Weber's Account Research Articles

Han-Wei-Zi 韓韋子: Bureaucratic Administration in Han Feizi 韓非子 and Max Weber (Wei Bo 韋伯)

Abstract: In this essay, Han Feizi is compared to Max Weber. It is argued that comparing the two enables us to see a distinctive aspect of Han Feizi's political thought. In particular, it is proposed that Weber's theory of the modern state (especially bureaucratic administration) can provide us with a helpful lens for understanding the structure, inner logic, and implications of Han Feizi's account of administration. Moreover, this comparison enables us to see clearly that the Han Feizi still has contemporary relevance. First Weber's account of political order and bureaucratic administration is explained. Next, Han Feizi and Weber are compared by focusing on six characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy. Then some differences between Han Feizi and Weber are considered. Finally some philosophical implications of this comparison are outlined for contemporary political philosophers.

Iconoclasm as Child's Play

In the summer of 1985 my children, Laura and Aurélien, then seven and five, knelt before a Barbie doll standing at the foot of a Ken doll on an imaginary cross. I remember vividly the scene because I took a picture of it. We were vacationing in Ticino and visiting the local churches, so I assumed that this play imitated the iconography to which they were being exposed. After reading Moshenska's Iconoclasm as Child's Play, however—whose cover shows “Josh McBig,” a bearded version of Ken with outstretched arms and severed legs, photographed by the Jackson sisters as part of their “Doll Games” project—I have to wonder: was there not in this play an element of parody or blasphemy, of iconoclasm even, prompted perhaps by my working at the time on contemporary “vandalism”? Or, on the contrary, was there an element of devotion, of faith produced by mimicking the ritual? I am now faced with the conundrum of “the adult's imagination of the child's imagination,” to borrow a phrase (from Michael Taussig) that resonates through Moshenska's strange and fascinating book.Sometime in the 1530s, in Redcliffe Cross in Bristol, in the west of England, a preacher named Roger Edgeworth denounced what he regarded as a current upsurge of impiety and singled out as evidence that “many Images” taken from the dissolved monasteries “haue bene caryed abrod, and gyuen to children to playe wyth all,” so that when their parents ask them what it is that they are playing with, they make them laugh by answering: “I haue here myne ydoll.” “Ydoll” is a portmanteau word—as Lewis Carroll would have said—combining “doll” and “idol,” and Moshenska finds “scattered but definite evidence . . . that holy things were made into playthings with sufficient frequency for it to be considered an established and recognized part of iconoclastic practice in the early modern period.” He analyzes a few other examples, but Edgeworth's sermon supplies him with the primal scene of his book: he admits to “having been seduced by this passage . . . , caught up in its folds, brought back to it time and again,” so that Iconoclasm as Child's Play bears some structural resemblance to Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw. Consistently—and at times obtrusively—self-reflective, it also wonders whether its approach can be regarded as “a kind of iconoclasm” or is intended “as a form of play”—lusus serius, naturally.Iconoclasm as Child's Play explores with great ingenuity the complex relationships between the Christian rite, iconoclasm, and child's play: a Byzantine empress enables her icons to survive the Quarrel of Images by calling them her “dolls”; Protestants trivialize the Roman Catholic ritual by comparing it to “trifles” and the “mere playing of children”; in The Praise of Folly, Erasmus embraces the “foolishness” of Christianity, centered on the figure of a broken body that renders attacks against its images and iconoclastic theory itself—as Bruno Latour has shown—deeply equivocal. A further turn of the screw takes place in the missionary and mercantile context of Malacca, where the Dutch settlers impute childishness both to the Portuguese Jesuits who preceded them and to the local religions. The notions of “fetish” and “fetishism,” as Moshenska shows, charge their targets with a misattribution to objects of agency, responsibility, and desires.The object of Moshenska's inquiry, which he claims less convincingly to include “art-things,” is “polysemic and polychronic,” and a leitmotif of the interpretations he proposes is the instability of the status and meaning of what is interpreted, be it a thing, an action, or a word. Among the many epistemic virtues he attributes to iconoclasm as child's play is the questioning of “the sharp . . . divisions between modern and premodern” implied by historical narratives such as Max Weber's account of the Reformation as the “expulsion of play” and “disenchantment” of the world. A long meditation on the temporality of play concludes by pointing out the “toy potential of all things” and referring to James Gibson's notion of “affordance.” Indeed, child's play, whatever adults want to do with it, often consists in multiplying and inventing affordances, and it is capable of turning not only “idols” into “dolls,” but also “dolls” into “idols.”

