Weber's Analysis Research Articles

Max Weber's Analysis of the Unique American Civic Sphere

Max Weber's analysis of the American civic sphere has been seldom investigated. Indebted to the ascetic Protestantism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, his major concepts and analytic framework are summarized here. An unusual symbiotic dualism between the civic arena and a world-mastery individualism, as well as an antagonism between this value-grounded individualism and practical-rational individualism, remain pivotal throughout his analysis. Nonetheless, although powerful, the Weberian model is seen to be foreshortened. Three complementary constructs, grounded in his rich set of concepts, extend Weber's analysis. Taken in combination, all four models provide a Weberian analysis of the American civic sphere's unique origins, expansion, and past and present oscillations across a demarcated spectrum. Weber's emphasis upon the deep cultural contexts of social action, the influence of the past upon the present, and arrays of operationalizable hypotheses diverges distinctly from Tocqueville's approach, as well as present-day modernization, neo-functionalist, and neo-Marxist analyses of the civic sphere.

The political writings of Max Weber: The challenge of freedom

The organicist and romantic ideologies of 19th century Germany and Weber's pervasive critique of them are outlined. Weber's sociology of status groups is discussed in relation to the Juncker domination of the Prussian political system. Weber's analysis of Russia in 1905 extends his critique of organicism and the communism of the mir favoured by Slavophiles. Weber, it is argued, champions individualism and freedom and demands universal suffrage and democracy to replace status group privilege and the corporatist state. Failure to achieve these aims risks bringing on a new era of servitude in the modern world.

Max Weber and the Making of Politicians: A Sociology of Political Responsibility

Weber's sociology of action is applied to what sort of people become politicians, how they are selected, and how they develop their qualities as politicians. The recruitment and adequate expertise of the politician is crucial to the success of political regimes, especially democratic ones. Political responsibility has to be understood within the framework of practical action, that there are reasons for acting, means of achieving political goals, and the consequences of political actions cannot be completely predicted. The ethics of conviction and responsibility have to be understood within the framework of practical political activity, which includes reference to and understanding of the community and the institutions of politics. Weber's empirical analysis of German politics is discussed, involving the political order, democracy and Cæsarism. The final section discusses the relation of politicians to civil servants and academics as well as the scientific analysis of politics, and its role shaping an indeterminate future.

Varieties of Moral Beliefs in the "Sociology of Religion"

The article analyses the distinction in Weber's writings between conviction ethics and other types of ethics. Schluchter has situated this distinction in a sociological manner rather than religious meanings, as that between heroic (elite) ethics and mass religiosity. I argue that an ethic of conviction, in the Sociology of Religion, belongs to Weber's analysis of both ethical and exemplary prophecy; his analysis of priests and laity tends to obscure this point. Evil is overcome by an effort of inner conviction not priestly ritual. Contra Schluchter, ethical norms are not internalized and routinized into the convention of duty. Instead ethics are demonstrated by exemplary action of heroic individuals as religious virtuosi. The second half of the article pursues the difference between ethical sanctification through institutional grace, on one hand, and a virtuoso conviction ethic, on the other. The former is attained by duty, the latter through the will of the individual and the belief that salvation is attained through faith alone. One important conclusion is that conviction ethic, prominently displayed in Politik als Beruf, is an outcome of a religious conviction ethics. Faith is pursued through will and exemplary deeds and action. This places the argument on Nietzschean rather than Kantian grounds. In choosing to act in an exemplary way out of conviction, the consequences of actions and one's responsibility for them do not come into consideration. This renders conviction ethics consequential in their own right. Nietzschean moral autonomy puts the individual at moral risk. Weber demanded of these heroic moments intellectual honesty in place of self-deception. In rising to these moments, conviction ethics offer dignity to the modern individual.

