Economy and Society (1922) - Weber

Question 1

What is Weber’s definition of Sociology?

Answer 1

• attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects
• ‘action’ meaning the acting individual attaches subjective meaning to his behavior—be it overt or covert, omission or acquiescence
• Action is ‘social’ insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course

Question 2

What is Weber’s method of studying society?

Answer 2

Verstehen: understand another person’s experience in a deep, empathic way; subjective and interpretive process
* involves putting ourselves in the actor’s shoes
* not just understanding the self but how the self relates to the external world
* unit of analysis: the individual

He’s interested in the causal explanations of the courses and consequences

Question 3

What is the difference between domination and legitimacy?

Answer 3

1. Domination: exercise of power, probability of someone obeying the command
2. Legitimacy: the manner in which domination is established and legitimised (don’t need force or violence or threat)

Question 4

What are the three forms of legal authority?

Answer 4

1. Traditional
2. Legal-rational
3. Charismatic

Question 5

What is traditional legitimacy?

Answer 5

• Legitimacy is claimed and believed by the virtue of the sanctity of age-old traditions and powers
• Examples: Monarchy, Patrimonialism (patron-client relationship, government is the patron and the people is its client), Patriarchy, Religion, Gerontocracy

Question 6

What is legal-rational legitimacy?

Answer 6

Acquired from law and constructed from the reliance on society’s rules and laws. This type of authority has the confidence to leave the right of leaders to undertake decisions and set policy.
Resting on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue command
* forms the basis of modern democracies
* Legal norms established by agreement on consistent and abstract rules; Members obey within capacity
* Authority is subjected to rules too
* usually tied to calculability, rationalism and capitalism because the capitalist market economy demands public administration to be discharged as efficiently as possible.

Question 7

What are the types of bureaucracy that is characterised by legal-rational legitimacy?

Answer 7

1. Collegial Bureaucratic: clear hierarchy, defined sphere of competence, free contractual relationship (you only have one job), selected on technical qualifications, salaries are fixed; you have education and training so you can rise higher (e.g. meritocracy in Singapore)
2. Monocratic bureaucracy (the most advanced form of rationality according to Weber): Highest degree of efficiency, Primary source of superiority is technical, Tied to capitalism, Domination through knowledge (Problems with this: Plutocracy, level by class, impersonal)

Question 8

What is charismatic legitimacy?

Answer 8

Authority is derived from divine origin; Legitimacy is based on the leader’s exceptional qualities or extraordinary accomplishments, inspiring loyalty and obedience from followers. Recognition is freely given and is freely taken away; Emotional communal relationship; Great Revolutionary force
* Problem with charismatic: exists for a short while and power of the religion/organisation is taken away when the leader dies
* Examples: Lee Kuan Yew, Joseph Smith, Hitler (who came to power shortly after the publication of Economic & Society)

Question 9

What do we need to note about these ideal types of legitimacy?

Answer 9

• they are just abstract ideas
• be aware of misapplying to SEA contexts

Question 10

How is Weber’s types of legitimacy misapplied in the Phillippines?

Answer 10

• Phillippines is a failed state because they did not live up to rational-legal standards but they are traditional (Hutchcroft)
• But how can you say Phillippines is traditional authority if (according to Weber) traditional means being uneducated and untrained?
• Instead of examining the patron-client relationship between the US and the Philippines, one can examine the patrimonialism within Philippines that pushed many Fillipinos to the US

Question 11

What are examples of attributing Weber to Orientalism?

from supplementary reading on Max Weber

Answer 11

• modern capitalism could only emerge in the West because it required an attitude of commercial gain and profit (spirit of capitalism) which emerged from Protestantism in Europe
• many academics presume Weber saw capitalism as an advanced, progressive economic system and thus, it is “good and desirable”, and making Western society seem superior in this aspect

Question 12

How does the institutionalisation of legal-rational authority lead to iron cage of rationality?

from supplementary reading on Max Weber

Answer 12

1. institutionalisation of legal-rational authority in the form of bureaucracy (highly structured, formalised and impersonal organisation)
2. lead to organisation being inflicted by excessive bureaucratisation (specialisation, hierarchy, rules, impersonality)
3. develop pathologies of bureaucratic organisation - not allowing for variation in performance and thus, there is little scope for initiative and creativity