Between Oriental Orthodoxy and European Modernity: Georgian Orthodox Church, Market Economy, and Social Message

Excerpt: "This article aims to ask what the history of the Protestant ethic might contribute to our understanding of the contemporary relationship between Georgian Orthodoxy, economics, and capitalism. In doing so, we engage with a handful of retrospections that offer engagements with Weber regarding this interface. We begin with the key arguments advanced in The Protestant Ethic. Then we incorporate contemporary Pentecostalism into Weber's genealogical account of the rise of capitalist modernity. Thus, we hope to find parallels between twenty-first-century Pentecostalism and the seventeenth-century ascetic Protestantism as a sort of modernization paradigm.

Desiring Bureaucracy

This review presents new perspectives on the anthropology of bureaucracy. Since Weber's account of the importance of this organizational mode to the functioning of contemporary socioeconomic systems, the inescapability of bureaucracy has been repeatedly theorized to show its good and ill effects. Yet anthropologists retain an ambivalent relation to this topic and can struggle to move beyond critique. I consider this ambivalence, suggesting that it reflects a frustrated desire for better governance, and offer neglected topics as potentially productive ways to tackle bureaucracy as an omnipresent yet difficult-to-pinpoint cultural form. Finally, the review makes the case for an impenitently anthropological approach to the fullness of bureaucracy, including testing the ethnographer's founding categories of thought, over a position of pure denunciation or evaluation.

Pentecostalism, economics, capitalism: putting the Protestant Ethic to work

ABSTRACTIn recent years, academic interest in the nexus between Pentecostalism, economics, and capitalism has grown significantly. Notably, the vast majority of publications that have addressed this interface are to some degree conceptually framed by Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this article I consider what The Protestant Ethic might contribute to our understanding of the relationship between Pentecostalism and capitalism. First, I assess a particularly noteworthy attempt to draw Pentecostalism into Weber's genealogical account which draws a series of parallels between Pentecostalism and ascetic Protestantism. Second, I discuss the merits of an approach that is not primarily genealogical but remains indebted to the concepts that Weber introduces, elaborating a new affinity between Pentecostalism and capitalism in its present iteration. With this article, I seek to comprehensively extend the scope and sharpen the conceptual underpinnings of future analysis and empirical work in this area.

Understanding “corruption” in regulatory agencies: The case of food inspection in Saudi Arabia

AbstractCorruption is a relatively neglected topic in studies of regulatory agencies. The label is applied to a wide range of deviations from behavioral standards ultimately derived from Weber's account of the ideals of Prussian bureaucracy. This paper draws on a study of the work of Saudi Food Inspectors to argue that it is unhelpful to reduce a complex phenomenon to simple allegations of malpractice that can be managed by disciplinary sanctions. Our data show that irregular behavior by street‐level agents may be deeply embedded in the expectations that members of a society have of one another. It is less a matter of personal gain than of maintaining one's recognition as a fellow citizen. Such behavior is not easily changed through sanctions directed at individual inspectors. Our study does not exclude the possibility that irregular behavior can be motivated by personal gain, and properly managed by criminal or similar penalties. However, it does propose that research should be more sensitive to the contexts within which irregular behavior occurs rather than treating “corruption” as a uniform and homogenous phenomenon.

