Weber

=Selina Valles on Weber:= Weber’s explanation of the bureaucratic breakdown and its influences on our lives and society is complex. He saw that culture and structure are related. He saw that in the West there was a different form of capitalism which became known as a rational capitalism. In order for this to influence its culture it needed to have rationalization and legitimacy. Rational capitalism is living life with a specific goal in mind and adapting those qualities which enable you to do so. (p.50). For example, if being honest and organized will benefit the process of making your work efficient, it is rational to have those qualities. Enjoying money is left aside in order to continue making money. The whole idea is to make more and more money, while still adhering to frugality. Also, in rational capitalism, people have a vocational calling. A person must feel a sense of duty to work to have motivation to continue their work (i.e. making money-being successful). The duty of work extends to being efficient in the work that we do. This brings about the spirit of capitalism. For a culture to accomplish this spirit of capitalism, people need to believe in the system's authority or validity. The process is known as legitimacy. People will work and be efficient as long as they see their culture system as correct. This is how bureaucracies and organizations get retain power. For example, it is ideal to go to college after high school. It is not that you were forced to apply and get accepted to a particular school, but that it is society who thinks that it is right and good too. You can see now how most freshman students come straight after high school and are usually 18 or 19 years old. This legitimacy also influences culture to act in unison together. Authority on the other hand is the ability to make people believe in legitimacy. Weber breaks it down in three types of authority: charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal authority (p.60). Charismatic authority is based on what people see as a certain individual’s calling, essentially that he/she is “special” or above the rest of the group. Traditional authority is based on the ways of the time. People put trust in the tradition (think of saying “because that’s just the way it is and has always been”). Rational-legal is belief in procedure (60). It is an authority in which the individual has the right credentials such as a doctor or nurse.

Weber describes society as consisting of class, status, and party. Weber divided class into different categories: negatively and positively privileged and middle class (p.55). Class is based on how you are able to acquire goods and services. So, if you were an owner of an apartment complex and were profiting from your tenants than you would be labeled as positively privileged, while if you were the tenant who was behind on rent than you would be negatively privileged. Anyone who doesn't necessarily make enough money to be called “wealthy”, and doesn't have accumulated debt is middle class. Status is based on how people see each other in regards to culture and is maintained “through particular practices and symbols” (p.58). It can be established by education, popularity or birth right Party is coupled with “power” in that it is the “social practice of power” (59). (think of party in terms of republican/democrat representatives—they work to attain advantages for us, their members). = = =John O'Grady on Weber:= ​

Max Weber described capitalism as our economic structure that influences who and what we are in life. He would also say that bureaucracies are just as big of an influence in our lives. Weber tried showing us that throughout our entire lives we have been socialized by several bureaucracies. This is something that Weber was very interested in, he wanted to know why people do things and he tried to understand the meaning of our actions. With that, he thought that meaning is something constructive or something that is leading to improvement. He tried to analyze the social actions of individuals and their social actions to get a better understanding of why people do the things they do. He differs from Marx in the understanding of people’s behavior. Weber was interested in both passive and intentional behavior, to do or not to do. On the other hand Marx was the grand master of what people should or should not be doing. Weber was only interested in what the meaning was, why something was happening, and why someone did something.

Weber focused on the idea of rationalization and rational-legal legitimating as cultural concerns in society. Rationalization is to devise plausible explanations for one's acts, beliefs, etc. and is usually found in self-deception. Weber says that one main reason that brings out modernity is that rationalization. According to Allen, Weber uses rationalization in three different ways. · In his first point he talks about the means-ends calculation; this can be explained in a way of individual and specific rationality. This way of rationality shows us that rational action is the most efficient means to achieve some things. · His second is that bureaucracies help organize human behavior across time and space. This means that we should change to bureaucracy and a more rational form of organization in a modern time. · Weber's third and final way of using the term rationalization is that it is a disenchantment, or a process of emptying the world of spiritual forces

Weber had many different concepts and ideas about the rise of capitalism. He thought that religion played a big role in forming this capitalism. Weber's best known work is //The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.// He shoots down Marx's idea of the rise of capitalism. Weber argued against the idea of forcefully making a structural force and instead argued that the idea of cultural values could have an effect on an individual’s social action. In his book he wrote why rational capitalism had taken a foothold in the West and nowhere else in the world. His answer to this is that in the past, traditional rationalism was practiced in the West. There they practiced rational capitalism, which resulted in more wealth.

