Max Weber's The City

In Max Weber's brief book The City, the author studies the emergence of cities in terms of the idea that they develop from populous settlements that are also fortified centers of trade and commerce. These centers eventually take on semi-autonomous existence as urban communities. The notion of urban community was the distinguishing feature that Weber felt made the difference between the true city and mere accumulations of large numbers of people. Martindale outlines the levels of social interaction inherent in Weber's conception of the community (Martindale, 1958, p. 54). These levels were: social actions (meaningful human interaction); social relations (arrangements of the elements of social actions); and social institutions (the abstract notion of social relations as a network of social actions). These institutions were a number of non-exclusive patterns of behaviors to which individuals adhered to varying degrees. Thus the community concept rested on the idea of a system of institutions operating as a whole. Weber accepted the basic idea of a city as, predominantly, a center of trade and commerce separate from feudal or other rural arrangements (i.e., the definition of a population that was not primarily responsible for its own food production). But in addition to this basis, a settlement also had to possess several other features in order to be a true city. These elements were: a fortification; a market; a court that could apply at least partially independent law

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them valuable to the cities is belied by the comparison with their presence in Babylonia as, apparently, one among many such guests and not, it seems, occupying an analogous position in regard to function. Mere exclusion from full citizenship, certainly vastly different notions in the two places, seems to be the basis of this comparison. The particulars of this example are not important in themselves, the example is merely indicative of the number of broad assertions Weber makes that seem either unrelated to his thesis or related in a fashion that is unsupported by any material he provides. Weber's review of the historical emergence of the Occidental city focuses on the emergence of autonomy and autocephaly. Accordingly, he is interested primarily in the emergence of political institutions. In Weber's analysis these institutions emerge in somewhat similar fashion among the various cities of Europe. He uses the communes of Italy as his principal example. But when citing, for instance, the kings' ability to control the emergence of a similar civic oligarchy in England, his analysis of the historical difference between the English situation and the Italian adds force to his argument. The incorporation of English cities and t

Category: History - M