Max Weber

Society, Politics, and Sociology

WHO IS
MAX WEBER?

Who is Max Weber: Early

Years
Born on April 21,
1864 in Erfurt,
Prussia (Germany)
Eldest son of the
seven children of
Max and Helene
Weber

Who is Max Weber: Early

Years
Max Weber, his father

Helene Weber, his mother

An aspiring liberal
politician
A prominent civil servant
and member of the
National Liberal Party
He then moved the family
from Erfurt to Berlin, where
he became a member of
the Prussian House of
Deputies (186897) and
the Reichstag (187284).

Partly descended from

French Huguenot
immigrants and held
strong moral
absolutist ideas
Raised in Calvinist
orthodoxy

Who is Max Weber: Early

Years
When Weber was thirteen years old,
his 1876 Christmas presents to his
parents were two historical essays
entitled "About the course of German
history, with special reference to the
positions of the Emperor and the
Pope", and "About the Roman
Imperial period from Constantine to
the migration of nations".

Who is Max Weber: Early

Years
Max Weber, his father

Helene Weber, his mother

Weber was
significantly
affected by the
marital tension
between his father,
"a man who
enjoyed earthly
pleasures",

and his mother, a

devout Calvinist
"who sought to
lead an ascetic
life". It contributed
to the inner
agonies that
haunted him in his
adult life

Who is Max Weber:

School Years
He was usually bored in class so he secretly
read all forty volumes of Goethe, and it was
argued that this was an important influence
on his thought and methodology.
He left home to enroll at the University of
Heidelberg in 1882 as a law student. After a
year of military service, he transferred to the
University of Berlin. He worked as a junior
lawyer simultaneously with his studies.

Who is Max Weber:

School Years
In 1886 Weber passed the examination for Referendar,
comparable to the bar association examination in the
British and American legal systems.
He earned his law doctorate in 1889 by writing a
dissertation on legal history titled Development of the
Principle of Joint Liability and the Separate Fund in the
Public Trading Company out of Household and Trade
Communities in Italian Cities. This work was used as
part of a longer work On the History of Trading
Companies in the Middle Ages, based on SouthEuropean Sources, published in the same year.

Who is Max Weber: Early

Career
He received a temporary position teaching
jurisprudence at the University of Berlin and
married Marianne Schnitger, a second cousin.
In the years between the completion of his
thesis and habilitation, Weber took an interest
in contemporary social policy. In 1888 he
joined the Verein fr Socialpolitik, a new
professional association of German
economists affiliated with the historical school

Who is Max Weber: Early

Career
In 1890 the Verein established a research program to
examine "the Polish question" or Ostflucht: the influx
of Polish farm workers into eastern Germany as local
labourers migrated to Germany's rapidly industrialising
cities. Weber was put in charge of the report which
gave him enough fame and controversy and marked
the beginning of his renown as a social scientist.
The couple moved to Freiburg in 1894, where Weber
was appointed professor of economics at the
university, before accepting the same position at the
University of Heidelberg in 1896.

Who is Max Weber: Early

Career
There Weber became a central figure in
the so-called "Weber Circle", composed of
other intellectuals, his wife Marianne,
Georg Jellinek, Ernst Troeltsch, Werner
Sombart, Marc Bloch, Robert Michels and
Gyrgy Lukcs. Weber also remained
active in the Verein and the Evangelical
Social Congress.

Who is Max Weber: Early

Career
In 1897, his father died two months after their
severe quarrel that was never resolved. After this,
Weber became increasingly prone to depression,
nervousness and insomnia, making it difficult for
him to fulfill his duties as a professor.
Webers wife destroyed his personal chronology
that described his mental illness. She did that
because of her fear that Max Weber's work would
be discredited by the Nazis if his experience with
mental illness were widely known.

Who is Max Weber: Late

Career
He accepted a position as associate editor of the
Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare,
where he worked with his colleagues Edgar Jaff
(de) and Werner Sombart.
In 1904, Weber began to publish some of his most
seminal papers in this journal, notably his essay
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,
which became his most famous work and laid the
foundations for his later research on the impact of
cultures and religions on the development of
economic systems

Who is Max Weber: Late

Career
In 1904, he visited the United States and participated in the
Congress of Arts and Sciences held in connection with the
World's Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in St. Louis.
At the outbreak of World War I, Weber volunteered for
service and was appointed as a reserve officer and put in
charge of organizing the army hospitals in Heidelberg.
Weber also ran, unsuccessfully, for a parliamentary seat, as
a member of the liberal German Democratic Party, which
he had co-founded. He opposed both the leftist German
Revolution of 19181919 and the ratification of the Treaty
of Versailles.