One of the prevalent views in society was predestination. This view says that we predestined for what will happen in our lives. It is also a religious view based on that God knows what will happen in our lives and therefore we have no way of changing it. Weber said that we are all "obligated to pursue work" (Allen 50). With that pursuit of work it is a way for us to find an end. Predestination says said that we were all born into sin and in order to cleanse ourselves of the sin we were born into, we must work in order to know if we are saved. If we work hard and God blesses our work then we will go to heaven. While we are concerned about being saved we commit to working hard in our vocation. This is how we make money, capital. So after we start making money and capital we begin to have a peace of mind.

Weber had many different ideas from Marx and one of them was social stratification. That means he had a more complex idea of what class, authority, and social change were. One example was that with Weber a person could be high in one position and low in another. Weber understood class as something that can be seen as producing, gaining a position on the social stratification ladder off of one's production of goods or services and finding inner satisfaction. Weber is trying to show us that we are in a social class based on how well one can buy or sell goods or services that can bring them satisfaction. He also considered one's class by showing their status, whether people respected you or not. One way to acquire a high status is through education, occupation, or heredity.

Weber shows us that there is stratification that shows how hard it is to achieve bipolarization. In that he defines each with three different authorities. · The first being the idea of charismatic authority. This type of authority is defined by Allen as a "belief in the supernatural or intrinsic gifts of the individual."(60) This means that people will respond to someone that they believe in and that has a special calling. · Weber's next idea of authority is the idea of traditional authority. This type of authority is defined by Allen as a "belief in time and custom." (60) This means that people respond to ideas and traditions of the past. They think that because it has worked before than it can still work now. · Weber's third and final authority is the idea of rational-legal authority. Allen defines this as a "belief in procedure. People respond to this kind of authority because they believe that the requirements or laws have been enacted in the proper manner." (60) Basically he is trying to show us that people will allow someone to have the right to act when they achieve something in the correct way. With all of that said Weber thinks that the only real one that would work with a society would be the charismatic authority. This is the only authority that doesn't believe in social stability, something Weber doesn't believe would work in a capitalistic society.

Weber believed in bureaucracies. People tend to be organized in their way naturally and that is what bureaucracies tend to do. Bureaucracies are a government by departmental officials following an inflexible routine, the official’s collective concentration of authority in administrative bureaus. A bureaucracy does not allow for one to have any emotion and personal issues, bureaucracies tend to be stone cold. Some of the preconditions that Weber laid out there for us are shown like this, "the size and space of the population being organized, the complexity of the task being performed, the use of markets and the money economy, the communication and transportation technologies, the use of mass democracy, and the volume of complicated and rationalized culture." (63) Weber shows us that all of these factors fall into having a successful bureaucracy or regime and have it last. The effects of this bureaucratic organization are shown in Weber's ideal bureaucracy, which can be also broken down into six points. They start off with · a division of labor · office hierarchy, · written rules and communication · accredited training · technical competence · management by rules · career ladder and position controlled by the organization.

With these in place it leads to an iron cage of bureaucracy. Once these bureaucracies are set in place it will be almost impossible to destroy or change. A reason for that is because in order for it to work, it must be big or huge! It is also based on expert’s opinions and cannot be changed because of them. The idea of an iron cage bureaucracy can is that it is emotional and value free.

Weber focused on historical, social, and cultural contexts in order to understand why people do what they do. He saw many different ideas in explaining people's rational thoughts in society. He tried to set up social stratifications for which people could define themselves in a certain class. With that in mind he showed us how the West could have a successful capitalistic society. Finally Weber showed us how to run the society based on capitalism based on bureaucracies.

=**Weber Response-Tony Douglas **= Weber wanted to know the reason behind why we do things. The actions practiced in everyday life, according to Weber, had an explanation. Our actions according to Weber were of an intentional context and had to be explained. "Rationalization" is Weber's explanation on why humans do things (47). All human decisions have meaning. Weber explains this decision making process involves critical thinking. This critical thinking is also explained as a "means-ends calculation" (47). As humans, our reasons for doing things are based on the conclusion or end result.

