Max weber

Sunday, February 22, 2015© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith

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SYA 3010 Sociological Theory:

Max Weber


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Max Weber� 1864-1920� Pronounced

“vey-bear”� German� Protestant� Mother was a

strong Calvinist� Father was a

German bourgeoisiepolitician


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Max Weber

� Paradigm: Pluralist� Class of Theories: Divergent Interests

� Sociology is properly concerned with individuals, not just structure

(Perdue 1986:173)Perdue, William D. 1986. Sociological Theory: Explanation, Paradigm, and Ideology.

Palto Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.


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Max Weber:Social Action

Max Weber conceived of sociology as a comprehensive science of social actionsocial action. In his analytical focus on individual human

actors he differed from many of his predecessors whose sociology was conceived in social-structural terms.

Spencer concentrated on the evolution of the body socialbody social as analogous to an

organism.


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Durkheim’s central concern was with institutional arrangements that maintain

the cohesioncohesion of social structures. Marx’s vision of society was informed by his

preoccupation with the conflicts between social classessocial classes within changing social

structures and productive relations.


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In contrast, Weber’s primary focus was on the subjective meanings that human actors attach to

their actions in their mutual orientations within specific social-historical contexts. Behavior

devoid of such meaning, Weber argued, falls outside the purview of sociology.

Coser (1971:217)Coser, Lewis A. 1971. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in

Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.


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Review Handout

Weber’s Model of Social System


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Four Major Types of Social Action� Purposeful or Goal-oriented

Rational Action� Both goal and means are rationally chosen

� Example: An engineer who builds a bridge by the most efficient technique of relating means to ends


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� Value-oriented Rational Action� Striving for a substantive goal, which in itself

may not be rational but which is nonetheless pursued

� Example: Attainment of salvation


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� Emotional or Affective Motivation Action� Anchored in the emotional state of the actor

rather than in the rational weighing of means and ends

� Example: Participants in the religious services of a fundamentalist sect


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� Tradit ional Action� Guided by customary habits of thought, by

reliance on “the eternal yesterday”� Example: The behavior of members of an

Orthodox Jewish congregation


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Weber was primarily concerned with modern Western society, in which, as he saw it,

behavior had come to be dominated increasingly by goal-oriented rationality, whereas in earlier periods it tended to be

motivated by tradition, affect, or value-oriented rationality. His studies of non-Western societies

were primarily designed to highlight this distinctive Western development.


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Karl Mannheim stated:Max Weber’s whole work is in the

last analysis directed toward the question “Which social factors

have brought about the rationalization of Western

civilization?”


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Max Weber:Ideal Types

Ideal Types� An ideal type is an analytical construct that serves the

investigator as a measuring rod to ascertain similarities as well as deviations in concrete cases. It provide the basic method for comparative study. � An ideal type is not meant to be a moral ideal. There

can be an ideal type of a brothel or a chapel.� It is not a statistical average

� Average Protestants in a given region or at a give time may be quite different from ideal typical Protestants

� Used to develop hypotheses


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� Three levels of Ideal Types� First are the ideal types rooted in historical

particularities, such as the “western city,” “the Protestant Ethic,” or “modern capitalism,” which refer to phenomena that appear only in specific historical periods and in particular cultural areas.


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� A second kind involves abstract elements of social reality--such concepts as “bureaucracy” or “feudalism”--that may be found in a variety of historical and cultural contexts.

� Finally, there is a third kind of ideal type. . .”rationalizing reconstructions of a particular kind of behavior. According to Weber, all propositions in economic theory, for example, fall into this category. They all refer to ways in which man would behave were they actuated by purely economic motives, were they purely economic men.


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Max Weber:Authority

Authority� Three main modes of authority (claiming

legitimacy)� Rational-legal authority

� Authority may be based on rational grounds and anchored in impersonal rules that have been legally enacted or contractually established.


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Max Weber:Authority

� Tradit ional authority� Based on the belief in the sanctity of tradition, of

“the eternal yesterday.” It is not codified in impersonal rules, but inheres in particular persons who may either inherit it or be invested with it by a higher authority

� Charismatic authority� Rests on the appeal of leaders who claim

allegiance because of their extraordinary virtuosity, whether ethical, heroic, or religious.