Traditional Action and Traditional Authority

Two standard interpretations of traditional action are rejected. Traditional action is not subjectively meaningful in the sense of having what Talcott Parsons calls a ‘normative orientation’. But nor is traditional action a matter of blind habit. I contend, instead, that traditional action is subjectively meaningful insofar as the actor's seemingly aberrant behavior can be rendered intelligible by appeal to shared exemplars. I provide further evidence for the proposed interpretation of traditional action by showing how it illuminates Weber's account of traditional authority. The traditions that legitimize a traditional master consist, not just in rules or decisions, but in exemplars and precedents as found in the ‘documents of tradition’. I conclude with a discussion of how the proposed account of traditional action and authority illuminates charismatic authority and Weber's notion of the irrational.

FROM MYSHKIN TO MARXISM: THE ROLE OF DOSTOEVSKY RECEPTION IN LUKÁCS'S REVOLUTIONARY ETHICS

For European literati of the early twentieth century, Fyodor Dostoevsky represented a mythically Russian spirituality in contrast to a soulless, rationalized West. One such enthusiast was Georg Lukács, who in 1915 began a never-completed book about Dostoevsky's work, a model of spiritual community that could redeem a fallen world. Though framing his analysis in the language and themes of broader Dostoevsky reception, Lukács used this idiom innovatively to go beyond the reactionary implications this model might connote. Highlighting similarities with Max Weber's account of political ethics, I argue that Lukács developed an ethic derived from his reading of Dostoevsky, which focused on the idea of a hero defined by an ability to resolve the specific ethical dilemma of adherence to duty and moral law on the one hand, and, on the other, the need to restore spontaneous human community at a time when the social institutions embodying such laws had fallen into decay. Crucially, he deployed the same framework after his conversion to Marxism to justify revolutionary terror. However different his position from Dostoevsky's, it was through engagement with these novels that Lukács not only clarified his thought but also came to identify Lenin as a Dostoevskyan hero figure.

Max Weber, modernity and the project of international organization

In this essay I discuss programmatic proposals for international organization in the light of Max Weber's account of modernity. I argue that the authors known in international relations (IR) as ‘functionalists’ have pursued the extension of the modernization process that Weber analysed in national societies into the international sphere. Between 1900 and 1945, functionalists advocated a transformation of international politics, at that time still the domain of a lot of jingoism and aggression, into rational public administration. In the first part of the article I outline Weber's account of societal modernization with a focus on the sharp contrast between politics and bureaucratic administration. In the second section I engage with the writings of three political scientists who represent the early ‘functionalist’ tradition in IR: Paul Reinsch, James Arthur Salter and David Mitrany. I show how they planned to modernize IR by establishing a technocratic mode of governance and hence a Versachlichung der Gewaltherrschaft, that is, a depersonalization and rationalization of authority. The turn to international organizations in the early twentieth century thus can be seen in the context of the universal process of societal modernization as rationalization that Weber analysed.

