The Literati and the Dao

This chapter develops the argument that China is a civilizational state and follows a trajectory different from that of the Western nation-state. Weber is correct in selecting features of Chinese culture and social and political structure that stand in contrast to Western forms of rationalization: the role of magic, the particularism of guilds, the absence of the Western polis and Roman law, and the universalism demanded of Christianity in contrast to the religions of southeast Asia. Following Sheldon Pollock’s The Language of the Gods in the World of Men, the nature of language itself differentiates Latin in the West, Sanskrit in south and southeast Asia, and Chinese analogical language in China. Language, or langue-pensée, has a determining effect on stratification and configurations of power, especially in the development of the vernacularization of language as a precondition for the nation-state. China, in contrast to India and the West, resisted vernacularization. It is as if the West had kept to the Latin of the Holy Roman Empire. The nature of Chinese language therefore is intrinsic to the civilization and imperial state in China to this day.

The Relevance of Weber’s Conception and Typology of Herrschaft

Max Weber developed his sociology of domination between 1909 and 1920. This chapter addresses the relationship between domination and power, distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate domination or authority. Legitimate domination is based upon the three pure types of legal, traditional, and charismatic domination, which appear in combination with different organizational structures. Charismatic domination can assume different forms, from authentic charisma to hereditary and office charisma to an antiauthoritarian variant. Traditional domination encompasses a variety of types, from gerontocracy to diverse forms of patrimonialism and feudalism. The belief in legality, expressed for instance in a bureaucratic administrative staff, is characterized primarily through formal rationality, not purposive or instrumental rationality. Thus, today this last type is affected by tendencies that promote the weakening or even the dissolution of legal formalism. This chapter combines a systematic presentation with the application of the “domination” topic in the different scientific and cultural research fields during the last decades.

Realism and Reality in Max Weber

Max Weber was a realist not only from a political but also from an epistemological perspective. This chapter tries to shed light upon this aspect of Weber’s works, stressing the central importance of his concept of a “science of reality” (Wirklichkeitswissenschaft). He viewed science not so much as a destiny for modern humanity but, rather, as a choice. The main sources of his realism are examined, as well as two weaknesses of the Weberian science of reality: its weak historical teleology and a value-based conception of culture. Finally, it is suggested that the current “realist turn” in human sciences is sowing seeds of a Weber renaissance in the twenty-first century.

Max Weber Past, Present, and Future

Max Weber is one of the most important social theorists of the past century. His legacy includes a distinctive approach to inquiry and engagement with political and cultural issues. The Weberian perspective can be understood as both a “paradigm” for analyzing social phenomena and a specification of categories defining the field of inquiry, such as economy, power, stratification, religion, law, culture, and science. The handbook presents chapters exploring each of these substantive topics, demonstrating the application of Weberian concepts and ideas to contemporary problems. The future promises a worldwide diffusion of Weber’s ideas, addressed especially to the challenges of global modernity. The introductory chapter concludes with a detailed chronology of Weber’s life.

The “Disenchantment of the World” or Why We Can No Longer Use the Formula as Max Weber Might Have Intended

The “disenchantment of the world” is a famous formulation of Max Weber’s, one taken up in Walter Benjamin’s “Elective Affinities” essay. This chapter analyzes Weber’s conception of disenchantment in the context of his work. Two aspects of his discussion can be distinguished: religious-historical and scientific-historical. Weber’s preference for principled consistency, for instance, in the Calvinist sects, is normally evaluated positively. But it can be shown to cloud his vision of much more complex issues, such as the problem of “meaning.” Weber identified the decisive consequences of disenchantment with a loss of meaning. But disenchantment does not eo ipso have to signify a loss of meaning in life. In this respect Weber was a child of his times, trapped in a cultural context characterized by a newly established Christianity born from the failed revolutions of 1848, as well as by the process of industrialization. A role was also played by Nietzsche’s widespread influence. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Weber’s conception of disenchantment in relation to the contrasting views of Benjamin and Robert Bellah.

