Background
Born 1864, Thuringia
Father was wealthy civil servant who was highly involved in both politics and academics
For Christmas one year he wrote two analytical essays to give to his parents as gifts
Attended law school
Spent some time in the military
Background
In 1893 he married Marianne Schnitger a feminist activist and author
Took a job as a professor eventually ending up at the University of Heidelberg
Early Work
Early on took an interest in contemporary social policy
Felt that the role of economics was the primary source of solving social problems
Influences
Strongly influenced by German Idealism Linked romanticism and Enlightenment politics
Kant, Freud, and Simmel
Strongly influenced by Marx’s ideas of socialism and active politics
Differed on the idea of utopian society
Concepts and Contributions
Bureaucracy Pre-conditions
Growth in space and population
Growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out
Existence of monetary economy, requires a more efficient
administrative system
Concepts and Contributions
Bureaucracy Communication and transportation policies make more
efficient administration possible
Hierarchical organization
Delineated lines of authority in a fixed area of activity
Rules are implemented by neutral officials, not the power elite
Advancements depend on technical qualifications from organizations not individuals
Can be a threat to individual freedom
Concepts and Contributions
Rationalization “The fate of our times is characterized by
rationalization and, above all, by the ‘disenchantment of the world’”
Instead of the power elite holding society back, it is the laws, rules and regulations capitalism requires
Curtails people’s freedoms and traps them in bureaucratic society
Process is less welcome of individualism and “dehumanizes people”
Concepts and Contributions
Rationalization Zweckrational (i.e., formal) rationality. The
rationality of means-ends relationships, wherein an identifiable goal is sought by pursuing reasonably defined means.
Wertrational (i.e., substantive) rationality. The rationality of non-goal oriented behavior, wherein behavior is pursued independently of the prospects of success.
Concepts and Contributions
Verstehen German word for interpretive understanding
Looking at society from your own point of view rather than from that of the indigenous culture
How people give meaning to the social world around them
Gives a subjective understanding about individual and group behavior
Concepts and Contributions
The Protestant Ethic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)
Emphasizes hard work, frugality, and prosperity as a display as a person’s salvation in the Christian faith
Societies that are more Protestant tend to be more bureaucratic than capitalist and to Weber this is a good thing
Workers are more likely to be devoted to their craft and are less alienated
Views on Society
Bureaucratic Society Rather than capitalism or communism, Weber thought
society should be run through a system of well organized institutions
Society can be understood through empirical observation rather than quantitative research
Power is not just in the hands of the elite
Relevancy
Influenced Parsons, Habermas, and many others
Presented sociology as the “science of human social action”
Developed antipositivism; stressing the differences between social and natural sciences
Weber Bureaucracies: showed how there are bureaucratic elements of every part of society
Limitations
His specific explanations for society in his time are hard to generalize for other circumstances in society
Failed to see all the positive aspects of rationalization and deemed society to be doomed and trapped in an “iron cage” of its own making
Bureaucratic features of Weber’s ideal society might actually be inefficient (argued by Merton)