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
152
'Ultimately, every autonomous dignity and simply any sense of honor on the part of the "subjects" must be
suspected of hostility to authority'
.
Patriarchal patrimonialism succeeded in creating an 'inner' or 'internalized' 'devotion to the
authority of the sovereign', which makes the German 'the typical "Untertan" (subject) in the
most poignant sense of the word'.
64
My criticism of Weber's description of the mentality of the German 'Untertan' does not
concern its truth; in my view it is an important contribution to the understanding of the fast
and total victory of National Socialism in Germany. My point is that Weber's concept of
'patriarchal patrimonialism' provides no sufficient explanation for it.
65
This again becomes evident where Weber summarizes the different developments of the last
few centuries in other European countries, where patriarchal-patrimonial rulers did not
succeed in annihilating the honor, freedom and autonomy of their subjects:
'The minimization of effective administration by honoratiores and the ruler's dependence upon their voluntary
participation in England, the success of revolutions in France and the other Latin countries, the independence of
the social revolutionary ethos in Russia have impeded or destroyed that internalized devotion to authority which
has remained an almost ineradicable legacy to the outside observer.
'
66
Here Weber suddenly takes leave of the contrast he had created between England and 'the
Western European continent' and instead constructs a contrast between Germany and the
rest of Europe. All kinds of processes and phenomena on the continent are jumbled together
in an attempt to make this contrast credible: the 'impediments to' of totalitarian patriarchal
patrimonialism and the 'destruction' of it; the 'administration by honoratiores' of the English
middle ages, the revolutions in France 'and other Latin countries'
67
of the 18th and 19th
century and the 19th and 20th century Russian 'social revolutionary ethos'. Neither here nor
elsewhere in ES does Weber explain why the French and other Latin revolutions took place
and why the Russian social revolutionaries acquired so much support; in other words, the
reasons why patriarchal patrimonialism in these countries did not succeed in binding the
hearts and minds of men
68
so strongly.
Weber's analysis of the contrast between Germany and the rest of Europe therefore has to
be read as a literary text; as an expression of a personal, private concern with the power of
Germany and the quality of its manhood ideals; we will see that his characterization of the
patriarchal-patrimonial mentality is influenced by the same bias.
64
ES p. 1107/8, WG p. 652.
65
In his chapter on religious groups Weber provides for a better understanding by constructing the concept of
'official charisma' (see below Ch. 9,3), which appears not to be mentioned here since it falls outside his
conceptualization of 'patriarchal patrimonialism'.
66
ES p. 1107/8, WG p. 652.
67
most of which, however, in the Thirties succumbed to fascism as well.
68
See for the description of the contribution of the several feminist movements made to in particular the French
revolutions Albistur et Armogathe (1977); for an analysis of women's support of and resistance to totalitarian rule
Koontz (1987) and Macciocchi (1975).
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