Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy. 1994
Chapter 7 The city: new fraternities of patriarchs
117
Weber's treatment of the different cities is comparative, not historical; he treats 'the
occidental city' as a type, emphasizing the common characteristics of ancient and medieval
cities, in order to make a sharp contrast with the Eastern cities. He therefore relativizes the
influence of the politics, law and culture of antiquity on the medieval institutions, mentioning
it only in other chapters, in particular in those in which he describes the influence of the
formal character of Roman religion and Roman law on the rationalization process
24
.
Since I am mainly interested in the development of the occidental 'Ständestaat' and the
modern bureaucracy in Europe, I will chiefly analyze Weber's views on the social relations in
the medieval cities, mentioning the cities of mediterranean antiquity only if there is any
causal relation between their development and later events.
I will furthermore discuss only those aspects of 'the medieval city' which will clarify the
central questions of this book: how did the western consociations of formally free and equal
men come into being and what is the link between these confraternizations and 'formal
rationality' ?
5. The medieval western city as a breach with kinship tradition and a creation of new
associations of real men
In my treatment of the history of occidental 'free' feudalism I have already dealt with Weber's
answer to the question of why a separate 'burgher-estate' only developed in occidental
cities: wandering confraternizations of military conquerors, traders, pirates and other
adventurers, around the Mediterranean and in Europe, broke with tradition and created ties
between men who had been strangers to each other.
25
These new confraternizations were confraternizations in the strict Weberian sense of the
word: they were charismatic groups of armed men. The military aspect of occidental cities -
which is unique - caused two kinds of developments: the breaking of the traditions of kinship
and of patrimonial domination, and the building of new, armed confraternizations, which
could fight for their autonomy.
Since 'the Chinese city dweller belonged to his clan and the Indian to his caste', no new
fraternities could develop in China or in India; the city population in non-occidental cities
therefore remained subjected to the patrimonial authorities, as well to their clan or caste
organizations.
The medieval Western European cities, in particular those North of the Alps - especially
those in which feudal landlords played no role in the city foundation and where traders
formed the city patriciate
26
- stand in a sharp contrast to all other cities, although their origins
were no less military than that of those founded by castes of conquerors - the 'polis-
feudalism of antiquity - or by feudal knights.
The confraternizations of traders who founded the cities according to Weber were
'coniurationes', 'sworn fraternities', 'conspiracies'
27
, thus magical-charismatic, armed
fraternities, which had been established by status contract.
24
See below Ch. 8,5 and 9,2.
25
ES p. 1241 ff., WG p. 744 ff.
26
ES p. 1255, 1276, 1293, WG p. 753, 762, 773.
27
In Dutch 'coniuratio' and 'conspiracy' can be translated by the same word: 'samenzwering'. See on the magical
character of the oath ES p. 672/3, WG p. 402: 'The o a t h, which originally appears as a person's conditional
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