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
171
Weber's concept of 'discipline' is the element that transforms men into a machine, the most
effective domination apparatus ever developed. Discipline threatens to eradicate all vestiges
of private, subjective meaning; it strives to make human conduct utterly 'public' and 'objective':
to the masters wholly predictable. Weber is able to conceptualize this phenomenon only by
using his most central paradox, the inversion of the meaning of charisma. With regard to
formal rationality in general he uses the same ploy: he characterizes formal rationality as a
belief, which has the same character as that in magic powers, except that it lacks some of the
practical aspects of magical beliefs.
7. Formal rationality as a belief
If formal rationality were wholly rational, it would be as empty a concept for interpretive
sociology as that of discipline, when this is separated from its charismatic history. Weber
therefore connects irrationality and rationality, having presented its historical connections with
charisma, by formulating a general connection between belief and legitimacy:
'In general, it should be kept clearly in mind that the basis of e v e r y *domination and correspondingly of e v e r y
kind of willingness to obey, is a b e l i e f, a belief by virtue of which persons exercising authority are lent prestige
.'
61
In 'Science as a Vocation' Weber gives a description of the belief which prevails in modern
society: the belief that there is somebody who knows what makes the streetcar move:
'Let us first clarify what this intellectualist rationalization, created by science and by scientifically oriented technology,
means practically.
Does it means that we, today, for instance, everyone sitting in this hall, have a greater knowledge of the conditions
of life under which we exist than has an American Indian or a Hottentot ? Hardly. Unless he is a physicist, one who
rides on the streetcar has no idea how the car happened to get into motion. And he does not need to know. He is
satisfied that he may 'count' on the *conduct of the streetcar, and he orients his conduct according to this
expectation; but he knows nothing about what it takes to produce such a car so that it can move. The savage knows
incomparably more about his tools. When we spend money today I bet that even if there are colleagues of political
economy here in the hall, almost every one of them will hold a different answer in readiness to the question: How
does it happen that one can buy something for money - sometimes more and sometimes less ?
'
62
In this formulation the belief in formal rationality is the belief in the existence and validity of a
consistent system of technical and normative rules and of people who know how to apply
them; in ES Weber elaborates only on the belief in 'legal' domination:
'The composition of this belief is seldom altogether simple. In the case of "legal authority", it is never purely legal.
The belief in legality comes to be established and habitual, and this means it is partly traditional. Violation of the
tradition may be fatal to it. Furthermore, it has a charismatic element, at least in the negative sense that persistent
and striking lack of success may be sufficient to ruin any government, to undermine its prestige, and to prepare the
way for charismatic revolution
.'
63
Here Weber uses the concepts 'tradition' and 'charisma' in their most formal, sex-neutral
sense, separated from all connections he made earlier between 'tradition' and 'patriarchy',
'charisma' and proven 'manhood'. In this way the common feature of all forms of domination -
their charismatic-patriarchal character - only appears in the empty formulation that every
legitimation is based on a belief composed out of charismatic and traditional elements.
61
ES p. 263, WG p. 153: '"Prestige"-Glauben, zugunsten des oder der Herrschenden.'
62
FMW p. 139, GAzW p. 593/4.
63
ES p. 263, WG p. 154.
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