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Max Weber:Authority

This typology of various forms of authority relations is important on several counts. Its

sociological contribution rests more especially on the fact that Weber, in contrast to many

political theorists, conceives of authority in all its manifestations as characteristic of the relation between leaders and followers, rather than as

an attribute of the leader alone.


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Max Weber:Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy� Formal organization of the officialdom of large-scale

enterprise (e.g., government, military, economic, religious, educational), the ideal-type of such as organization characterized by:� Clearly defined division of labor� Rationality (i.e., a business-like attention to implementing goals

of the organization)� Impersonal application of rules� Routinization of tasks to the degree that personnel are easily

replaceable


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This bureaucratic coordination of the actions of large numbers of people has

become the dominant structural feature of modern forms of organization. Only

through this organizational device has large-scale planning, both for the modern state and the modern economy, become

possible.


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Yet Weber also noted the dysfunctions of bureaucracy. Its

major advantage, the calculability of results, also causes

depersonalization. It is difficult to deal with individual cases.


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Max Weber:Study of Religion

� Major works� The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Two Parts:

1904 and 1905)� The Religion of China (1913)� The Religion of India (1916-1917)� Ancient Judaism (1917)

� These major works were based on the question: Why did modern capitalism initially occur in the West and not in other parts of the world? (Turner, Beeghley, and Powers 1998:162-163)

Turner, Jonathan H., Leonard Beeghley, and Charles H. Powers. 1998. The Emergence of Sociological Theory. 4th ed. Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth Publishing Company.


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Review Handout

Weber’s Causal Argument for the Emergence of

Capital ism


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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is part of an

exercise in historical hypothesis historical hypothesis testingtesting in which Weber

constructed a logical experiment using ideal typesideal types as conceptual

tools.


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Theology has an enormous impact on

behavior---even economical and social

behavior.


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Occupational statistics in those nations of mixed religious composition seemed to show that those in higher socioeconomic positions were overwhelmingly Protestant.

Weber was not attempting to prove a relationship between Protestantism and economic success (that was a given), but rather to explain the relationship.


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Max Weber:Study of Religion� Weber developed a historical ideal typehistorical ideal type

called Spirit of CapitalismSpirit of Capitalism. This ideal type has four components:� Work is valued as an end in itself� Trade and profit are indicators of personal

virtue� A methodically organized life governed by

reason indicates a righteous state of being� Delayed gratification is a virtue


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� Weber focused on the Calvinist’s form or Protestantism

� Calvinist’s theology/doctrine had four consequences on the Spirit of Capitalism:� Predestination� Lack of certainty of salvation created inner

loneliness and isolation


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� People looked for signs of being among the elect

� Absolute duty to consider themselves chosen� Intense worldly activity creates self-confidence

� All believers were expected to lead methodical and ascetic lives unencumbered by irrational emotions, superstitions, or desires of the flesh


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� Why did John Wesley call his group “Methodists?”

� Why do many evangelical and fundamentalist groups have “standards” and/or rules that appear rather “strict?”� No dancing� Avoid theaters, movies, dramas� No card playing, use of dice of any kind


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Among the Calvinist and many of the other Protestant groups-----wealth was

“automatically” accumulated through intense “economic activity” but was not to be “shown.” The accumulation was to be

converted into “sound” assets.The Amish are a perfect illustration of the Spirit of Capitalism as studied by Weber.


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Even though the strict nature of early Protestant groups

are all but gone----the residues are evident in

today’s society.


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Review Handout

Weber’s Quasi-Experimental Design in the Study of

Religion


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Max Weber:Class and Status

Class and StatusMethod for studying stratification of

populations for sociological purposes.� Class

� “…property…and lack of property…” is the basis of all class situations

� Class is a type of socioeconomic category� Rational behavior


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� Status� Evaluations people make of one another� Rank order of desired behavior and traits� Value-oriented behavior


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ExamplesIf we use the class groups of low, blue collar, lower middle

class, middle class, upper middle class, wealthy and the statuses of low, middle, high---what are the class and status levels of the following:

� College Presidents� Teachers� Medical Doctors� Investment Bankers� Pastors

Education

Max weber