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
169
'Rational discipline' appears to be an even more anti-charismatic phenomenon than 'juristic
formalism' or the 'rational economic vocation'; Weber emphasizes this when he introduces the
concept in his chapter on charisma and its transformations:
'It is the fate of charisma to recede before the powers of tradition or of rational association after it has entered the
permanent structures of social action. This waning of charisma generally indicates the diminishing importance of
individual action. In this respect, the most irresistible force is r a t i o n a l d i s c i p l i n e, which eradicates not only
personal charisma but also stratification by status groups, or at least transforms them in a rationalizing direction
.'
52
Weber's conceptualization of discipline is clear:
'The content of discipline is nothing but the consistently rationalized, methodically prepared and exact execution of
the received order, in which all personal criticism is unconditionally suspended and the actor is unswervingly and
exclusively set for carrying out the command. In addition, this conduct under orders is uniform. The effects of this
uniformity derive from its quality as social action within a mass structure. Those who obey are not necessarily a
simultaneously obedient or an especially large mass, not are they necessarily united in a specific locality. What is
decisive for discipline is that the obedience of a plurality of *human beings is rationally uniform
.'
How 'discipline' developed, however, remains obscure. Weber finds its origins in military
formations
53
; discipline has been created for the first time in the warrior communism (emph.
Weber) of the men's house
54
, which is probably 'everywhere a remnant ('caput mortuum') of
the following of charismatic warlords'. 'Under favorable conditions, the warrior chief may well
gain complete control over the disciplined warrior formations.'
55
This description only accounts
for 'discipline' once it has developed; Weber explains it by using the paradox of the final
routinization of charisma which is actually its reversal. In fact, the question arises whether
interpretive sociology is able to explain this kind of action at all.
It is a question which is of the utmost importance, because in Weber's argument discipline is
one of the central characteristics both of modern warfare as well as of all other impersonal
institutions:
'Discipline in general, like its most rational offspring, bureaucracy, is impersonal. Unfailingly neutral, it places itself at
the disposal of every power that claims its service and knows how to promote it.'
56
To establish discipline all kinds of motives which may enforce uniform obedience are used;
these motives may be ethical ones like 'a sense of duty and conscience', or emotional ones
like 'enthusiasm and unreserved devotion'
57
; but whatever they are, they serve 'the rationally
calculated optimum of the physical and psychic preparedness of the uniformly conditioned
(abgerichtete) masses'. This means that 'everything is rationally "calculated", especially those
seemingly imponderable and irrational emotional factors - in principle, at least, calculable in
the same manner as the yields of coal and iron deposits.'
52
ES p. 1148/9, WG p. 681. See also the definition on ES p. 53, WG p. 28.
53
ES p. 1152 ff., WG p. 684 ff.
54
ES p. 1153 ff., WG p. 684 ff.
55
'The communist warrior is the perfect counterpart to the monk, whose garrisoned and communistic life in the
monastery serves the purpose of disciplining him in the service of his other-worldly master (and, resulting
therefrom, perhaps also his this-worldly master).' ES p. 1154, WG p. 685/4.
56
ES p. 1149, WG p. 682.
57
ES p. 1150, WG p. 682. Weber continues: 'every modern conduct of war weighs, frequently above everything
else, precisely the morale factor in troop effectiveness. Military leadership uses emotional means of all sorts - just
as the most sophisticated techniques of religious discipline, the exercitia spiritualia of Ignatius of Loyola, do in
their way. It seeks to influence combat by "inspiring" the solders and, even more, by developing empathy for the
leader's will.'
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