Who is Max Weber: Late

Years
Weber resumed teaching, first at the University
of Vienna, then, after 1919, at the University of
Munich. His lectures from that period were
collected into major works, such as the General
Economic History, Science as a Vocation and
Politics as a Vocation
Weber did not finish writing his magnum opus
on sociological theory, Economy and Society.
When he died, Marianne helped prepare it for
its publication in 192122.

SOCIETY

Society: Bureaucracy

Origin

Nature

Dynamics

POLITICS

Politics: Legitimate
Domination
Origin

Webers creation of the ideal types of legitimate

authority came from the differences he saw in the
dynamics of political institutions around the world.
These types of legitimate authority, according to
Weber, are influenced by bureaucracy.

Nature

Weber defined important concepts regarding the

legitimacy of domination or authority

Dynamic Three types of Authority

s
Routinization of Charisma

Nature: Concepts
of Legitimate
Domination
Power chance
that an individual in social
relationship can achieve his or her own will
even against the resistance of others
Domination/Authority probability that
certain specific commands (or all
commands) will be obeyed by a given
group of persons
Legitimacy belief systems on which valid
commands issuing from authority figures
are based

Politics: Legitimate
Domination
Origin

Webers creation of the ideal types of legitimate

authority came from the differences he saw in the
dynamics of political institutions around the world.
These types of legitimate authority, according to
Weber, are influenced by bureaucracy.

Nature

Weber defined important concepts regarding the

legitimacy of domination or authority

Dyanmic Three types of Authority

s
Routinization of Charisma

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
1. Rational-Legal Authority
Resting on belief in the legality of enacted
rules and the right of those elevated to
authority under such rules to issue
commands
Obedience is owed to the legallyestablished impersonal order, NOT to the
person. It only extends to the person by
virtue of formal legality.
Once retired, officer is but another civilian.

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
1. Rational-Legal Authority
Purest type:
employs a bureaucratic administrative staff
only supreme chief occupies position of
dominance by (a) appropriation, (b) election,
and (c) succession
administrative staff consists of officials
appointed
personally free, subject to authority only with
obligation
organized in a defined hierarchy of offices

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
1. Rational-Legal Authority
Purest type:
office treated as sole/primary occupation of
incumbent
office has clearly defined sphere of
competence in the legal sense
appointment of candidates is based on
technical qualification
fixed salary with right to pension
constitutes career (promotion)

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
2. Traditional Authority
Resting on an established belief in the sanctity
of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of
those exercising authority under them
Obedience is owed to the person of the chief
who occupies authority bound by tradition, NOT
to imposed rules and laws.
Obedience is given by virtue of personal loyalty.
The ruled are not considered as members but
traditional comrades/subjects

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
2. Traditional Authority
Commands are legitimized in terms of (a)
tradition and (b) in masters discretion.
Purest type when the following are ABSENT:
clearly defined sphere of competence subject to
impersonal rules
rationally-established hierarchy
regular system of appointment on basis of free
contract and orderly promotions
technical training as a regular requirement
fixed salary

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
3. Charismatic Authority
Resting on devotion to the exceptional
sanctity, heroism or exemplary character
of an individual person, and of the
normative patterns or order
revealed/ordained by him
Obedience is owed to charismatically
qualified leader.
Obedience is given by virtue of personal
trust, heroism or exemplary qualities.

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
3. Charismatic Authority
If proof and success elude, if leader
appears to be deserted by god/powers, and
if leadership FAILS to benefit followers,
charismatic authority will disappear.
It is written, but I say unto you.
Direct anti-thesis of bureaucratic authority
Administrative staff chosen in terms of
charismatic qualities

Dynamics: Three Types

of Authority
3. Charismatic Authority
Purest type:
foreign to economic considerations
constitutes a call, mission or spiritual
duty
disdains economic exploitation of gifts of
grace as source of income
acquisition of income through donation,
bribery, begging or at times booty and
extortion (by force or other means)

Politics: Legitimate
Domination
Origin

Webers creation of the ideal types of legitimate

authority came from the differences he saw in the
dynamics of political institutions around the world.
These types of legitimate authority, according to
Weber, are influenced by bureaucracy.

Nature

Weber defined important concepts regarding the

legitimacy of domination or authority

Dyanmic Three types of Authority

s
Routinization of Charisma

Dynamics: Routinization
of Charisma
Routinization of Charisma
In its pure form, charismatic authority cannot
remain stable. It either becomes traditional,
rational or both.
For charisma to be transformed into an everyday
phenomenon, anti-economic character should be
altered.
Motives underlying this transformation:
a. ideal and material interests of followers
b. stronger ideal and material interests of administrative staff

Interests are triggered by disappearance of leader

and problem of succession.

SOCIOLOGY
A.

C.

