Weber and Capitalism

[T]he factor which produced capitalism is the rational permanent enterprise, rational accounting, rational technology and rational law, but again not these alone. Necessary complementary factors were the rational spirit, the rationalization of the conduct of life in general, and a rationalistic economic ethic (Weber, 1990, p. 354).

The first four items in the above statement relate to technical aspects of business operation. The "complementary" factors in that statement are the ones that connect the ideal type of economic rationalism to the religious revolution of early modern Europe. That is because the Protestant Reformation was a rational response to the mystical irrationality and the doctrines of control over human behavior in Catholicism.

The Reformation also rationalized the conduct of life in general, since the ethic of material enterprise and a life dedicated to work, i.e., "life's work," spread through Europe, just like Protestantism. That is connected to Weber's quote that "you think you have escaped from the monastery, but everyone must now be a monk throughout his life" (Weber, 1990, p. 366). The idea is that economic success requires concentrated devotion on the part of the economic actor, and that is the mentality that was necessary

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of legitimacy . . . of the power-holder to give commands . . . that are rationally established by enactment, by agreement, or by imposition" (1948, p. 294). The conventions of capitalist business operations can be seen as having legitimacy, at least as far as the capitalist are concerned. That ethic is also Protestant, according to Weber, because it can be contrasted with the "irrational and illegal" (at least in the eyes of the Puritans who started linking jobs with "callings") occupations of Jews: "war loans, tax farming, and leasing of offices, in the fashion of the court favorite" (Weber, 1990, p. 367). The economic mentality that emerged out of the Reformation was necessary to the rise of capitalism because it enabled the rising capitalist to exploit a range of components of the society that would help make the capitalist system more and more rational and self-perpetuating. These components include trust in science instead of doctrine and magic, trust in technology instead of craftsman expertise, and the depersonalization of the relationship between masters and those who work for them. Weber links trust in doctrine and magic to peasants, whose "whole economic existence has been specifically bound to nature and has made the
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Approximate Word count = 1314
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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