Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy. 1994
Chapter 8 Connections between formal rationality and patriarchal-patrimonial domination
over and through men
147
logical thinking is connected historically to the formation of a routinized charismatic
confraternization of intellectuals.
Yet although Weber does analyze the status ('ständische') aspects of university education
40
,
he does not connect them to any of the status aspects of 'logical thought'; he does not
distinguish clearly between 'formal-rational' and 'rational', with the result that 'formal
rationality' as a historical form of thinking is identified with 'rationality' as an innate human
characteristic.
In his analysis of the rationalization process of patriarchal patrimonialism Weber represents
the historical character of formal rationality only by analyzing its opposite: the growth of
material rationality in patriarchal-patrimonial administration.
6. Material-rational legitimation of patrimonialism: the welfare state
In Weber's view patriarchal-patrimonial justice proper is material-rational justice, based on
free, arbitrary intervention by the ruler, and oriented to the welfare of the subjects. Revived
patrimonialism expanded in reaction to the conflicting activities of the Estates, who
demanded new administrative activities, while fighting patrimonial dominance. In his struggle
against them the prince enlisted the support of the masses:
'The "good" king, not the hero, was the ideal glorified by mass legend. Therefore, patriarchal patrimonialism must
legitimate itself as guardian of the subject's welfare an its own and in their eyes. The "welfare state" is the legend
of patrimonialism, deriving not from the free camaraderie of solemnly promised fealty, but from the authoritarian
relationship of father and children. The "father of the people ("Landesvater") is the ideal of the patrimonial states.
Patriarchalism can therefore be the carrier of a specific welfare policy, and indeed develops it whenever it has
sufficient reason to assure itself of the good will of the masses
.'
41
The administration of justice therefore has to follow 'material principles of social justice of
political, welfare-utilitarian, or ethical content'.
42
The prince practices 'kadi-justice', freely
intervening in the administration of justice.
43
In other words: in the materially rational princely
administration public and private sphere - the universalism of fixed principles and the
arbitrariness of patriarchy - are not sharply separated, because the administration is the
property of the ruler.
According to Weber formal and material rationality developed in a permanent interaction with
the powers and needs of the Estates. At first the trend to material rationality was checked by
the growth of rationalistic-formalistic elements - a growth which had its origins in the
'immanent needs of patrimonial monarchic administration, especially with respect to the
40
See below Ch. 9,2.
41
ES p. 1107, WG p. 652.
42
'Although the patriarchal system of justice can well be rational in the sense of adherence to fixed principles',
ES p. 844, WG p. 486. See on the material character of patrimonial justice also ES p. 810, WG p. 468.
43
'The prince's administrative officials are at the same time judges, and the prince himself, intervening at will into
the administration of justice in the form of "cabinet justice", decides according to his free discretion in the light of
considerations of equity, expediency, or politics. He treats the grant of legal remedies to a large extent as a free
gift of grace or a privilege to be accorded from case to case, determines its conditions and forms, and eliminates
the irrational forms and means of proof in favor of a free official search for the truth. The ideal example of this
type of rational administration of justice is the "kadi-justice" of the "Solomonian" judgment as it was practiced by
the hero of that legend - and by Sancho Panza *as a governor.' ES p. 845, WG p. 486.
 |
 |
 |