Economics and History (Types of Domination)

Author: [German] Weber
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Publishing Time: Not available
Features: In the mid-to-late 1980s of the 20th century, China's reform and opening-up were in full swing. While achieving significant successes, it also gave rise to many social issues. The situation faced by China's intellectual circles was somewhat similar to that encountered by Weber when dealing with the German nation-state at the end of the 19th century. Weber described himself as a "economic nationalist" in terms of national interest and acted according to the ethics of responsibility. Weber's unconventional insights, as well as his discussion of modern capitalism as a rational labor organization, may offer some inspiration for Chinese thinkers. "The entire economy is nothing but the history of economic rationalism." With "quantification" as the warp and social action and groups as the weft, Weber wove his vision of history in Economy and History. "Any institution we can imagine cannot function without power to issue commands, hence there is domination." This is the starting point of Weber's study in political sociology. Through Types of Legitimate Domination, Webersummarized three "ideal types" of domination from human historical experience: charismatic domination, traditional domination, and legal domination. He analyzed the foundations of legitimacy, the mechanisms of operation, and the impacts of these three forms of domination, focusing on the differences between various types of domination and management and their substantive effects on a society's formation and rationalization. Through this approach, Weber's study of domination types became integrated with his research on religious, legal, and economic history, forming a complete system.