The modern state in Weber

Weberian analysis

• One of Max weber's main contributions was to analyze the emergence of the modern state in the West.
• In its definition, one can highlight state legitimacy, based on legal domination as a condition of maintenance of power and the monopoly of the use of physical force within established conditions (in this case, in-laws). 
• This form of State, it is also worth noting, results from the development of capitalist society, which demands a rational administration.
• In this sense, the modern state was accompanied by the development of a bureaucracy.
• The processes of bureaucratization became an inseparable part of societies, especially in the context of European modernity (from the 15th and 16th centuries).
• Therefore, the emergence of the modern state is linked to the  transformations that occurred in Europe during this period:

-Decline of the Middle Ages

-Development of the mercantile economy

-Emergence of Protestantism

-Maritime-commercial expansions

Capitalism, religion, and State

• Max Weber analyzes the relationship between religion, state, and capitalist development in his work The Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism, whose texts were published between 1904 and 1905

• The sociologist departs from the phenomenon of Protestantism correlated with the growth of the capitalist mode of production.

• In trying to explain the spirit of capitalism, Weber presents some ideas, such as those attributed to Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a political philosopher and American diplomat.

• One is that "time is money."  Among the strategies adopted to increase wealth is the action of making loans.

• The time that one value gets in the hands of another yields interest since the lender no longer employs it and generates profits with it.

• The Catholic Church, in the past, condemned this practice, called usury: it did not see money as a productive good and a generator of value. But only as an instrument of exchange. 

• Therefore, he considered it a sin (a departure from God) to gain without having worked directly for it.

• This mentality began to change with the advent of Protestantism.

• The prospect of generating profits in business, not just winning for survival, is associated with the very identity of protestant populations.

• It corresponds, then, to a Protestant ethos.

• This rationalization is also stimulated, in a way, by the Lutheran concept (Martin Luther) of Christian vocation.

• Opposing the ideal of monastic life (concerning monk), Luther, the first leader of the Protestant Reformation, argues that people receive "calls" from God to be held as Christians in the civil life of work and the family.

• The Frenchman John Calvin (1509-1564) was another great exponent of the Protestant Reformation.

• Calvinism considers the doctrine of predestination: human beings would already be predestined to be condemned or saved in eternal life after death.

• Calvinists refused the use of rituals, fun, and luxury.

• They devoted themselves to the work because they understood that a prosperous and successful life would be a way of praising God.

• Weber will conclude that the Protestant ethos, even though he did not institute capitalism alone, contributed to shaping and disseminating it.

A disenchanted world

• By looking above all at post-industrial society, Weberian sociology understands that the Western world has been reduced to rationalization.  
• Thus, aspects of social life based on traditions and religious beliefs declined. This process we call the disenchantment of the world.
• The sense of disenchantment here is not one of disappointment but of demagnification -that is, of breaking the charm, of the decline of magic, of the "too much meaning" given by religion.
• Weber explains that this phenomenon occurred from the transformations that occurred in modern religions and the development of science from the sixteenth century.
• The culmination of disenchantment would have occurred with Protestantism, which, in various currents, left aside the Catholic sacraments, or most of them, placing greater emphasis on the interpretation of the scriptures, that is, the Bible.
• The German sociologist also points out that broad rationalization takes place, especially from the advent of modern science.
• There is little by little a revolution of mentality: many begin to consider only rational and material content and criticize religion and metaphysical philosophy.

\