A “Network of Hopes”: The Romance of Gambling in Thomas Hardy’s A Laodicean

If we had knowledge of absolute certainty could be no such thing as romance for us. If science held absolute sway, if we were not forever skirting the perilous edge of the unknown, we should never be disappointed and we should never hope ... Magnificent uncertainty is essential to the romantic atmosphere; the intellect must leave things undefined in order that imagination may define them, that the consciousness which lurks behind consciousness may hint at the wonders behind the known. (Scott-James 9) In Modernism and Romance (1908), literary critic R. A. Scott-James registers the angst of many of his literary contemporaries about the cultural forces undermining the romance novel. He recognizes the romance novel's affinity with indeterminacy, and identifies scientific rationalization as detrimental to the possibilities of the form. In discerning the threat that scientific certainty poses to hope and wonder he anticipates Max Weber's account of disenchantment in society and culture more broadly in the 1918 lecture that claimed there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play ... one can, in principle, master all things by calculation (Science as a Vocation). A pervasive concern with modern romance and disenchantment underlies the fiction of many turn-of-the-century novelists about whom Scott-James was writing, but the specific link between romance, chance and rationalization is explored consciously in Thomas Hardy's novel A Laodicean. Though Hardy had shifted all his energies to poetry by the time Scott-James was writing, Modernism and Romance contains a whole chapter on Hardy as a modernist, but it neglects any mention of A Laodicean. The omission of this minor novel is unsurprising but regrettable, since, amongst other themes, it consciously juxtaposes realism and modern romance to tease out the cultural and literary trends with which Scott-James engages. The pairing of romance and chance reveals Hardy's sensitivity to some of the major artistic, scientific, and ideological issues of his time, and suggests a project of re-enchantment for both chance and romance in the novel. The disenchantment of the modern has been a favoured historical narrative of scholars and cultural critics since its articulation by Weber. In essence, this narrative posits disillusionment as an effect of advances in science and technology that eliminate the magic of the unknown. Yet a more recent scholarly turn attempts to alter this script by looking to instances of enchantment and re-enchantment that challenge the dominant story of modern rationalization and the loss of wonder and magic. (1) In her 2001 book The Enchantment of Modern Life, political theorist Jane Bennett articulates a project for re-enchantment today with which Hardy was already involved at the end of the nineteenth century. For Bennett, fostering enchantment is both an ethical imperative, and a sort of coping mechanism that helps one respond to the challenges of a turbulent and (160). Many of Hardy's novels nakedly present such a turbulent and unjust world with little space for meaningful participation, but in A Laodicean Hardy is occupied with something akin to Bennett's re-enchantment project: Hardy's sensitivity to his own changing time is notably less morbid in this novel than in many of his others, and even hopeful as he strategically romanticizes and depicts the wonder of chance in a manner unconventional for the Victorian novel. In the twenty-first century, Bennett claims this enchantment and sense of wonder can actually be cultivated and practiced intentionally through deliberate strategies, three of which she describes as giving greater expression to the sense of play, hon[ing] sensory receptivity to the marvelous specificity of things, and resist[ing] the story of the disenchantment of modernity (4). According to her, such practices open up possibilities, and provoke new ideas and connections (6). …

The Beauty of Charisma Introduction: From Golden Calves to Gold Bling

The Beauty of Charisma Introduction: From Golden Calves to Gold Bling

Religion and Modern Society. Citizenship, Secularization and the State by Bryan Turner (review)

