The Conflict between Methodology and Rationalization in the Work of Max Weber

Abstract

Max Weber is the leading representative of an interpretive sociology aiming at an explanation in terms of the motives of the acting individuals. He is also the proponent of the thesis that the Western world is moving in the direction of increasing rationalization, held by many to be the uniting theme of his work. It is the thesis of this paper that there is a conflict between these two themes in Weber's work. The process of rationalization ends in an 'iron cage' of bureaucratic domination. But bureaucracy es capes analysis with Weberian methodology for two reasons: (1) because it is a form of domination which reduces men to means for the bureaucracy and its leaders, thus making their own motives unimportant, and (2) because it is a type of domination which rests upon the acceptance of, and subjection to, a rational legal order. The conclusion is that Weber's methodology is primarily a methodology for the analysis of leaders, since they alone are the determinants of their own actions.