Social Action
B.
Social Relationships
The Concept of Legitimate Order
D.
Conflict Theory
E.
Rationality

A. Social
Action

A. Sociology: Social
Action
Origin

Nature

Weber defined social action as actions

insofar as the acting individual attaches a
subjective meaning to his behavior be it
overt or covert, omission or acquiescence.
There are 3 key aspects to define whether
a human action is considered social

Dynami
Four types of Social Action
cs

Nature: 3 Key Aspects

Meaningful to the actor things that are
understandable or are of concern to the social
actor, perhaps as a result of experiences,
values, and interests.
Consider others other social actors are
necessarily involved in order for an individual
action to become social action, and they must
be explicitly considered by the social actor
(whether positively, negatively, or neutrally).
Oriented some direction or purpose in the
action

A. Sociology: Social
Action
Origin

Nature

Weber defined social action as actions

insofar as the acting individual attaches a
subjective meaning to his behavior be it
overt or covert, omission or acquiescence.
There are 3 key aspects to define whether
a human action is considered social

Dynami
Four types of Social Action
cs

Dynamics:
4 Types of Social Action

1. Instrumentally rational action

These are social actions with rationally

pursued and calculated ends and where the
end, the means, and the secondary results are
rationally taken into account and weighed
These are actions that are carried out to
achieve a certain goal, you do something
because it leads to a result.

Dynamics:
4 Types of Social Action

2. Value-rational action

These are social actions where the end or

value may be pursued for its own sake.
For these actions, it is frequently the case that
the action itself may mean both pursuit of and
accomplishment of the end.
Examples of this form of social action include
religious or spiritual actions, pursuit of ethical
ends, or pursuit of artistic or aesthetic goals.

Dynamics:
4 Types of Social Action

3. Affectual action

These are affectual or emotional forms of

action determined by the actors specific
affects and feeling states

4. Traditional action
These actions are traditionally oriented through
the habituation of long practice.

B. Social
Relationships

B. Sociology: Social
Relationships
Origin

Each aspect of social action is meaningful

for an individual, or at least it has a
meaningful content.

For each individual a social action is

meaningful and oriented to others, and
Nature when two or more actors each mutually
orient these meaningful social actions to
each other, there is a social relationship.
For a social relationship, there must be
Dynami
orientation of individual actions to each
cs
other.

C. The
Concept of
Legitimate
Order

C. Sociology: The
Concept
of Legitimate Order
Origin

Social action which involves social

relationships may be oriented by the
actors to a belief in the existence of a
legitimate order.

The subjective meaning of a social

relationship will be called as order only if
Nature action is approximately or on the average
oriented to certain determinate maxim
or rules.
Dynami The Types of Legitimate Order
cs
Basis of Legitimacy of Order

Dynamics: The Types of

Legitimate Order

Convention

it is not enforced by a functionally specialized

agency
A violation of conventional rules, such as standards
of respectability, often leads to extremely severe
and effective sanction of an informal boycott on the
part of member of ones group.

Law
the presence of group of men are engaged in
enforcement. In particular it is not necessary that
there should be any specifically judicial authority.

C. Sociology: The
Concept
of Legitimate Order
Origin

Social action which involves social

relationships may be oriented by the
actors to a belief in the existence of a
legitimate order.

The subjective meaning of a social

relationship will be called as order only if
Nature action is approximately or on the average
oriented to certain determinate maxim
or rules.
Dynami The Types of Legitimate Order
cs
Basis of Legitimacy of Order

Dynamics: Basis of
Legitimacy
ofuniversal
Order
Tradition most
and most
primitive case, the fear of magical
penalties
Virtue of affectual attitudes Rational belief Natural Law
It has been established in a manner which
is recognized to be legal

D. Conflict
Theory

D. Sociology: Conflict
Theory
Origin

Conflicts are part of social relationships

It carries out an actors will against the

resistance of other social actors.
Nature
Competition is the peaceful conflict. No
physical violence is employed.
Selection the struggle of actors or
Dynami
social states for survival and
cs
advantages
2 kinds of Selection

Dynamics: 2 Kinds of
Selection

Social selection

struggle for opportunities and

advantages

Biological selection
struggle for survival

E. Rationality

E. Sociology: Rationality
Origin

Rationality is associated with the

development of modern business
corporations and of bureaucracy.

It involves the development of forms of

social relationships devoted to achieve
Nature
precise goals by calculated,
systematically administered means.
Dynami
4 Types of Rationality
cs

Dynamics: 4 Types of
Rationality
1. Practical
Pragmatic actions attained by careful weighing
and increasing precise calculation of the most
adequate means.
A manifestation of man's capacity for meansend rational action.

2. Theoretical
Involves a conscious mastery of reality through
the construction of increasingly precise
abstract concepts rather than through action

Dynamics: 4 Types of
Rationality
3. Substantive
A manifestation of man's inherent capacity
for value-rational action.
the end or value may be pursued for its
own sake.

4. Formal
It ultimately legitimates a similar meansend rational calculation by reference back
to universally applied rules, laws, or
regulations.