[MWS 13.2 (2013) 273-278] ISSN 1470-8078 Book Reviews Bryan Turner Religion and Modern Society. Citizenship, Secularization and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 344pp. ISBN 978-0-521-67532-1. $34.99. Religion has not declined in the way that modern sociologists expected; their dom inant presupposition that 'secularization is uniform and an inevitable feature of modernity' (p. 73) has been undoubtedly disproved since the Iranian Revolution— the pivotal event which 'offered a singular example of the mobilisation of the masses in the name of religion renewal' (p. 104)—while dramatically collapsing after the events of 9/11. In his recent book Religion and modern society: citizenship, secularization and the State Bryan Turner fully embraces much of the considerable criticism the sec ularization thesis has come to face in light of the highly debated issue of the return of religion to the international stage as a driving force in society. Indeed, since the publication of José Casanova's Public religions in the modern world (1994), a number of sociologists have deeply revised a theory that has shown a lack of any empirical evidence, thereby admitting its mythical overtones and historical embeddedness. In this sense, as Turner puts it, a Durkheimian Talcott Parsons 'did not accept the secu larization thesis that became the hallmark of much European sociology', insofar as American liberal democracy—as 'an institutional and cultural realisation of (Protes tant) Christianity' (p. 73)—could reveal an alternative development. Nonetheless, in Turner's view, that theory still retains a crucial role in a global ized world. Indeed, although comparative researches on a global scale have made it necessary to overcome a narrow-minded approach to the study of the multiple sides of the interaction between religion and society —beyond the narrative frame of a sec ular Europe and of a profoundly religious North America—according to the Author the secularization thesis should not to be dismantled 'too profoundly' (p. 149). By contrast, it still affects religious beliefs worldwide in what he calls 'commodifica tion' or 'low intensity religion': religious faiths and practices, being enmeshed in 'a secular commercial culture', cannot but compete with secular lifestyles in the deliv ery of commercial goods. The setting up of 'mega-churches, drive-in confessionals, buy-a-prayer, popular religious films, religious shopping outlets (...)' (p. 150) are but a few examples of a phenomenon where religion appears to be 'merely a set of rituals for bringing good fortune and good health'. Within this frame, the Weberian idea of religion—'an ethical activity of self-creation'— has completely disappeared, for religion, in order to be 'a radical faith of transformation', has 'to be concerned' — in Weber's interpretation—'not with Glück but with Leid' (p. 58). From this perspective, Habermas' basic assumptions on post-secular soci eties need to be redirected, as far as Turner's opinion is espoused. The German philosopher, in debating with former Pope Benedict XVI his in-depth investiga tion into the 'post-secular', has reconsidered his earlier conceptions on the place of religion in modernity. Religious beliefs—'against the German background of© Max Weber Studies 2013, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. 274 Max Weber Studies Kulturprotestantismus' (p. 105)—can still be important sources of meaning, iden tity and solidarity. Turner believes the enduring vitality of religious beliefs in the modern public domain cannot be explained without grasping the huge transforma tions within religion's 'traditional forms of authority' that the secular has produced (p. 210). More precisely, the Author refers to the paradoxical effects of the use of the Internet 'in preserving social and cultural connections' among diasporic com munities worldwide; indeed, if it is true world religions could arguably not suc ceed in keeping their faithfuls' conscience alive without it, the building of such a global network technology unfolds 'democratic characteristics that are also corrosive of religious authority' (p. xviii). Thus, well-established definitions of Islamic holy law—following Weber's account of the irrational characteristics of Shari'a (p. 152) — that made it in principle a frozen set of religious norms, 'closed to further interpreta tion', cannot be applied anymore to the contemporary period. Since modern Muslim migrants living...

The problem of suffering as a driving force of rationalization and social change

This article documents and analyses a reconstructed Weberian conception of the problem of suffering. In this setting a focus is brought to how the problem of suffering is constituted in the dynamic interplay between, on the one hand, the compulsion to impose rational sense and order on the world, and on the other, the necessity to find a means to satiate charismatic needs. The discussion highlights Weber's account of the tendency for problems of suffering to increase in volume and scale along with the intensification and spread of modern processes of rationalization. It offers a case for the development of further sociological inquiries into the role played by experiences of the problem of suffering within the dynamics of social and cultural change.

Mosaic leadership: charisma and bureaucracy in Exodus 18

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relations between charisma and bureaucracy, as presented in rabbinic commentaries on Exodus 18 and Max Weber's Economics and Society. It aims to show that approaches developed in these texts have important practical implications for contemporary managers and leadership development professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an interpretive study. It uses textual analysis to compare and contrast the dynamics of leadership portrayed in each document.FindingsLike Weber, the Torah treats charisma and bureaucracy as mutually antagonistic forces that co‐exist in dynamic interaction. However, where Weber's account is descriptive, the Torah's is prescriptive, advocating forms of leadership that deliberately combine bureaucracy and charisma.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper's goal is not to review contemporary literature on charismatic versus bureaucratic leadership. Instead, it seeks to investigate approaches to leadership implicit in two “classics” of very different kinds. As such, the approaches explored here are just two among many other possible approaches. The interpretative method developed here could be used in future studies to examine approaches to leadership implicit not only in Jewish and sociological texts but also in other genres and “wisdom” literatures.Practical implicationsThe paper presents three practical implications for contemporary leadership development.Originality/valueThe paper presents a novel perspective on leadership – Mosaic leadership – that highlights the multifaceted and dynamic nature of leadership development. In addition, it shows that management wisdom from the Jewish tradition can be meaningfully compared with ideas developed in other traditions – including the tradition of contemporary management studies.

