Ramil Seraspi

11 HUMSS - Plato
CHAPTER 4

ORGANIZING SOCIETY

Lesson 2: Examining Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions

Weberian Types of Authority

Max Weber’s work on social action showed one of the clearest links between
individuals and institutions. As defined by Weber, social action is one thatindividuals
attach subjective meanings to. In other words, social action is action that is meaningful.

Weber identified four types of social action.

 Traditional action is determined by the actor’s habitual and customary ways of
behaving.
 Affectual action is determined by the emotional state of the actor.
 Value rationality is determined by a conscious belief in the value of some
ethical, aesthetic, religious or other forms of behavior.
 Means-ends rationality is determined by goal orientation.

These four types of social action form the bases of the structures of authority, or
the legitimate forms of domination. There are three types of authority according to
Weber.
 Traditional authority is associated with hereditary authority (example:
monarchy).
 Charismatic Authority is associated with charismatic leaders whose authority
comes from followers’ belief in the leaders’ special personal qualities (example:
cult leaders, benevolent dictators).
 Rational-legal authority is associated with leadership that is goal-oriented for
the benefit of society (example:duly-elected government officials;
bureaucrats).The ultimate form of goal-oriented action is the bureaucracy.

A bureaucracy is a large, rational organization, designed to perform tasks

efficiently (Macionis 2012: 153).

Weber identified the following as features of a bureaucracy:

 Specialization: There exists a specialized division of labor.
 Hierarchy of position:Jobs are structured from greater to lesser amounts of
authority.
 Rules and regulations: Formal rules and regulations guide a bureaucracy’s
operations.
 Technical competence: Bureaucratic workers are technically trained.
 Impersonality: Rules and regulations, not personal whim, govern the treatment of
 both clients and workers so that they are treated in the same way.
 Formal, written communications: There is a reliance on records and files.

Economy is the “social institution that organizes a society’s production,

distribution, and consumption of goods and services” (Macionis 2012: 370). The
economy has three sectors (Ibid: 372). The primary sector relies on raw materials from
the natural environment. It is the most important sector in low-income nations.
Examples are agriculture, fishing, and mining.

The secondary sector is the manufacturing sector which transforms raw

materials into manufactured goods. This sector has a significant shareof the economy in
low-, middle-, and high-income nations. Examples are automobile and clothing
manufacturing. The tertiary sector produces services rather than goods. It is the
dominant sector in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Examples are call center
services, sales, and teaching.

Nonstate actors are organizations, groups, or networks that participate in

international relations and global governance.They are deemed to have sufficient power
and influence to advocate for and cause changes in international norms and
development practices.They include civil society, nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) and international NGOs (INGOs), economic and social groups, including trade
union organizations and transnational corporations, and the private sector. In practice,
nonstate actors include, among others, community-based organizations, human rights
association, universities and research institutes, and chambers of commerce.

Civil society is “the population of groups formed for collective purpose primarily
outside of the State and marketplace” (van Rooy 1998: 30).

Education is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and beliefs. There are
many competing ideas about education as an institution. For some, it is viewed as a
socializing process while others view education as a status competition. Finally,
education can also be seen as a system of legitimation, where it restructures entire
populations, creating elites and redefining the rights and duties of its members (Meyer
1977). Mass education, or public education, is an example of how education can
restructure entire populations and redefine the rights and obligations of citizens.

Religion. Giddens and Duneier (2013) cite Durkheim’s definition of religion as

involving a set of symbols that invoke feelings of reverence or awe, which are linked to
rituals practiced by a community of believers.