Max Weber (1925) “The Distribution of Power within

Transcript:Max Weber (1925) “The Distribution of Power within:
Max Weber (1925) “The Distribution of Power within the Political Community: Class, Status, Party” 1 From the early-capitalist Protestant ethic to late-capitalist Austerity Austerity – web definitions the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures) wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn severe simplicity saving; frugality (austere) ascetic: practicing great self-denial; "Be systematically ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it"- William James; "a desert nomad's austere life wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn In economics, austerity is when a government reduces its spending and/or increases user fees and taxes to pay back creditors. Austerity is usually required when a government's fiscal deficit spending is believed to be unsustainable. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity 2 Disenchantment of the world While rationalization “may breed greater efficiency in obtaining designated ends, it also leads to disenchantment, where “there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play, but rather that one can, in principle, master all things by calculation.” (159) 3 Weber’s four types of social action Nonrational Rational Individual Collective A C T I O N ORDER Affective action Traditional action Value-rational action Instrumental-rational action 4 Verstehen: interpretive understanding Weber defined sociology as a “science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effect” Unlike Marx and Durkheim, who sought to uncover universal laws applicable to all societies, Weber attends to the production of meaningful behavior as it is grounded within a specific historical context seeks to understand the culturally-patterned states of mind or motivations that guide individuals’ behavior 5 Ideal type The ideal type is analytical construct, a means to do social research A tool that aids description and explanation Ideal type is derived from empirical observation, but it’s an abstraction The combination of elements which although found in reality, are rarely found in this specific form It's not "ideal" in the normative sense, but in the sense that this combination of elements is not found in reality in this pure form e.g., an ideal type of "criminal,” “monopoly,” or “plutocracy” 6 Ideal types of social action traditional: actions controlled by tradition or deeply rooted habits, "the way it's always been done" affective: actions determined by the actor's specific affections and emotional state value-rational: actions that are determined by a conscious belief in the inherent – ethical, esthetic, religious, etc. – value of a type of behavior, regardless of its effects instrumental-rational: actions that are