the legal profession as well as maintaining an academic appointment


Weber had a serious breakdown after the death of his father (1897) in which he was incapacitated for about five years

1905 Weber publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

1906-1914 Weber published several volumes on the religions of the world

Weber became a hospital administrator during WWI

Weber died of influenza in 1920


Intellectual Influences: Karl Marx

the “silent debate” with Marx similarities:1) emphasis on the importance of material

basis of society2) both are “systems” theorists3) both explored the way in which

capitalism limited individual freedom4) argued that human decision making was

important in shaping human history


Intellectual Influences: Karl Marx

differences:

1) the nature of science – importance of “value-free” science

2) historical inevitabilities

3) economic determinism

4) argued that societies are filled with solidarity and conflict


The Methodenstreit (Methodological Debate over Approaches to Economics)

Historical Approach (Schmoller)

Theoretical Approach (Menger)

Induction or Deduction Induction (Weber) Deduction (Weber) Universality or Relativity of findings

Relative and idiographic (Weber)

Universal and nomothetic

Degree of rationality or nonrationality in human action

Rational and nonrational (Weber)

Focus on the rational actor (Weber)

Ethical focus or Scientific Ethical Scientific (Weber)


Intellectual Influences: Wilhelm Dilthey

argued there are some fundamental differences between the natural sciences and the social sciences

the key difference is the “inner nature”/consciousness of social action and human subjects and requires a distinct methodological orientation

this will become Weber’s notion of verstehen


Intellectual Influences: Heinrich Rickert

also explored the difference between the natural and social sciences

however, he suggested that the science of history was similar to the physical sciences because both relied upon “concept formation.”

This notion of concept formation formed the basis for Weber’s “ideal types.”


The Sociological Theory of Max Weber

“Sociology … is a science concerning itself with the interpretive understanding of social action and thereby with a causal explanation of its course and consequences. We shall speak of ‘action’ insofar as the acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to his behavior – be it overt or covert, omission or acquiescence. Action is ‘social’ insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course.”


Weber’s Goals

Weber’s theoretical project has two components:

understand the nature of origin of modern western societies

develop a set of concepts (ideal types) which can be used in understanding social action.


“Value-free” Sociology

Weber advocates a “value-free” or objective sociology.

sociological investigations should be “rationalized”:clearly formulated conceptsproper rules logical inferences

values however can be used to choose a topic for research, but not the method

there is no need to search for universal laws – this eliminates unique events from analysis

Who's he talking back to here?


Ideal Types

Ideal Types – “a system of concepts of such universal scope as to be consistent with even the most diverse value attitudes.”

A concept created by social scientists on the basis of his or her interests and theoretical orientation, to capture the essential features of some social phenomenon.


Types of Ideal Types

historical ideal types – relate to phenomena found in some particular historical epoch (ex: modern capitalistic marketplace)

General sociological ideal types – cut across a number of historical periods (ex: bureaucracy)

Action ideal types – pure types of action based on the motivations of the actor

Structural idea types – forms taken by the causes and consequences of social action (ex: traditional domination)


The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Weber’s most famous work.Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des

Kapitalismus This is a work of historical analysis and

hypothesis testingWeber is attempting to do at least three things in

PESC:refute Marxist conflict theoryexplain why capitalism emerged in the westdemonstrate that cultural values can direct social action

as well as material conditions.


Reflects a quasi-experimental method to answer the question: why did capitalism emerge in the west and not in other parts of the world?

In Weber’s research he finds that Protestantism and capitalism are associated, and that capitalist economic success is tied to Protestantism.


Class, Status and Party

Class is not necessarily the most important aspect of conflict

Class is a group of people whose shared situation is a possible, and sometimes frequent, basis for action by the group. They share a class position.

A class situation exists when:1) Life chances in common2) This component is represented by economic interests,

possessions of goods and opportunities for income3) Represented under conditions of the commodity or

labor markets



“status situation” is where “every typical component of the life of men is determined by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor.”

Status is associated with style of life.Status relates to consumption of goods

produced, class relates to economic production.



Classes exist in the economic order, statuses exist in the social order, parties can be found in the political order.

To Weber, parties “are always structures struggling for domination.”

Parties usually, but not always, represent class and/or status groups.

Oriented to the attainment of power.


Structures of Authority

Domination as the “probability that certain specific commands (or all commands) will be obeyed by a given group of persons.” (Weber 1921/1968:212)

Authority is a legitimate form of domination. Three types:Rational – “belief on the legality of enacted rules and the

right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands.”