The Splendour of Form: Scholastic Jurisprudence and ‘Irrational Formality’

The Western legal tradition perceives itself as a tradition of reason. The concept of tradition insinuates continuity. It also evokes images of evolution. We are thus tempted to read, as a prominent example, Max Weber's account of how legal discourse developed its now proverbial 'formal rationality' as a narrative of evolution, embedded in an all-encompassing process of disenchantment and rationalisation.4 In this narrative, Weber acknowledged the role of medieval jurisprudence and the importance of the medieval 'rediscovery' of Roman law for his account. From the perspective of the sociologist, he focused in particular on the institutionalisation of academic legal training, which created a 'new stratum of legal honoratiores' and henceforth influenced legal thought and the continuous unfolding of 'formal rationality' through the 'rationalism of university trained lawyers'.

No 'new spirit'? Max Weber's account of the dynamic of contemporary capitalism through 'pure adaptation' and the shaping of adequate subjects

This article takes issue with Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello's already classic thesis according to which contemporary capitalism rests on a 'new spirit', bringing to bear a reading of Weber's own account of the dynamic and spirit of the contemporary capitalism of his age, and of the way in which it mobilises workers and entrepreneurs. More specifically the article highlights Weber's idea that advanced capitalism, far from relying on any 'new spirit', simply thrives by fostering 'pure adaptation' and both adequate and active 'economic subjects'. This is shown to be due, in particular, to the dynamic of rationality and irrationality at the heart of the spirit that turned capitalism into a mass system.

Disenchantment, Rationality and the Modernity of Max Weber

Following Aristotle's distinction between theoretical and practical rationality, Max Weber holds that beliefs about the world and actions within the world must follow procedures consistently and be appropriately formed if they are to count as rational. Here, I argue that Weber's account of theoretical and practical rationality, as disclosed through his conception of the disenchantment of the world, displays a confessional architecture consistently structured by a nineteenth century German Protestant outlook. I develop this thesis through a review of the concepts of rationality and disenchantment in Weber's major works and conclude that this conceptual framework depicts a Protestant account of modernity.

Disenchantment, rationality and the modernity of Max Weber

Following Aristotle's distinction between theoretical and practical rationality, Max Weber holds that beliefs about the world and actions within the world must follow procedures consistently and be appropriately formed if they are to count as rational. Here, I argue that Weber's account of theoretical and practical rationality, as disclosed through his conception of the disenchantment of the world, displays a confessional architecture consistently structured by a nineteenth century German Protestant outlook. I develop this thesis through a review of the concepts of rationality and disenchantment in Weber's major works and conclude that this conceptual framework depicts a Protestant account of modernity.

Shamanism and Charisma: Reflections on the Problem of Enchantment in Modernity

AbstractThis article investigates the ways in which South American shamanism might be analysed in terms of the Weberian concept of charisma, and to ask what is at stake in doing so. It is suggested that this problem might be more rigorously approached by way of a detour through Weber's account of disenchantment, which poses questions about the theological heritage with which our contemporary philosophical and methodological thought is interwoven, and about the particularity of that heritage. As a consequence, it is suggested that contemporary modulations of shamanism can productively problematise customary accounts of the meaning and structure of charisma and of the ways it must be thought to relate to politics in modernity.

Bureaucracy and its limits: accountability and rationality in higher education

Alongside debates concerning managerialism, marketisation and performativity, the question of accountability in higher education has come to the fore in recent commentary. Discussion of the subject has tended to be divided into two distinct camps. On the one hand, there are strong calls for more accountability to the public purse – a desire to witness more productive returns and efficiency on investment in higher education. On the other, there are academics who rail against the oppressive, panoptican‐like nature of the audit culture, emphasising the debilitating effects of quality assurance mechanisms on academic life. The paper suggests that one way out of this impasse is to place the current accountability agenda – what Travers refers to as the ‘new bureaucracy’ – in the context of Max Weber's account of bureaucracy and rationality. Habermas' reconstructed version of Weber's work is identified as a possible means of delineating the reaches and limits of modern bureaucratic accountability.