Max Weber's 'Economy and Society': A Critical Companion by Charles S. Camic , Philip S. Gorski , David M. Trubek (review)

246 Max Weber Studies with a sense of naiveté and an absence of critical thinking really misses the point. For although commodification and consumption can doubtless involve stupidity, indo lence and whatever else, it can also 'enliven, energise, and, under the right circum stances, support ethical generosity' (p. 128), and this can then be added to an account of the creation of the self as a work of art, a work of enchantment, in a tradition that runs from Kant and Schiller to Michel Foucault. And in trying to circumnavigate the Marxist critique that this is really to aestheticize politics without any recourse to the strategies for changing the world that would actually allow people to transform their conditions, Bennett offers the following rejoinder: What is the content of my ethic of enchanted materialism, and what are the sources upon which it draws? The content, in important respects, is Thoreauian. Its appreciation of nonhuman, as well as human, sites of vitality—of what might be called its hyperecological sense of interde pendence—proceeds from and toward the principle of treading lightly on the earth... [But] The source or rationale for this ethic is more dif ficult to articulate. Why ought enchanted materialists tread lightly, be humble, remember interdependencies, pay attention to details? (pp. 157f.). The disposition 'in favour of life' (p. 158) is the unifying feature of this ethic, and it is an open-ended ethic of generosity and respect for others, both human and non human, that is grounded in the fluid ontology of enchantment. This is a provocative thesis about the ontological and ethical character of individuals understood materi ally, and offers a distinctive challenge to more traditional theories of ethics. It is itself also quite an enchanting book, which does, as one of the dust jacket adverts for the book suggests, actually make one think about the world in slightly new ways. To that end, it is certainly a fitting complement to Max Weber's own analyses of the dis enchanted world and the possibilities of maintaining ethical life within it. Duncan Kelly University of Cambridge Charles S. Camic, Philip S. Gorski and David M. Trubek (eds.), Max Weber's 'Economy and Society': A Critical Companion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), pp. 385 + index. ISBN 0-8047-4717-2. $29.95. The essays collected in this volume were first presented in 2000 at a symposium held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, whose working title was 'Economy and Society: Max Weber in 2000'. Consequently the presenters, mostly sociologists, gener ally addressed themselves to what Max Weber might contribute to our understand ing of the modern world. This is a rather different project to what might be expected from a 'critical companion'. We might reasonably anticipate that a 'critical compan ion' would be directed to specific sections or themes in Weber's Economy and Society, although of course the work that bears this title is only partly 'his book' — itself a problem that forms part of Wolfgang Mommsen's presentation but one which eludes most of the other contributors. A minority of the contributors adopt this approach: besides Mommsen's piece, Richard Swedberg considers the significance of chapter 2, Hans Kippenberg outlines the sections on religious communities, and Duncan© Max Weber Studies 2008. Book Reviews 247 Kennedy seeks to illuminate the manner in which the sections on the sociology of law related to contemporary legal thinking. That is four essays out of fourteen in which Weber's 'book' is explicated, dissected, or expounded. Apart from Guenther Roth's opening biographical essay, the rest of the contributions belong to the famil iar routine of Weber the sociologist. The editors clearly think differently. 'This volume provides a critical and up-to date introduction to Weber's magnum opus. While much has been published about the various parts of Economy and Society, this is the first book to cover all its major sec tions and themes, as well as to discuss the methodological vision that unites them' we can read on the back cover. Exactly whose methodological vision might that be, one might reasonably ask? And what sort of vision is it? Mommsen is the only contributor who outlines the tortured...

Marginalizing Weber: A Critical Note

In a recent Special Edition of Max Weber Studies, devoted to investigating the question of Weber's relationship to economics, a number of authors assume that there is a considerable distance between Weber's economic sociology and marginal economic theory. Although this assumption is fairly common in the literature on Weber's economic sociology, the following investigation will reject it. Rather, it argues that Weber's sociological investigation into economic action in Economy and Society discusses and is based upon concepts drawn from Austrian marginal utility theory. Weber was clearly aware of developments in Austrian theory and in Economy and Society Weber engages with criticisms Böhm-Bawerk voiced against Menger. The position Weber takes on this issue is central to his criticisms of socialism. Moreover, in Economy and Society Weber defines an instrumentally rational action through referring to marginal utility theory. It is further argued that this Austrian economic background indicates how Weber's sociological analysis incorporates an interpretative perspective that may not initially appear obvious.

