1Sociological Theory III: Max WeberSociology 1001: IntroductionGeneral Issues• Weber’s work is quite remarkable in scope– In a career marred by personal trouble, he wrote several authoritative treatises on religion, economy, history, law and methodology– He is best known for a) his statements on the nature of understanding in the social sciences; b) his analyses of modern bureaucracy; and c) his interpretation of the origins of capitalism– His work has been the subject of intense scrutiny, interpretation, and re-interpretation• Many regard him as the most ‘prescient’ of sociological thinkersBiography and History• Born in 1864 to a middle class family in Germany– Father was a bureaucrat; his mother was an aesthete• Much of his early work was in history and historical analysis permeated all of his analyses • Central substantive work was an analysis of religion and the rise of capitalism– I will leave this for Friday’s discussion and instead concentrate on his meta-theoretical statements2Verstehen• Weber felt that the social sciences had an advantage over the natural sciences– This was the sociologist’s ability to understand social phenomena• Understanding came from an ability to decipher the meaning that actors attribute to their actions and interactions– Inherently focuses on the subjective, whether at an individual level or a large scale level• Many regard verstehen as a technique aimed at understanding cultureIdeal Types• One of Weber’s key contributions was his delineation of the ‘ideal type’• A form of conceptual tool, it…Is formed by…the synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less present and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena…In its conceptual purity, this mental construct…cannot be found…in reality• What is an ideal type?– It is a pure representation of a phenomenon• One that ignores all the empirical variation which is irrelevant to the core idea• Why is an ideal type useful?– It allows us to see the underlying concept behind surface phenomena• Paints a portrait of the ‘thing’ that is sociologically interesting• What is an ideal typical ‘school shooting’? – At least according to Newman…3• Types of Ideal Types– Historical • Relate to phenomena found in particular historical epochs– E.g., the Modern capitalist marketplace– General Sociological• Relate to phenomena that cut across a number of historical periods and societies– E.g., Bureaucracy (to be discussed further)– Action• Pure types of action based on the motivations of the actor– E.g., affectual actions– Structural• Forms taken by the causes and consequences of social actions– E.g., Integration or dominationWeber on Social Action• Weber drew a clear distinction between action and (reactive) behavior– Behavior involves no necessary thought process– Action, in contrast, occurs when individuals attach subjective means to what they do• Shows his interest in issues of the mind and cognition but was quite critical of psychological reductionism– What was this?• Weber used his ideal type methodology to clarify types of action• Zweckrational is instrumentally, rational action where actors choose both the ends (goals, objectives) and the means to the ends• Wertrational is action in which the actor rationally chooses the means, but the ends are predetermined by the broader value system• Affectual is action determined by the emotional state of the actor• Traditional is action determined by the actor’s habitual or customary way of behaving • Any given action could involve a combination4Structures of Authority• Weber was an intriguing combination of conservative and critical– Critical of capitalism but emphasized gradual change– Favored democracy not because he believed in the masses but because he favored its dynamism and ability to produce leaders• Deeply interested in domination, referring to the likelihood that specific commands would be obeyed– Emphasized a diffuse base of power (cf. Marx)• Argued that domination has many bases, both legitimate and illegitimate– Most interested in legitimate bases or what he called authority• Three bases of authority• Rational: based in a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority to issue commands• Traditional: based in an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them• Charisma: based in the devotion of followers to the exceptional sanctity, heroism, or character of a leader, as well as the normative order sanctioned by themBureaucracy• Weber spent much of his work analyzing bureaucracy• ‘The purest type of exercise of legal authority’• Saw them as the pinnacle of efficiency, superior to any other form of social organization• Saw them as remarkably destructive of the human spirit‘Rational calculation…reduces every worker to a cog in this bureaucratic machine and…he (sic) will merely ask how to transform himself into a somewhat bigger cog…This passion for bureaucratization drives us to despair.’5• Weber saw bureaucracy as inevitable– Described it as ‘an iron cage,’ ‘escape proof,’ and ‘practically unshatterable’• Even insiders cannot ‘squirm out’ once they are ‘harnessed’ in it• Bureaucracies are structures with defined features• Continuous organization of official functions bound by rules• Each office has a sphere of competence, set by expectations, authority, and means of compulsion• A hierarchical system defined by technical qualifications• Staff does not own the means of production• Positions are always part of the organization, not appropriable• Acts, decisions, and rules are formulated and recorded in writingRationalization• At a most macro-level, Weber was interested in regularities and patterns of action within civilizations, institutions, organizations, strata, classes, and groups• Saw bureaucracy as the meso-level expression of a general modernist trend• To this end, Weber offered four types of rationality• Practical rationality involves ‘every way of life that views and judges worldly activity in relation to the individual’s purely pragmatic and egoistic interests’– Accepts given realities and merely calculates how to deal with them• Theoretical rationality involves an effort to master reality through