HISTORY: Max Weber was born in 1864 in Berlin during a period of extraordinary change in German as well as European society. Weber was born five years before Otto Von Bismarck, The Iron Chancellor, took power in Germany uniting Germany into a united nation as opposed to a confederation of independent principalities (Sherman and Salisbury 679). Also, Weber lived through the massive industrialization and urbanization of Germany where people left their small, intimate rural homes for the large, impersonal urban industrial centers. The unification of Germany under Otto von Bismarck and Industrialization and their subsequent creation of a large government bureaucracy which is an organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters (Kendall 146) intrigued Weber who extensively studied the functions and structure of bureaucracy and their threat to individualism and human freedom (Bendix 7). Weber was interested in the struggle between individualism and bureaucracy because of the society he lived in. During Weber's lifetime a philosophy known as liberalism was prominent. Liberalism, which was promoted by middle-class capitalists, stressed individual liberties without government interference, also liberalism stressed government without monarchy and aristorcracy (Sherman and Salisbury 624), although Weber himself was unabashedly pro-Monarchy (Loewenstein 13). Weber was particularly interested in the conflict between liberalism and the bureaucratic government of Otto von Bismarck because Germany which had once been dominated by the liberal thought of the late eighteenth century was now being sacrificed to the Junker (German military aristocrats, whom Otto von Bismarck was a member of) philosophy which included: deference to superiors, hardness to onself, hardness for those below oneself . Communism, the political philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was also influential during Max Weber's era. Communism which was a byproduct of the industrial revolution argued that every conflict ever has boiled down to class conflict (Kendall 12). The haves known in Marxian terminology as the Bourgeoise own the means of production i.e. factories, mines, corporations etc while the have-nots known as the Proletariats do not own the means of production and must sell their labor to the bourgeoise while not recieving an equal percentage of the profits. Marx and Engels believed that eventually the proletariat would rise up and seize the means of production creating an egalitarian society which would eventually not require any government at all (12). Although Weber agreed that economic factors played an important role in societal conflicts, he believed their were other more important factors which influenced peoples interactions with one another (12). Weber also disagreed with Marx's view that religion is used to retard social change and maintain the class structure in Weber's book entitled The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism he examined the influence of protestantism on capitalism Weber believed that religion could be used as a catalyst to produce social change (Kendall 370). Weber was influenced by protestantism, ecspecially Calvinism (known as Presbytarianism in Scotland), and its effect on economics, specifically Capitalism. The aspect of Calvinism which intrigued Weber was the Calvinist belief that proving one's faith required success in worldly activites, including business (Miller 36). This belief created a constant sense of struggle where people attempted to constantly out-do their fellow man. This concept is clearly seen is industrialized and post-industrial societies, ecspecially the United States-a Protestant founded nation, where monetary success has historically been looked at as being favored by God and those without financial success are looked at as having moral flaws. Weber continued to study the varied effects of economics, religion, and political structures and their effect on society until World War 1. After World War 1 the Monarchy in Germany had ended when Kaiser Wilhelm the 2nd fled Germany at the end of the war (Loewenstein 14). Weber was involved in creating the new constitution, known as the Weimar constitution, which sought to do away with the burdensome Bismarck bureaucracy (Lowenstein 16). Max Weber influenced the Weimar Constitution to become a parliamentary democracy where the constant election of new officials would prevent the stagnation of old ideas and inefficent policies. In the year of 1920 Max Weber passed away from a bout of Pneumonia. Weber was a Rennaisance man who understood diverse topics such as: religion, sociology, economics, and politics. Today, we still owe a great deal to the studies that Max Weber conducted and as long as their are bureaucracies we will continue to use his policies.

BIOGRAPHY: Max Weber's life is one that can be characterized by an extreme devotion to scholarly pursuits, ecspecially those which dealt with history and society, and strong inner troubles. Max Weber was born in 1864 to an upper-middle class family in Berlin, Germany (Bendix 1). His father was a well-to-do lawyer and a National Liberal Parliamentarian (Not liberal as we understand it today, but the old usage of the term which represented capitalist, middle-class interests) and his mother was a woman of culture and religous piety (1). Weber's childhood in an upper-middle class household where liberal politicians and professors from the university of Berlin came to socialize influenced the young Weber extensively (1). After completing the Gymnasium in 1882 (German equivalent of a High School) Weber entered the University of Heidelberg as a law student. The following year he attended required military training. After his military training Weber then resumed his studies at the Universities of Gottingen and Berlin (Miller 2).

In 1891, Weber qualified as an instructor in Roman, German, and Commercial Law and for the next few years lectured widely and consulted with various Government Offices (2). In 1893, Weber married his cousin Marianne Schnitger (2). Weber then accepted a position at Freiburg University which he then abandoned three years later to become a professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg. A year later Weber was unable to continue his position as a professor, or any other academic pursuits for that matter, because of a state of depression and anxiety which was severe enough to even warrant a short stay in a mental institution (3). In 1901, Weber returned to academic pursuits after a long battle with mental illness, he took a position as editor at the Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare where he held the post until 1907 where a family inheritance permitted him to become a private scholar (Bendix 3). With the onset of World War 1 Max Weber stopped his academic pursuits when he became a director of army hospitals in Heidelberg. Weber continued his governmental duties by consulting the German Armistice Commision in Versailles and helping to draft the Weimar Constitution (3). In the summer of 1919, when his governmental duties were completed he briefly lectured at the University of Vienna, he then accepted a professorship at the University of Munich. He then died at the young age of fifty-six from a bout of pneumonia (3).