Pierre Bourdieu on the Verstehende Soziologie of Max Weber

AbstractPierre Bourdieu was influenced by and critical of the work of Max Weber. In articles written in the early 1970's on Weber's analysis of prophets and priests in ancient Judaism, Bourdieu questioned key elements of Weber's verstehende soziologie including his predecessor's privileging of the conceptual over the non-conceptual in the understanding of human behavior and utilization of the ideal type "charisma." Bourdieu, at the same time, extended Weber's work on religious specialists and the evolution of the religious field in the West. In closing, I compare Bourdieu's advice to the Weberian sociologist of religion with that offered by Mary Douglas and Jon Elster.

Max Weber and Economic Sociology

Abstract. Peukert (2004) argues that Weber's work is only of limited relevance to present‐day economic sociology because it incorporates “a rather narrow and static understanding of rationality and the economy.” This article disputes that claim. It is argued that Weber differentiates between economic and sociological perspectives on the economy through incorporating uncertainty into the latter. Hence Weber's economic sociology develops the distinction between “before” and “after” perspectives on action, incorporates expectations, and defines capital with reference to time and uncertainty. Furthermore, Weber's analysis of formal rationality presupposes uncertainty. Weber's economic sociology thus assumes a dynamic economy, where uncertainty is prevalent, and formal rationality can reduce uncertainty. Peukert's analysis thus (a) fails to consider Weber's differentiation between economic and sociological investigations, and (b) does not engage with Weber's knowledge of Austrian economics.

Domination & control in Tunisia: Economic levers for the exercise of authoritarian power

This article analyses the exercise of power in Tunisia. It does so by offering an explanation that differs from standard studies of authoritarianism, which generally focus on classifications, definitions, and terminological questions, and view power as something that can be possessed and thereby used. In contrast, the analysis here argues from two traditions within historical sociology; Weber's political economy and Foucault's analysis of the exercise of power, in order to demonstrate that techniques of domination are embedded in the most everyday economic mechanisms such as in the tax system, solidarity practices and the industrial mise à niveau. These practices serve both to advance the ‘economic miracle’ and simultaneously function as techniques of coercion and repression. An analysis of ‘privatisation of the state’ is then used to illustrate one mode of government and its attendant forms of domination. Contrôle et domination en Tunisie: les modalités économiques de l'exercice d'un pouvoir autoritaire A partir d'une critique des analyses dominantes de la relation entre «régime autoritaire» et «miracle économique» en Tunisie, cet article entend proposer une lecture originale des relations de pouvoir et des modes de gouvernement en faisant émerger les mécanismes d'exercice du pouvoir et les bases socio-économiques sur lesquelles il repose. A la croisée de deux traditions intellectuelles de la sociologie historique de l'Etat – l'économie politique wébérienne et l'analyse foucaldienne de l'exercice du pouvoir et de la domination – Béatrice Hibou suggère, d'une part, que les rouages économiques fondent aussi les relations de pouvoir qui autorisent la domination, et parfois la répression et, de l'autre, que ces pratiques peuvent tout aussi bien servir la coercition que permettre au miracle de se réaliser. Pour mettre en évidence ces ambivalences et l'incomplétude des logiques d'action, l'auteur entre dans le détail des pratiques économiques quotidiennes. La fiscalité, la mise à niveau et les négociations continues entre entrepreneurs et autorités politiques et administratives constituent un premier champ d'analyse: elles montrent la réalité de la contrainte, mais aussi bien des arrangements, des accommodements et même de l'adhésion. Cette dernière est en partie rendue possible par la prégnance du mythe réformiste, mythe partagé par tous, en partie par les avantages que les uns et les autres en retirent. L'analyse de la «privatisation de l'Etat» – notamment dans sa modalité originale du 26.26, ce système de «dons» contraints et obligatoires – constitue un second temps de la démonstration. En Tunisie, les modalités indirectes et privées de gouvernement ne sont pas contradictoires, ni incompatibles avec la tradition dirigiste et l'interventionnisme incessant. Elles doivent plutôt être analysées comme des techniques complémentaires dans l'art de gouverner, qui autorisent l'exercice d'une punition et d'une gratification, mais assurent également une sécurité économique et sociale. Elles participent du paternalisme et du contrôle social, et permettent simultanément contrôle et ascension sociale, surveillance et création de richesse. C'est pour cela aussi qu'il ne s'agit fondamentalement pas de répression et que si domination il y a, elle est souvent acceptée.

