Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy. 1994
Chapter 9 Connections between formal rationality and charismatic domination over and through free
men: the continuing role of magic in the construction of impersonal patriarchal fraternities; from
Ständestaat to revolution
164
'The old requirement of a knightly style of life, the prerequisite for capacity to hold a fief, is nowadays in Germany
replaced by the necessity of participating in its surviving remnants, the duelling fraternities of the universities
which grant the patents of education; in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the athletic and social clubs fulfill the same
function.'
Although Weber characterizes rational education as the 'radical opposite' of charismatic
education, the certificate of expertise can be said to have come to serve as a manifestation of
charismatic selection and initiation.
36
Thus, although Weber claimed that the charismatic
elements of bureaucratized university education are the 'radical opposite' of the formal-rational
ones, they cannot be separated. Moreover, his emphasis on the status effects of 'education
patents' and on the monopolization processes which went with it do not refer to rational, but to
charismatic elements, as does the term 'examination'. University education thus can be said to
have supplied the sons of the bourgeoisie with a monopoly of access to positions of command,
by giving them - through the passing of examinations or the payment of money - diploma's and
degrees which establish their charisma. This (routinized) charisma can be reinforced through
membership of student fraternities which organize old-fashioned manhood tests.
bureaus and in offices. Such certificates support their holder's claims for connubium with the notables (-), claims
to be admitted into the circles that adhere to "codes of honor", claims for a "status-appropriate" salary instead of
a wage according to performance, claims for assured advancement and old-age insurance, and above all, claims
to the monopolization of socially and economically advantageous positions. 'If we hear from all sides demands for
the introduction of regulated curricula culminating in specialized examinations, the reason behind this is, of
course, not a suddenly awakened "thirst for knowledge", but rather the desire to limit the supply of candidates for
these positions and the monopolize them for the holders of educational patents.'
36
See for the Netherlands Frijhoff (1981): the university degree, especially that in law, became a symbol of an
accomplished initiation into the leading elite (p. 206, 287/8); the diploma mostly could be bought (p. 34); ritual and
dinner were the most important requirements for the promotion to 'doctor' (p. 47).
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