SOCY 226 - WEBER

Social Action

Action signifies human conduct, that is associated with subjective meaning

Action is social when its intended meaning takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby oriented in its unfolding

Ideal Types

Common and meaningful set of concepts to analyze human action

Related to the problem of understanding, ability to come up with a common methodology

Bureaucracy

Codified, meticulously organized authority that oversees most of our lives

Applies not just to the state, but also to bureaucratically organized institutions

Objective, calculable, without regard for persons

Rationalization

Replacement of traditional values, with a particular type of goal-oriented, value neutral action that is now the predominant way that states and large institutions are governed today

Authority rests in the office, not the person

Broader process through which efficiency, calculability, and rules are dominant in social life

Order and predictability, but also creates an “iron cage” of impersonal, inescapable systems

Types of Authority

Legal-Rational, Traditional, Charismatic

Legal-Rational Authority

Authority based in codified law, rests in the offices and rules, not the person

Office that you occupy

Traditional Authority

Authority based in convention and established routine

Charismatic Authority

Legitimacy rests on devotion to an extraordinary person

Affective, people surrender themselves to its power because they are moved personally to do so

Personal, affective, and fickle leadership

Is powerful, but unstable - must be turned into rules and offices

Weber’s Sociology of Religion

Linking the history of the Protestant faith to that of economic productivity

Aim of the Protestant Ethic

Not to explain why history developed the way it did, but insight in which the various Protestant groups related themselves to work

Domination

The probability that certain specific commands (or all commands) will be obeyed by a given group of persons

Implies a minimum of voluntary compliance, that is, an interest in obedience

Three Pure Types of Authority

Rational, Traditional, Charismatic Grounds

Rational Grounds

Resting on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands

Traditional Grounds

Resting on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditional and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them

Charismatic Grounds

Resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him

Instrumental or Means/Ends Rationality

Type of action in which the actor is trying to accomplish something in the world by calculating how to arrive at some end, getting from A to B

What means are to be chose to get to one’s desired ends

Value Rationality

Type of action that is an end in itself, embodies its own value, political and religious examples in mind

Emotional Action

Is a direct expression of feelings, on the level of crying when we are hurt

Not based on any conscious reflection and do not operate to change the world

Traditional Action

Consists of doing things by habit, merely because they have been done that way many times before

Is an obstacle to the rational development of the world

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Religion actually caused capitalism, draw connection between the Calvinistic belief in predestination and a particular kind of capitalism