Crimes of War and the Force of Law

The origin and enforcement of criminal law are central to the sociological study of crime, yet we know relatively little about how the coercive apparatus of criminalization is actualized through prosecutorial and court practices. We use Bourdieu's extension of Weber's analysis of law to develop a perspective on fields of practice, the juridical field and the force of law at The Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Our research is based on four years of prosecutor interviews, courtroom observations and analyses of trials covering four prosecutorial regimes. Successive and competitive practices have created an interlocking and cumulative force that is a prerequisite to promoting international humanitarian law.

L'idée de droit naturel à la lumière de la sociologie juridique de Max Weber

Max Weber's Sociologyof Law provides, according to the author, a strong basis for understanding and discussing not only modern natural law but also contemporary human rights law. In the first part of this article, Weber's sociological analysis of natural law is briefly outlined, mainly in relation to the opposition between formal and material rationality of law. In the Weberian perspective, the antinomy between formal and material natural rights plays a key role in understanding the decline of natural law, and partly explains the irresistible rise of a purely positivistic conception of law. The second part of the study shows how the idea of natural law is in itself inconsistent with Max Weber's epistemological positions. For the author, the Sociology of Law remains closely connected to these positions, which form the basis of the Weberian methodology of (value-free) scientific research. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the importance of Weberian epistemology for the understanding of natural law and, to a certain extent, of contemporary human rights law. He raises doubts, however, as to whether legal positivism can provide a proper comprehension of recent trends in contemporary human rights law. He then suggests that the positivistic conclusion of the Sociology of Law should be reconsidered in light of the reemergence of value-rationality as a basic principle of democratic legal order.

Maybe It Is Time to Rediscover Bureaucracy

This article questions the fashionable ideas that bureaucratic organization is an obsolescent, undesirable, and non-viable form of administration and that there is an inevitable and irreversible paradigmatic shift towards market- or network-organization. In contrast, the paper argues that contemporary democracies are involved in another round in a perennial debate and ideological struggle over what are desirable forms of administration and government: that is, a struggle over institutional identities and institutional balances. The argument is not that bureaucratic organization is a panacea and the answer to all challenges of public administration. Rather, bureaucratic organization is part of a repertoire of overlapping, supplementary, and competing forms coexisting in contemporary democracies, and so are market-organization and network-organization. Rediscovering Weber's analysis of bureaucratic organization, then, enriches our understanding of public administration. This is in particular true when we (a) include bureaucracy as an institution, not only an instrument; (b) look at the empirical studies in their time and context, not only at Weber's ideal-types and predictions; and (c) take into account the political and normative order bureaucracy is part of, not only the internal characteristics of “the bureau.”

Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age by Hans G. Kippenberg , Barbara Harshav (review)