The Supranational Dimension in Max Weber’s Vision of Politics

Max Weber analyzed politics from the perspective of Chancen for actors, and he never separated world politics from domestic politics. The “Westphalian balance” between great European powers shaped Weber’s views on international polity. However, he also regarded Western individualism, human rights, and parliamentary democracy as necessary qualities to possess in order to be recognized as a great power. This vision provided the basis for his wartime critique of the expansionist tendencies in German foreign policy and for his demand for the parliamentarization of German politics. After the end of World War I, Weber used Woodrow Wilson’s idea of the League of Nations as the basis for a proposal on new treaty legislation on war guilt. By doing so, he also identified chances for introducing supranational elements to world politics. The final part of the chapter applies a Weberian political imagination to the interpretation of the United Nations and the European Union as supranational institutions.

Max Weber’s Analysis of Capitalism

Capitalism is an absolutely central theme of Max Weber’s work as an economist and sociologist as well as of his political and social commitment. Weber’s investigations in ancient economy, the medieval city, and the political, economic, social, and religious systems of China and India are for a great part an inventory of differences versus the occidental development of modern market-oriented capitalism based on the exploitation of (formally) free labor. The transition from agrarian to industrial capitalism in contemporary Germany is observed by Weber with respect to the political and social problems of the young nation-state. The universal expansion of capitalism is analyzed with respect to its effects on humankind and conduct of life.

Max Weber and the Late Modernization of Catholicism

While Max Weber wrote extensively on a range of religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and most extensively Protestantism—there is no fully developed sociology of Catholicism. This chapter attempts to construct Max Weber’s missing sociology of Catholicism from the various scattered comments across his works. While Weber saw Protestantism influencing the growth of capitalism (and more broadly modernization), his view of Catholicism was largely negative: it was ritualistic, magical, bureaucratic, and traditional. What would Weber have made of Catholicism in the twentieth century and twenty-first century? This chapter first examines developments in nineteenth-century Catholicism that lay behind Weber’s critical commentary. The second half asks how changes in Catholicism after the Second Vatican Council (informally known as Vatican II, 1962–1965) have brought about a modernization of Catholicism. The chapter argues for the relevance of Weber’s views today by considering the impact of Vatican II on Catholic teaching and practice, arguing that it represents the political modernization of Catholicism. Vatican II represented a radical departure from the political conservatism of the nineteenth century. In principle, the church was no longer critical of secular democracy, pluralism, the party system, and state sovereignty. This modernization, however, began to undermine the universalism of the church and pushed Catholicism toward denominationalism. However, the church did not modernize its teaching on contraception, abortion, marriage, divorce, and family life. This tension between political modernization and what we might simply call “familial conservatism” still haunts the church today.

Including Islam

Weber’s concept of Islam as a cultural configuration including religion, society, and political order was conceived against the backdrop of Europe’s supposed uniqueness and exemplary path to modernity. Yet his ambition of advancing transcultural understanding and exploring a plurality of developmental histories offers inspiration to this day also for the Islamic perspective. Repositioning his ideas about warrior Islam, Islamic beliefs, Islamic law, and patrimonialism in the context of contemporary postcolonial, postmodern, and global theory reveals details, correlations, and perspectives that Weber at the time ignored or omitted. Complementing theory with up-to-date historical research on the Middle East provides further corrections. A critical appraisal of Weber’s approach and the discussions it triggered allows recognition of the dynamics of Islamic history, such as the role of religion and religious authority in the evolution of state–society relations. It also assists in understanding Islamic features of modernity, including fundamentalism and the role of tradition, that inform the tension between moral values and politics. Going beyond the historical limitation of Weber’s assessment of prevalent features of Islam, the vitality of Islamic tradition and its particular pathway to modernity are recognizable in terms corresponding with the intention of Weber’s transcultural approach and its contemporary reinterpretations.

Nation, Nation-State, and Nationalism

Max Weber published a good deal as a German nationalist. He wrote about nation and state as a social scientist. Much of his political writing promoted German interests at home and abroad. As a scientist he wrote about ethnic community, national community, and state (though rather less about nationalism and nation-state). The present chapter argues that there are problems in relating these political and scientific writings to each other and that his theorizing of the concept of nation is inadequate by his own standards. However, his basic sociological concepts suggest better ways of understanding nation and nationalism, and the chapter will sketch out such an approach.