AREAS OF STUDY: Max Weber had a number of primary interests. He had multiple areas of study. He observed and experimented with many concepts. Although a good amount of the topics are widely varied, they are intertwined to each other through the conflict perspective of sociology. These thoughts include…

THEORIES: Max Weber's three major areas of study were bureaucrasies and religous influence on society (Kendall 12).

The main concept that Weber is associated with is that of the bureaucracy (Kendall 12). Weber believed that industrialization led to bureaucratization, and that bureaucracy was the most rational way for attaining organizational goals (Kendall 146). Weber studied the characteristics of bureaucracy extensively, he concluded that bureaucracy was characterized by: official business that is conducted on a regular basis, a stipulated set of rules and policies, a clear division of labor responsibilities, a lack of ownership of resources, promotion by merit, and official business is conducted on the basis of written documents (Loewenstein 424).

DETRACTORS:

Not many sociologist, or those of reputable stature, tended to flat-out disagree with Max Weber's sociological theories. Most sociologist admired him and his work while building upon it adding their own theories or using his theories to form their own. There are a few that did slightly veer in their view from Webers' such as Ludwig von Mises. When it came to Weber's views on rationality of action, Mises believed that all action is rational by conceptual necessity while Weber placed social actions into different categories, some of which displayed little to no rationality. Although this disagreement stems from only one of Weber's many theories, it is none the less a fairly large one. Some attribute this difference in theories to the difference in questions the two sociologists were asking when analyzing the social world leading to varying structures of logic.

The only other area in which other sociologist disagree with Weber can be found in his claims about the Protestant economic work ethic. Weber argued that only a Protestant run economy could truly lead in work ethic. His main sources of criticism came after writing his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this book Weber aimed to answer the question of why we all accept the notion that our jobs ought to be more than just a way to sustain ourselves and acknowledge working to be our duty. " What he sees as the fundamental mystery about the origins of modern capitalism is not why it took so long to be established but, rather, how, given actual human needs and desires, it ever came into being at all" (Kolbert 1). In discussing this Weber focuses on manyfacetsof human rationality. To hastily sum up his book, Weber considered the beginnings of capitalism to stem from Protestants. This, he claimed, came from the idea that Protestants would work, not spend and invest only to gain more capital. As would be expected, those who read this found it to be either ethnocentric or untrue in many ways, especially those of the Catholic church. Authors Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw also disagreed with this using the economies of Southeast Asia as examples due to theses countries' vast economic growth in the span of ten years without the presence of Protestantism.

RELEVANCE:

It is difficult not to see a relevance in Weber's work today. The democratic government we live in today is the perfect example of the bureaucracy Weber defined. All the characteristics Weber said made up a bureaucracy can be seen everywhere such as the hierarchy of authority (the president holding more power than any other political position) to rules and regulations (laws, bills, etc.) to impersonality (ideally the justice system, although not everyone is treated equal all the time).

A more well known example of Weber's theories currently at work in our society is displayed in sociologist George Ritzer's theories in what he calls the McDonalization of societies. He used Weber's theories to examine the fast food industry, an industry which he felt reflected a prime example of an ideal-type bureaucracy. Ritzer realized Weber definition of rationality as the process in an industrializing society where the informal spontaneous methods of social organization are replaced with efficient formal rules and procedures (Kendall 146) and went further to add what he consider four characteristics of formal rationality.Efficiency, predictability, quantity over quality, and nonhuman technologies controlling these business are the four aspects of Ritzer's formal rationality. He emphasizes the fact that the naturally creative human is being dehumanized through unskilled, detaileddirectionalassembly-line processes to create mass amounts of food. In his book The McDonaldization of Society, Ritzer offers actions by which people can avoid or cope with McDonaldization. Among these includes to avoid eating artificial foods, supporting local small businesses instead of large chains, reading newspapers such as The New York Times or USA Today, and , of course, refraining from eating at large fast food chains as much as possible. Although Ritzer believes their are positive consequences to the McDonaldiztaion of society, he offers these precautions as an attempt to hinder people from becoming completely absorbed into the dehumanizing processes of McDonaldization.

Key Terms:

Bureaucracy: According to Max Weber, a bureaucracy is an organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters (Kendall 146).

Ideal Type: To analyze bureaucracies Max Weber borrowed a method of analysis from Economics known as the ideal type. An ideal type is a model that describes the recurring characteristics of some phenomenon, such as a bureaucracy (Kendall 146).

Rationality: Rationality is the process in an industrializing society where traditional methods of social organization, which are usually informal and spontaneous, are replaced with efficient formal rules and procedures (Kendall 146).

Life Chances: A term Max Weber coined witch refers to the extent that individuals have the ability to aquire important societal resources such as: food, clothing, shelter, education, and health-care (Kendall 194).

WORKS CITED:

Kendall, Diana. Sociology In Our Times: The Essentials.Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth. 2007.

Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of Society.Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. 2000.

Ritzer, George. Interview.McLibel: Two Worlds Collide.One-Off Productions. 1997.http://www.mcspotlight.org/people/interviews/ritzer_george.html

GeneCallahan(2007) Reconciling Weber and Mises on Understanding Human Action.American Journal of Economics and Sociology 66 (5) , 889–899 doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00545.x

Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Why Work". The New Yorker. November 29, 2004.