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
148
elimination of the supremacy of estate privileges and the "estate" character of the legal and
administrative system in general' - but later it again became predominant, initially in order to
obtain the support of the masses against the Estates. Later, in the era of 'enlightened
despotism,' it was caused by 'the general rationalism developed by bureaucracy in line with
its growing self-confidence and its naive belief in "knowing better".'
44
The ideal was to create
a direct relation between administration and subjects, in which both would be informed about
their rights and duties, without intervention of lawyers.
In brief: to fight the Estates, the princes have to use formal-rational law as well as material-
rational law: the former serves to eradicate privileges, the latter to obtain the support of the
masses; material rationality however serves as the final legitimation of the paternalistic ruler
and his equally paternalistic officials.
Weber describes this contradictory development only for Prussia, which was the only country
where material-rational law seems to have been developed fully. Prussia was the only
country with a codification in which law consisted of 'a universe of duties', a 'universality of
one's "darndest debt and duty" ("verdammte Pflicht und Schuldigkeit")'.
45
Weber suggests
that the patrimonial ruler succeeded in defeating the Estates only in Prussia, transforming
the Estate-type ('ständisch') patrimonialism into patriarchal patrimonialism; for he reports that
under French absolutism the estate groups of officials retained their influence over the ruler
by regularly threatening to go on strike and by claiming restitution of the purchase-money for
their office.
As I said earlier, by contrasting 'patriarchal patrimonialism' to 'estate-type patrimonialism'
Weber is able to contrast Prussia with England in a way that corresponds to his political
views; in this contrast, however, countries like France are lost from view. He does not
explain, moreover, why Germany actually was the only country in which patriarchal
patrimonialism defeated the Estate powers. And neither does he prove his statement that
patriarchal patrimonialism is the direct precursor of modern formal-rational bureaucracy,
although it legitimated itself with material, arbitrary welfare policies.
44
'It was not until the era of fully developed "enlightened despotism" that, beginning with the eighteenth century,
conscious efforts were made to transcend the specifically formed legal logic of the Civil Law and its academic
legal honoratiores, which indeed constituted a unique phenomenon in the world. The decisive role was played,
first of all, by the general rationalism developed by bureaucracy in line with its growing self-confidence and its
naive belief in "knowing better". Political authority with its patriarchal core assumed the form of the welfare state
and proceeded without regard for the concrete desires of the groups interested in the law and the formalism of
the trained legal mind.' ES p. 856, WG p. 493.
45
ES p. 856, WG p. 494.
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