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What is Modernisation? Part 1: Rationality, Bureaucracy and the State

SOC207: Intro to Social Theory

Dr Jordan McKenzie: Lecture One

•What is this moment we are in now?

•What is modernity?

•How did we get here and where are we going?

•Marx’s Eleventh Thesis:

‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’ Link

The historical context of ‘first wave’ (European) social theory:

Artistic, intellectual and religious movements:

•16th century on: the Copernican Revolution and the rise of science.

•17th century on: rise of ‘modern’ institution: the (nation) state, the market economy, (arguably) secularization, urbanization.

•18th century: The Enlightenment.

•Late 18th-19th centuries: industrialization and the triumph of capitalism.

•18th-20th centuries: political and social revolutions: the French Revolution (1789); class revolutions and attempted revolutions (1848, 1870, 1905, 1918); the Russian Revolution (1917).

•19th-20th centuries: mass warfare, mass democracy plus nationalism and colonialism.

•Late 19th-20th century: welfare state.

‘What is Enlightenment?’
Immanuel Kant (1784)

•Enlightenment celebrated the rejection of superstition and religion in favour of science and rationality.

•A new modern society was to be built on evidence rather than tradition.

•Separation of church and state

•“Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority [or tutelage or immaturity]. … Sapere aude! [dare to be wise] Have courage to make use of your own understanding! is thus the motto of enlightenment.”

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Immanuel_Kant_(portrait).jpg#filelinks

Three Views Of The Modern State

•Marxist ‘state theory’: the state as an instrument of class rule/mechanism of the reproduction of capital.

Some influential recent thinkers in this tradition: Ralph Miliband (1924-1994); Nicos Poulantzas (1936-1979); Bob Jessop (1946-).

•Max Weber: the state as an autonomous source of power and an instrument of bureaucratic ‘domination’ (Herrschaft).

•On ‘democratic elite theory’ (e.g. Schumpeter).

•Historical sociology – e.g. Michael Mann.

•Durkheim: the state as representative of the collective interest; as a moral instance. It must serve the people (in contrast to capitalism which only seeks profit).

Ruling Class, Ruling Ideas,

Ruling Power

•‘The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it’ (Marx & Engels 1845).

•‘The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.’ (Marx & Engels 1848).

Weber’s Rejection Of The Marxist View

•The state cannot be reduced to the instrument of power for a particular class because:

•The power of the state rests upon a social resource that is not economic in nature, namely physical violence.

•This lends the state its autonomy from the economy and from economic interests.

What Is The (Nation) State?

•‘The state is that human community which (successfully) lays claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical violence within a given territory, this ‘territory’ being another defining characteristic of the state’ (from ‘Politics as a Vocation’ Max Weber 1919).

•Components of this definition:

•monopoly on violence (Gewaltmonopol);

•territoriality

•legitimacy.

IMG: http://alexsheremet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Police-Brutality.jpg

Paul Buck—AFP/Getty Images

Ron Sutton:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/06/13/injured-get-worse-manus-asylum-seeker

Structure

Agency

How can we explain human behavior?

Social structures shape our experience of the world, ethics, values, hopes etc.

Therefore, all decisions are influenced by structure, whether we know it or not

Yes, there are influential social structures, but individuals still make their own decisions. Sociology is the study of those decisions. Though some of us have ‘more’ agency than others.

What Do Modern, Sovereign States Do?

According to Weber:

•Act as instruments of (bureaucratic) domination (Herrschaft).

•Provide a unified system of administration (and taxation) within a given territory.

•Defend their borders and compete (militarily or economically) with other sovereign states in a search for national ‘worth’ or ‘greatness’ (Weber’s nationalism).

•Provide a stable legal-rational framework (necessary for capitalism)

Rational-Legal Authority

Traditional Authority

Charismatic Authority

What is Bureaucracy?

According to Weber:

•Organised and structured sets of rules and regulations that govern the actions of people, corporations, states etc.

•It priorities efficiency, predictability and consistency, and it does this by adopting ‘rational’ rather than ‘traditional’, ‘emotional’ or ‘common sense’ logic.

•Modernity is defined by the shift toward rational bureaucracy in all areas of social life.

•The modern bureaucratic state becomes an ‘Iron Cage’ for individuals. People are not naturally rational, and so we are in conflict with bureaucratic rules.

•The irrationality of rationality

•But if we all hate bureaucracy, why is it so dominant?

•For Weber, the answer is ‘because it works better than any other system’ (paraphrasing). Modern society would be impossible without it.

•In bureaucratic structures, there are strict regulations for accountability, but no one is directly responsible for the cruelty, violence or injustice of the system.

•It allows individuals to defer blame to the system, and this is a very useful resource for authorities. Everything from police brutality to mandatory detention centres become a matter of people ‘following the rules’.

Arendt: The Banality of Evil

•For Arendt, the Holocaust was made possible though rational bureaucracy

•Death camps dehumanised people through logistics and systematic record keeping that treated people as objects.

•Auschwitz was a bureaucratic genocide

•For Arendt, the most ruthless and dangerous Nazis were simply good bureaucrats.