Book Reviews 165 Hans G. Kippenberg, Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age (trans. Barbara Harshav; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), pp. 263. ISBN 0691009090. $22.95. Given Max Weber's wide-ranging and penetrating preoccupation with religion, his friendship with Ernst Troeltsch, his justified admiration for the latter's Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (1911), and his friendship with Georg Simmel whose Die Religion (1906) appeared in Martin Buber's remarkable series Die Gesellschaft, Religionsgeschichte should properly be a concern to all those interested in Max Weber's work and the consequences of that work for better understanding humanity and its history. Beyond the specifics of Weber's analysis but entirely in its spirit, one should thus recognize that there is a pressing relevance and importance to the investigation into the modern foundations of the history of religion. First and above all, such an investigation openly confronts the difficult problem of clarifying 'what is religion'? This problem, in tum, can not avoid addressing the character of human understand ing and action. Specifically, such an investigation should not avoid the problem of humanity's place within the animal kingdom, or, alternatively formulated, the con sequences of the ordeal of consciousness, that is, 'mind'.56 Clarifying the nature of the peculiar place of humanity within the animal kingdom has consequences for the social sciences and philosophy, leading to a methodological judgment between, on the one hand, a monistic utilitarianism and, on the other, a pluralistic and conflicting Lebensordnungen, specifically Wertsphären, as Max Weber recognized.57 Second, such an investigation ought to lead to a critical reflection on today's fash ionable categories of analysis that are usually and mostly wrongly taken for granted. The time is long overdue for a critical re-evaluation of the heuristic merit of the cate gory of 'modernity' that would, it is hoped, expose its polemical intentions. Given the persistence and significance of religion in human affairs, such a re-evaluation is surely warranted. In this regard, it is incumbent on scholars of Max Weber's work to set right a misconception of the contribution of Weber's analysis of religion. While it is clear that Weber sought from his studies on religion to provide a 'Beitrag zur Typologie und Soziologie des Rationalismus' ('Zwischenbetrachtung', p. 537, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, vol. 1), that contribution has been woefully misunderstood as indicating a uniform process of rationalization within and across the various spheres of life. In contrast to the never ending and simplistic drivel about the 'iron cage' and bureaucratization that one encounters today, Weber recognized conflicts among the demands of consistency between the different spheres of life and within each. Thus, clarification is badly needed about just what is meant by, and the merit of the use of, the term 'secularization'. These kinds of re-evaluations and clarifications will open other problems for examination: a clarification of the conceptually flabby category of 'civil religion';58 a reconsideration of the boundaries of the categories polytheism, 56. For a recent analysis of this problem, see Walter Burkert, Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998). 57. For my views on these philosophical implications, see Steven Grosby, 'Plural ism in the Thought of Oakeshott, Shils and Weber', Journal of Classical Sociology 2.1 (2002), pp. 43-58. 58. For my criticism of the category, see Steven Grosby, 'Nationality and Religion', in Steven Grosby, Biblical Ideas of Nationality: Ancient and Modern (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002), pp. 235-56.© Max Weber Studies 2005. 166 Max Weber Studies paganism, monotheism; and the extent to which it is legitimate to speak of religious 'development' and even 'evolution'. All of this is especially in order if Hans Kippen berg is correct (and it seems to me that he is) when he states that 'the genealogy of modern culture is located in religious history' (p. 132). Such are some of the tasks that fall to the students of Max Weber's work. These tasks are not to be pursued by merely repeating Weber's insights into religion and human action, thereby grossly violating the spirit of Weber's contribution. Those insights are to...

Science, Values, and the Empirical Argument in Max Weber's Inaugural Address

Max Weber’s inaugural address in Freiburg, ‘The Nation State and Economic Policy’, is as important as it is contested. It has been used as a key to an understanding of both Weber's political and methodological thought. The minutiae of the empirical part of the lecture, however, has received less attention. This article provides a detailed reconstruction of the largely implicit explanatory scheme in the inaugural address. It sets out to show how Weber's analysis of a social transformation in rural West Prussia—from a patriarchal to a capitalist employment regime—relates to the specific explanandum of the study. The reconstructed explanatory scheme is then used to interpret Weber’s views of the relations between science, values and politics.

Subjectivity, Interpretation, and Irony in Gottfried Weber's Analysis of Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet

Subjectivity, Interpretation, and Irony in Gottfried Weber's Analysis of Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet

Farewell to the Weberian State? Classical Theory and Modern Bureaucracy

Classical theories of bureaucracy, of which that of Max Weber is the most impressive example, seem to be out of kilter with contemporary accounts of change within the civil service in particular and modern politico-administrative systems more generally. Hierarchy and rulebound behaviour seem hard to square with an environment characterised by new public management, “governance” and postmodernity. Is there any case for taking such classical theories of bureaucracy seriously any more? There are two lines of defence of Weberian theory. The least promising defence is one that tries to salvage the reputation of the man – by showing that he was well aware of the fact that states did not run on hierarchies and formal rules and by showing how the idea that empirical reality does not conform to theoretical “expectations” misses the point of the methodology of ideal types. The more promising defence seeks to argue that concepts and ideas found in Weber's analysis have something to offer contemporary discussions of bureaucratic reform by exploring a number of concepts from Weber's sociology of law, including the expansion of free contract, forms of association and forms of contract.

