Das Weber-Paradigma: Studien zur Weiterentwicklung von Max Webers Forschungsprogramm by Gert Albert , Agathe Bienfait , Steffen Sigmund , Claus Wendt (review)

Abstract

250 Max Weber Studies book is, to a certain extent at least, a victim of the success of the now firmly consoli dated positive approach to Schmitt's work, which normally incorporates a discern ing understanding of his activities in the Weimar Republic. Whilst I would like to endorse this book as a work which can be recommended to students without hesita tion, therefore, it seems to me that, at the highest level, the theoretical debate about Schmitt is not conclusively or even extensively carried forward by the reading which Kennedy proposes, and the terms in which she expresses her cautious sympathy for Schmitt merely expand perspectives which are already widespread. No-one inter ested in Schmitt is likely to find the claims which Kennedy makes entirely unfamil iar, and it is difficult to see her discussions as something substantively other than a detailed and knowledgeable reinforcement of commonly held views on Schmitt. The work surely sets a promising terrain for new analysis. Its focus on philosophi cal dualism, for instance, is theoretically enticing. Similarly, it provides very sensi tive readings of the religious nuances in Schmitt's work; its underlying account of his concern with the transformation of religion into civic philosophy offers valuable additions to our knowledge of his political theology. It also, most obviously, forms a key reference point in discussions concerning Schmitt and the Nazis. However, the overarching theoretical substance of the book often falls behind the quality of the distinct studies which it contains, and, in my view, it is an at times oddly out dated work, which, for all its competence and thoroughness, does not quite succeed in advancing a fundamentally distinctive account of Schmitt's theory. Chris Thornhill Department of Politics, University of Glasgow Gert Albert Agathe Bienfait, Steffen Sigmund and Claus Wendt (eds.), Das Weber Paradigma: Studien zur Weiterentwicklung von Max Webers Forschungs-programm (Tübin gen: Mohr [Siebeck], 2003), pp. 394 + indexes. ISBN 3-16148-182-8. €39.00. This volume brings together the results of a Heidelberg colloquium in 2003, an occasion that commemorated in part the work of M. Rainer Lepsius and Wolfgang Schluchter. Organized into five sections, the book's seventeen contributions address a single central question: paraphrasing the editors, is it possible to consider Max Weber's thought a 'paradigm' capable of generating scientific research, equivalent in standing to other established 'paradigms'? Among the established others, three are considered prominent alternatives: the communicative theory of action (Habermas), systems theory (Luhmann), and rational choice theory (Coleman). Is there a distinc tive Weberian 'theory' or 'approach', evident in Max Weber's work, or derived from it, that can rival or even surpass these competitors? To ask such a question is to allude to Thomas Kuhn's well-known introduc tion of the concept of a 'paradigm' as a comprehensive body of theory, method and 'model problems' that together establish the possibility for cumulative knowledge within the confines of 'normal' scientific inquiry. The extended controversy over Kuhn's seminal ideas has left 'paradigm' as a useful metaphor for major scientific accomplishments, but also has taken from it the kind of precision Kuhn originally intended. Instead, as Wolfgang Schluchter recognizes in his contribution, the notion of a 'research program' (Lakatos) or 'tradition' (Laudan) has gained currency as a language appropriate to identifying a body of thought that is notably comprehensive ) Max Weber Studies 2008. Book Reviews 251 and fruitful for posing important questions and directing inquiry. The revised ques tion could thus read: Can the same be said for Weberian theory, and if so, what would its research program look like? Or using the commonly accepted English ter minology, as Karl-Siegbert Rehberg points out (p. 371), what are the leading charac teristics and achievements of the 'approach' associated with Weber7s work? One might say this is not a new question. Even in the first generation of the recep tion of Weber's work, scholars like Frank Knight and Talcott Parsons were clearly looking for guidance from his thought on methodological and substantive topics. For various reasons, including inadequate access to the work itself, the guidance they sought was often difficult to discern. But in the last several decades many of...