Traditional – “established belief on the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them.”

Charismatic – devotion of followers to the exceptional sanctity, exemplary character, heroism or special powers of the leader and the normative order they’ve sanctioned


Legal Authority and the Ideal-Typical Bureaucracy The bureaucracy was “the purest type of exercise of legal

authority” Ideal-typical bureaucracy “From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is

capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority over human beings. It is superior to any other form in precision, in stability, in the stringency of its discipline, and in its reliability. It thus makes possible a particularly high degree of calculability of results for the heads of the organization and for those acting in relation to it. It is finally superior both in intensive efficiency and in the scope of its operations and is formally capable of application to all kinds of administrative tasks (1921/1968, p. 223).”


Weber feared that the rationalization that dominates all aspects of bureaucratic life was a threat to individual liberty:

“No machinery in the world functions so precisely as this apparatus of men and, moreover, so cheaply. . .. Rational calculation . . . reduces every worker to a cog in this bureaucratic machine and, seeing himself in this light, he will merely ask how to transform himself into a somewhat bigger cog. . . . The passion for bureaucratization drives us to despair" (1921/1968: p. IV).


On Bureaucracy

"The principles of office hierarchy and of levels of graded authority mean a firmly ordered system of super- and subordination in which there is a supervision of the lower offices by the higher ones" (1946/1958, p. 197)


Major Characteristics of the Ideal-Typical Bureaucracy

1. Clear levels with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward (official functions bound by rules)

2. A division of labor (specific sphere of competence) arranged hierarchically

3. Written rules4. Written communications and records5. Impersonality and Replaceability


"...it is still more horrible to think that the world could one day be filled with nothing but those little cogs, little men clinging to little jobs and striving toward bigger ones--a state of affairs which is to be seen once more, as in the Egyptian records, playing an ever-increasing part in the spirit of our present administrative systems, and especially of its offspring, the students. This passion for bureaucracy...is enough to drive one to despair. It is as if in politics. . . we were to deliberately to become men who need "order" and nothing but order, who become nervous and cowardly if for one moment this order wavers, and helpless if they are torn away from their total incorporation in it. That the world should know no men but these: it is in such an evolution that we are already caught up, and the great question is therefore not how we can promote and hasten it, but what can we oppose to this machinery in order to keep a portion of mankind free from this parceling-out of the soul, from this supreme mastery of the bureaucratic way of life." (1909/1944, pp. 127-128).


Any Alternatives?

Bureaucratic rationalization isn’t going anywhere: "The needs of mass administration make it today completely indispensable. The choice is only between bureaucracy and dilettantism in the field of administration" (1921/1968, p. 224).”

There is no hope for a better world.Socialism would be even worse: "would mean a

tremendous increase in the importance of professional bureaucrats" (1921/1968, p. 224).


Ever the optimistic ray of sunshine…

"When those subject to bureaucratic control seek to escape the influence of existing bureaucratic apparatus, this is normally possible only by creating an organization of their own which is equally subject to the process of bureaucratization" (1921/1968, p. 224).

"Not summer's bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now" (1946/1958, p. 128).


He was particularly concerned with the process of rationalization, the application of economic logic to all human activity, due to the development of bureaucracies throughout society.


The Iron Cage of Rationality

Too much rationalization iron cage of rationality

Cloak to iron cage“In Baxter’s view the care for

external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the 'saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage."


Rationalization

Practical rationality – the way of life that views and judges the world in relation to the individual’s purely pragmatic and egoistic interests.

Theoretical rationality – cognitive effort to master reality through increasingly abstract concepts rather than through action.


Rationalization

Substantive Rationality (like practical reality but not theoretical rationality) – directly orders action into patterns through clusters of values

Formal Rationality – means-end calculation. Universally applied rules, laws and regulations.This is the one Weber cared most aboutArose only in the West (unlike the other three)

with the coming of industrialization


Formal Rationality

1) Calculability

2) Efficiency

3) Predictability

4) From human technology to nonhuman technology (like computers)

5) Control over uncertainty

6) Irrational consequences


DisenchantmentAs a result of formal rationality Weber believed

that contemporary life was filled with disenchantment, the inevitable result of the dehumanizing features of bureaucracies that dominated modern societies, an irrationality associated with the increasing rationality.

Lesson 6 Max Weber Robert Wonser SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory Spring 2014.

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Transcript of Lesson 6 Max Weber Robert Wonser SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory Spring 2014.