Weber explains bureaucracies in terms of rationalization and legitimation. Society accepts these institutions as the norm or as having "rightness" (48) because it has legitimized them. This is seen in the use of "credentialing" (66). Individuals seen as those with authority possess the appropriate degrees/titles etc. Bureaucracies function based on the authoritative reason accepted by society. This is why bureaucracies turn into "iron cages" (65). After they are created and accepted by society, bureaucracies habitualize individuals. With credible figures, rules, etc no one questions why it is in place and therefore it is impossible to change or escape.

Weber theory of Western Capitalism is explained through the rise of Protestant ideals (such as hard work, life as a calling, Calvinistic predestination). Through the belief that everyone had a guaranteed spot in the afterlife (Heaven or Hell) people sought to work efficiently in their occupation. If they applied their Christian values in their occupation they believed they would be successful. This would be seen as a sign of your predestined location.

Unlike Marx, Weber’s society was more complex than strict bipolarization. He emphasized the "positively privileged" and the "negatively privileged" (55). This is where class comes into the picture. Those negatively affected are in the lower class and those who were wealthy were in the higher classes. Unlike Marx, Weber also talked about the middle class.



=**Alex DeLuca's Essay Review of** //The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism//=

= = = = The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber examines the ethical values of the Protestant religion and how these values are responsible for the formation of the “spirit of modern capitalism”. Weber begins his theory by discussing the overwhelming presence of business leaders, owners of capital, and highly skilled laborers who are followers of the Protestant faith. Weber says this is true “wherever capitalism…has had a free hand to alter the social distribution of the population in accordance with its needs, and to determine its occupational structure” (Weber 1). Weber does acknowledge the fact that these differences could be explained by historical circumstances, noting that a number of the sections of the Old Empire which were most highly developed economically and privileged by geographical location converted to Protestantism in the Sixteenth Century. Weber realizes that “inherited wealth” could be a reason for Protestant involvement in capitalism, but he also asks the question: Why are less Catholic graduates involved in “capitalistic enterprise” than Protestants? Weber believes the answer to this question is found in the “intrinsic character of their religious beliefs”. His next section is titled “The Spirit of Capitalism”. To Weber, a conceptual definition of “the spirit of capitalism” is not suitable, so he references the writings of Benjamin Franklin in order to better explain this tricky phrase. He uses Franklin’s writings because he believes they properly explain the bigger picture of capitalism. Franklin basically says that time is money, credit is money, and money has a generative power. Franklin says that punctuality, frugality, and honesty are virtuous in a utilitarian sense. All of these virtues indicate someone who is mindful of their credit and recognizes the importance it has in increasing capital. It is important to understand that the idea of earning more and more money is seen as an end in itself. Money should be utilized as a generative power and not for any pleasure-related purposes. One of the leading principles of capitalism is that man no longer views making money as a way to satisfy material goods. According to Weber, the fundamental basis of capitalistic culture is the idea of “one’s duty in a calling” and success in that calling is “the real Alpha and Omega of Franklin’s Ethic." (Weber 7) This notion of “a calling” demands that the individual feel compelled to fulfill his professional duty, no matter what it entails. Weber also looks at the origin of capitalism. Weber puts down the thought that this “capitalistic ethic” resulted from economic situations. Weber uses Massachusetts as an example. Weber comments that the spirit of capitalism existed prior to the capitalistic order. Weber concludes that the spirit of capitalism had to earn supremacy by “fighting against a whole world of hostile forces” (Weber 8). The opposing force Weber spends the most time discussing is traditionalism. Traditionalism is based around the view that “man does not simply wish to earn more money, but simply live as he is accustomed to live and to earn as much as is necessary for that purpose” (Weber 9). Weber argues that simply raising a worker’s wages will not motivate him to work harder. Lowering wages would also have an adverse effect. To Weber, the solution is labor that is performed as a calling. This can only occur after a “long and arduous process of education”. The adjustment of wages is irrelevant. Weber’s next concentration is on the Protestant asceticism and the influence it had on the capitalistic lifestyle. The problem of “temptations of the flesh” was not an issue with the rational acquisition, but rather irrational use of wealth. This consisted of spontaneous spending on unnecessary materials, that would distract the individual from his devotion and calling to God. Asceticism condemns dishonesty and insatiable greed. Wealth was labeled a temptation but, the pursuit of wealth as “attainment of...fruit of labor in a calling was a sign of God’s blessing” (Weber 14). The difference is found in the rationalization of the use of wealth. This freed the individual from any desires of traditionalism. The combination of limited consumption and the “release of acquisitive activity” led to an increased capital through “an ascetic compulsion to save” (Weber 14). These constrictions influenced a productive investment of capital. The bourgeois businessman benefited by obtaining diligent, honest, and virtuous workmen who operated as if productivity was their key to salvation. Inequality was considered a part of God’s design. One of the primary elements of modern capitalism, “rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling” (Weber 17), was sprung from the idea of Christian asceticism. As Weber eloquently puts it “For when asceticism was carried out of mastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order” (18). Weber finishes by pointing out that since this ethos has surfaced and revolutionized the world our society is starting to put an increased emphasis on material goods, which have formed an “iron cage.” To Weber, religious asceticism has escaped from the cage and now capitalism has the power to function without the ascetic values that once help laid its foundation. =**__ The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism __** ** Max Weber **= Essay Review Jack White **

__Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification__

Weber emphasizes the growth of the Protestant Reformation and introduces the idea that during that time era, religious affiliation fostered economic development. Economic development in specific areas of Europe, displayed the greatest trend of participation in Protestantism. As Protestants began to take hold of the revolutionary trend of capitalism, they were able to thrive in this modern economic system. It turned into a bourgeoisie in favor of Protestantism; it revealed that they held more skilled and modern jobs as opposed to Catholics. Oddly enough, even as a reformation under persecution, the Protestant Reformation experienced economic development and raised their social status, which brings to question, what attributed for this economic success relating to their religion?

__The Spirit of Capitalism__

In order to understand the “Spirit of Capitalism,” it is best to be looked at without preconceptions based on religion. We must first understand the components of capitalism in order to examine why this economic style thrived better in specific situations.

Benjamin Franklin gives examples on incorrectly wasting money and time, which ultimately defines his spirit of capitalism as a daring personal inclination and morally correct in honesty and trustworthiness, virtues promoting of utilitarianism through interrelated purposes. Jacob Fugger focuses on attaining money as the ultimate goal and the means act as virtue. The idea of obtaining as much money as possible is the ideal “purpose” in life, which is a transformation towards the common foundation of capitalism. Having that purpose and having purpose at all is a major catalyst in promoting individual goals and overall dedication to an ambition.

A natural obligation occurs in having a goal set out before you. It is a duty to perform to the best you can in your profession and to individually devote yourself towards your own success. Although this concept is seen in more economic systems than capitalism, it is definitely a key component of capitalism, the individual’s self-motivated aspiration to accomplish. In this potentially selfish principle of capitalism, it is seen that according to Occidental standards, that countries lacking that foundation are backward in economic growth.

Soon, the unstoppable growth of various capitalist economies led to the aversion from traditionalism, which focuses on living with a consistent amount of money to stay accustomed to lifestyle, into modern capitalism focusing on productivity, efficiency, and profit through controlling labor wages. Being able to calculate and control your own individual profit is the rationalism that dominated this new ideal capitalism that promoted Protestantism’s thriving connection through it.

__Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism__

Recall that labor in itself was now seen as an end under rationalism. It became that by succeeding as much as possible in your profession you are fulfilling your calling. This idea of calling created an obligation and ethically moral basis directed to profit as much as possible in through work.

Religious movements now went against the previous support of asceticism and recognized that a true religious life remained in your own individual devotion and dedication to faith. Luther’s teachings coincided by stating that the common calling was not to priesthood because according to the Protestant Reformation we are all called to priesthood in our lives and he refocused morality and status on the principle of obligation. By fulfilling your duty or calling, you therefore were ethical.

Personal wealth and property was no longer condemned under these ideals and the greater amount of success and possessions that came out of carrying out your calling to greatest ability was seen as a blessing from God. According to John Wesley, in attaining all that you can and saving up as much as you can, you thenceforth can give to others as much as you can and receive grace through that. It was in true dedication to your labor that pleased God because you fulfilled your duty/calling. Although there was a new willingness to work, it led to greater exploitation of workers.

Outside of that, it now became a new standard that the middle class and lower class, by following through with their calling, they were seen as living ascetic lives. But in living this duty, they became irresistibly trapped into the system focused on material goods and has now lost its religious origination. It has now become a “cage” based on rationalism and quantification and has lost its religious background.