Weber’s Theory of Rationalization
• Weber often focused on a theory of the process of rationalization.
• Weber was interested in why institutions in the Western world had grown more rational than the rest of the world.
• He saw the bureaucracy as the classic example of rationalization.
• He differentiated authority into three types: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal.
• Only the Western world can be rational-legal, and can develop modern bureaucracy.
• (e.g. The U.S. president derives his authority only from the laws of society.)
• The rest of the world remains dominated by traditional or charismatic authority systems.
•Then, Weber also tried to understand why a rational economic system (capitalism) had developed in the West and why it had failed to develop in the rest of the world.
• He focused on religion in this process, and concluded that a rational religious system (Calvinism of Christianity) played the central role in the rise of capitalism in the West.
• In contrast, more irrational religious systems (e.g. Confucianism, Hinduism) is popular in the rest of the world, and they constricted the development of capitalism.