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Max Weber was the man behind the theory of rationalization. Weber was born into a prosperous middle class family and studied jurisprudence at the Heidelberg institute in Germany. During his time at Heidelberg he was to become a member of the SDP, a role in which he was very much active through out his life.
Whilst at Heidelberg Weber would have debates over positivist economics and historical analysis, he would argue that there were no necessary patterns through out history, rather that the events and causes were unique.
He did acknowledge that there were regularities that could be explained by means of intellectual analysis and a moral understanding of these regularities which would involve distinct and separate modes of reasoning.
He noticed that due to the change in society (from organic to mechanic) that there was a decline in the myth, magic and to some extents religious values where as there was a rise in the use of rational calculation and secularism.
This change in ideas was seen as a result of independent variables which changed either to increase or decrease productivity. Thus Weber is credited with the qualitative approach. This led to the ‘Protestant ethic' whereby workers had to prove their worth through their work.
The organic to mechanic shift took place during the early 100's when the industrial age was gaining strength. With the industrial age came the development of Capitalism and Modernization which Weber argued led to the traditional and aristocratic values of religion and the Church breaking down.
With the development of Capitalism fairly strong in Northern Europe, Weber concluded that functions carried out in factories would need to be specialized, thus increasing the level of beauracratisation and the level of impersonality in everyday life.
Weber saw society divide in to the following
Propertied Upper Class Which owned the factories and during the organic phase owned most of the farmland
Propertyless White Collar Which he saw as being the people with scarce skills, for example lawyers, doctors etc
Petty Bourgeois Who were the shop keepers, market traders, etc
Manual Working Class Who were the farmhands and later during the mechanical phase were the factory workers, builders, etc.
This differed to Marx's vision of society, who saw society as
High Bourgeoisie Land owners, financiers, industry owners
Proletariat The revolutionary work force
Petty Bourgeoisie Shop keepers
Lumpenproletariat
Peasantry Worthless branded ‘sacks of potatoes'
Where as Marx saw the working class as coming together and becoming a class for itself, Weber did not see any polarisation; instead he saw an increase in the number of white collar workers (middle class) and also the increase in Bureaucratisation.
Weber's notion regarding the increase in the number of white collar workers can be noticed today, as there are more white collar workers today than at any point in history. This has also led to an increase in professionals such as doctors, lawyers, etc.
Weber noticed that the class divisions in society were based on property and that the status one held involved a certain degree of esteem or even social honour held by the individual. He also noticed that both these factors influenced the individual's ability to exercise power over others.
An example of this would be the Factory owner (Propertied Upper Class), who would tell the factory worker (Manual Working Class) when to work or even how to work.
In modern times, class no longer affects the way we are perceived by management and others around us. We are measured on our merits and strengths as individuals, especially when careers are concerned.
This lead to Weber noting that society would reject the idea of their human selves seeking escape from alienation and also society rejecting the possibility of rational choices between the values that had been previously instilled during the organic phase.
The trend to day tends to be more rational, as society today is conscious of issues and events occurring not only within itself, but also around it as well. Weber's theory on rational calculations is only mildly used in today's more educated society.
With this in mind rationalization leads to the more modern times where there is in most developed countries a beaurocracy which will deal with various matters in a rational, thought-out manner.
Rationalisation is still evident in later times, particularly in respect of government where Rationalisation of organizational forms takes place, for example, Bureaucracy where by systems are put into place to achieve and accomplish goals.
The ‘Protestant Ethic', as mentioned previously is seen by many, critics and academics alike, as being a ‘steel hard cage', whereby the worker would go to work and solely live to work for his/her natural life. This would be seen as the Working Classes sole purpose.
Weber was pessimistic in his approach, as is noted by the ‘Protestant Ethic', but he did acknowledge the counter trend Charisma which did of course mean the opposite of Rationalization, whereby the worker was working for himself and for satisfaction of the role he was doing.
As society changed some aspects of both the ‘Protestant Ethic' and Charisma are still visible. For example, the ‘Work Hard, Play Hard' ethic can still be seen in most large city-based organizations, in contrast job satisfaction now plays a major part with employers asking their employees; ‘Are you happy with your job?'
Rationalisation also noted that class, status and power also had an impact on the way that a person was viewed by society. This was also true in as much as the way you could influence members of society.
In today's modern society, wealth and status now seem less likely to have an impact on society. Today, academic achievements as well as personal acheivments are more likely to influence members of society.
Weber's arguments of Protestantism and Capitalism lead to ideas and eventual social change. With Rationalisation came complexity, which some critics argue that lead to the systems that are in place in society being so complex.
Weber believed that complex systems were the way forward, with systems of rational thinking believed to solve the issue of class conflict, but as time passed there have been other philosophers with theories that counter Weber's pessimistic theory of Rationalistaion such as
Marxism Theory of class conflict
Durkheim Theory of organic solidarity
Neo-Weberian (Goldthorpe) which again continues to focus on the middle classes and also takes into account the service class and intermediate class.
In conclusion, Weber's theory on Rationalisation can be seen as the fore runner to some aspects of today's society, most notably the bureaucracy aspect. An example of this is the Government ant the numerous bureaucrats it has hired in Whitehall.
This theory will long be debated, but it's affect on some aspects of today's modern society cannot be denied.
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