MAX WEBER’S

VIEWS ON
CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT

Introduction to Development Studies

16th February 2023
Solano Da Silva

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CLASS OBJECTIVE >>

To understand Max Weber’s analysis on capitalist

development.

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1. BACKGROUND TO WEBER’S SCHOLARSHIP >>

Maximillian K E Weber (1864-1920)

Central Problem: How does one explain the disruption of
traditional life and the rise of capitalism in Europe?

(1904-05) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

(1922) Economy and Society

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1. BACKGROUND TO WEBER’S SCHOLARSHIP >>

1. Background to Weber’s scholarship

2. Weber’s thesis
3. The ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism and the flowering of capitalism
4. Protestant ethic and the ‘spirit of capitalism’
5. Protestantism and the rationalist turn
6. Rationalisation and the modern bureaucracy
7. The ironies of modernity
8. Reflections for development

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1. BACKGROUND TO WEBER’S SCHOLARSHIP >>
What is capitalism?

• New social values based on the maximisation of efficiency

and unlimited gain as an end of economic behaviour.

• Unlike other classical theorists, Marx and Weber did

not see capitalist attitudes and behaviours arising from
generic or universal human nature.

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2. WEBER’S THESIS >>
The rise of European (and American) capitalism is because of
the rise of the capitalist spirit and the rise of the capitalist spirit is
because of the Protestant ethic

• (c.f) Karl Marx: Economic base gives rise to religion

(superstructure)… and this in turn keeps the economic base
intact

• Max Weber: Changes in religious values (Protestant

Christianity) gives rise to capitalism

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3. The ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism and the flowering of capitalism >>

▪ Expansion of capitalism results from profits being re-invested

regularly rather than frivolously spent.

• Modern capitalism results from the drive to gradually increase

profits in a goal-oriented, controlled and rational manner
(capitalist spirit)

• [Capitalist’s behaviour] Hardworking but ascetic life

(capitalist spirit).

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4. Protestant ethic and the ‘spirit of capitalism’ >>

▪ Old Catholicism
• Work is punishment
• Pursuit of wealth problematic
v/s
▪ Protestantism
• Luther (1517): all work is godly; individual direct relationship
with god
• Calvin (16th c.): Transcendence & predestination = anxiety to
work
• Methodists (1700): life has a goal; person has a calling;
methodical with time and money.
• Presbyterians (16th c.): Frugality

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5. Protestantism and the rationalist turn >>

▪ Early human societies: pre-rationalist

▪ Subsequent world view: quasi-rationalist

▪ Protestant Christianity: the rationalist turn

• The emergence of the rationalist spirit aided the rise
of modern capitalism

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5. Protestantism and the rationalist turn >>

❑ Cosmology: all seeing but distant and silent god

o Protestant anxiety

▪ Turning one’s back on sacramental magic and miracles

• The embrace of science

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5. Protestantism and the rationalist turn >>

New England, and US Ivy League Universities

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6. Rationalisation and the emergence of the modern bureaucracy >>

▪ Large capitalist states need to be run by rational,

scientific class
• Creation of a modern bureaucracy

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7. Ironies of Modernity >>

▪ Individual political rights v/s the ‘iron cage’ of

irresistible efficiency
▪ Disenchantment of the world
▪ Political struggle

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8. Reflections for development >>

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REFERENCES

Birnbaum, N. (1953) Conflicting Interpretations of the Rise of Capitalism: Marx and Weber,
The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jun., 1953), pp. 125-141.

Kim, Sung Ho, (2019) "Max Weber", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/weber/>.

Weber, M (2005) 'The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit' in Edelman, Marc & Haugerud,
Angelique, The Anthropology of Development and Globalization: From Classical Political Economy to
Contemporary Neoliberalism, London: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 95-98.

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