Kaldet til selvrealisering—mod en ny arbejdsetik

In this article, I examine the use of personal development programs in the world of business. In recent decades, there has been an increasing interest in the cultivation of the Self and this tendency has found expression in the New Age movement and modern management. I suggest a rethinking of Max Weber's analysis of the connection between the upcoming of a new religious behavior, such as the New Age movement, and a new way of thinking about the work expressed in New Human Resources Management. The French philosopher Marcel Gauchet's interpretation of the modern religious practices bound to the believer's inner life is central to my analysis. The ideal employee is in a permanent state of reflection, learning and experience; he sees himself in a state of growth. The focus here is directed towards the individual's potential and is based on the notion that the individual has resources hidden in the subconscious, waiting to be accessed through the development of the Self. My argument is that personal development programs in the business community seek to nurture a particular attitude towards work. Through personal development courses the employee should obtain a pleasurable relationship to his/her work, which ideally should be experienced as a vocation. The ideal employee no longer sees his/her work from a perspective of duty but work done con amore—as a way to self-realization. The cultivation of the individual's emotional inner life emphasizes extroverted practices, whereby modern management and the New Age movement overlap in the establishment of the ethics of sensitivity.

The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber's Class Analysis

This analysis has two basic objectives: First, to understand as precisely as possible the inner structure of Weber's concept of class, its similarities and differences from Marx's concept, and its relationship to the problem of exploitation; second, to use this interrogation of Weber's work to defend the importance of the concept of exploitation for sociological theory. To understand the foundations of Weber's class analysis one must look beyond his most synoptic treatments of class in Economy and Society and see how his concept of class is intimately linked to his investigations of the broad problem of rationalization in modern society. Class, in these terms, is the way economic power is distributed when economic action is organized to the greatest degree in an instrumentally-rational manner The problem of exploitation-the extraction of labor effort from workers-is treated, in this framework, primarily as a problem of technical efficiency and economic rationality in creating work incentives and effective discipline. This conceptualization leads to a relatively impoverished understanding of the nature of antagonistic interests generated by class relations. IF THEORETICAL frameworks are identified as loudly by their silences as by their proclamations, then one of the defining characteristics of class analysis in the Weberian tradition is the virtual absence of a systematic concept of exploitation. Nothing better captures the central contrast between the Marxist and Weberian traditions of class analysis than the difference between a class concept centered on the problem of life chances in Weber and a concept rooted in the problem of exploitation in Marx. This is not to say that Weber completely ignores some of the substantive issues connected to the problem of exploitation. For example, Weber, like Marx, sees an intimate connection between the nature of property relations in capitalism and the problem employers face in eliciting high levels of effort from workers. But he does not theorize this issue in

The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber's Class Analysis

This analysis has two basic objectives: First, to understand as precisely as possible the inner structure of Weber's concept of class, its similarities and differences from Marx's concept, and its relationship to the problem of exploitation; second, to use this interrogation of Weber's work to defend the importance of the concept of exploitation for sociological theory. To understand the foundations of Weber's class analysis one must look beyond his most synoptic treatments of class in Economy and Society and see how his concept of class is intimately linked to his investigations of the broad problem of rationalization in modern society. Class, in these terms, is the way economic power is distributed when economic action is organized to the greatest degree in an instrumentally-rational manner. The problem of exploitation—the extraction of labor effort from workers—is treated, in this framework, primarily as a problem of technical efficiency and economic rationality in creating work incentives and effective discipline. This conceptualization leads to a relatively impoverished understanding of the nature of antagonistic interests generated by class relations.

Rationality and Capitalism in Max Weber's Analysis of Western Modernity

Rationality and Capitalism in Max Weber's Analysis of Western Modernity