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Karl Marx’s views on how societies
Karl Marx’s views on how societies
Karl Marx’s views on how societies
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Max Weber considered human science as a thorough investigation of social action. In his logical focus on individual human entertainers he fluctuated from a substantial part of his harbingers whose human science was envisioned in social-essential terms. Spencer concentrated on the progression of the body social as nearly looking like an animal. Durkheim 's central concern was with institutional courses of action that keep up the union of social structures. Marx 's vision of society was instructed by his diversion with the disputes between social classes inside changing social structures and advantageous relations. On the other hand, Weber 's basic focus was on the subjective ramifications that human entertainers attach to their exercises in …show more content…
Bureaucracy can be considered to be a particular case of rationalization, or rationalization applied to human organization. Bureaucratic coordination of human action, Weber believed, is the distinctive mark of modern social structures. In order to study these organizations, both historically and in contemporary society, Weber developed the characteristics of an ideal-type bureaucracy: Hierarchy of authority, impersonality, written rules of conduct, promotion based on achievement, specialized division of labor, and efficiency. According to Weber, bureaucracies are goal-oriented organizations designed according to rational principles in order to efficiently attain their goals. Offices are ranked in a hierarchical order, with information flowing up the chain of command, directives flowing down. All of these ideal characteristics have one goal, to promote the efficient attainment of the organization 's …show more content…
Weber 's discussion of authority relations also provides insight into what is happening in the modern world. Again, he uses the ideal type to begin to address these questions. Weber distinguished three main types of authority: Traditional Authority, rational legal authority, and charismatic. Rational legal authority is anchored in impersonal rules that have been legally established. This type of authority has come to characterize social relations in modern societies. Traditional authority often dominates premodern societies. It is based on the belief in the sanctity of tradition, of the eternal yesterday. Finally, charismatic authority rests on the appeal of leaders who claim allegiance because of the force of their extraordinary personalities. Again, it should be kept in mind that Weber is describing an ideal type; he was aware that in empirical reality mixtures will be found in the legitimization of
10). Mills identified three major institutions in modern society. These dominating hierarchies consisted of military institutions, government institutions, and corporations. Mills discussed how the decision-making power of military, government, and corporate sectors has centralized, enlarged, and become incredibly powerful. Additionally, other sectors of society have become increasingly subjugated to the overarching power of these major social institutions, which has been achieved through the centralization and enlargement of military, government, and corporate institutions. Now, the leaders of these three major areas form a small, unified group that Mills referred to as the power elite. Interestingly enough, their source of elite power is not attributed to any individual factors, according to Mills. In contrast, he believed that their source of elite power stemmed from the high levels of legitimate authority that they, in fact, possessed. Therefore, their source of elite power was not attributed to individual factors such as charisma. Specifically, Mills believed that the power elite achieved an unparalleled degree of power and influence that was ascribed through the social organizations in which they occupied key leadership positions. Mills stressed that it was crucial to analyze the three major institutions of corporations, government, and military to understand how power, influence, and decision-making processes have narrowed, centralized, and enlarged. The three major institutions identified by Mills have provided the leaders of these institutions with a resource for power that Elwell (2006) described as being “never before equaled in human history” (p.
Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.
C. Wright Mills in his article “ The Structure of Power in American Society” writes that when considering the types of power that exist in modern society there are three main types which are authority, manipulation and coercion. Coercion can be seen as the “last resort” of enforcing power. On the other hand, authority is power that is derived from voluntary action and manipulation is power that is derived unbeknownst to the people who are under that power.
Karl Marx and Max Weber, were two great social scientists, who devoted much of their work to the defining of capitalism through understanding its creation, causes, workings, and destiny. In their evaluations of capitalism they arrive at two distinct conclusion caused by similar and distinctly different factors. Though Marx and Weber apply the concept of specialization in very different ways, the implementation and consequences specialization have much in common. What is important about these two sociologist is that they both studied the same and one capitalism but their approach is miles apart from each other and have reached on totally different conclusions? Marx says that class is determined by economic factors and grades class as related
Rationality is this idea by Weber that it is potentially what created capitalism. Formal rationality is the set of pre-determined criteria that we use to make decisions and conduct activities. He basically says that as humans, we set goals for ourselves and we take whatever steps necessary to reach those goals. These steps though, have to be rational i.e. they are based off of our past experiences, logic or even science. Weber best describes this through the Protestant Ethic, in which he speaks of traditional capitalism, and rational capitalism.
Moreover, Weber thought rationality was helpful for organizations to operate in an efficient manner. He knew that even in modern societies rationality would expand into more and more societies because it was necessary for organizations to operate efficiently. However, he also feared that so much of this would increase the control of the individual limiting human action. These have been some of the features both Durkheim and Weber identified as distinctive of the modern era.
According to Max Weber, there are three types of authority: traditional, legal-rational, and charismatic. Traditional authority is based on traditions and customs; for example, parents are a type of traditional authority since individuals are taught to respect and listen to their parents from a young age (Weber, 12). Legal-rational authority is based on relation to laws, rules, and the government; an example of a legal-rational authority would be the police due to its association with the government and its task of enforcing the law (Weber, 13). Unlike these two types of authority, charismatic authority is solely based on the personality of the leader such as the degree of charisma the leader has and how well his interpersonal skills are (Weber, 12). Charismatic authority may seem very simplistic as it is just based on personality, yet it is this very aspect that allows for the emergence of polar-opposite charismatic leaders. Furthermore, the simple basis allows for the leaders to guide the group towards any direction they desire, and this makes the distinction between certain charismatic leaders prominent. The contrast
Legitimation refers to people’s beliefs about political authority and the ability to defend these beliefs with justification. The three main sources of legitimacy are typically understood as acceptance of authority and the need to obey its commands. People have faith in political or social order because it has been there for a long time (tradition), have faith in the rulers (charisma), or trust its legality, specifically the rationality of the rule of law (rational) (Weber 1990 [1918]; 1964). Whilst legitimacy is constantly evolving due to current perceptions of society; texts such as ‘Oedipus the King’ (Sophocles) and ‘The Apology’ (Plato) that date back to fifth century BCE explore the notion of traditional, charismatic, and rational legitimation in a comparative way.
Three thinkers form the foundations of modern-day sociological thinking. Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Each developed different theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function, and how we are determined by society. This essay will focus on the contrasts and similarities of Durkheim and Weber’s thought of how we are determined by society. It will then go on to argue that Weber provides us with the best account of modern life.
Bureaucracy has been the main form of organisation for over a century and can be characterised by the following: functional specialisation, employees carrying out one function of activity as their primary role; hierarchy of authority, those in superior positions having authority based solely on the virtue of the position itself; a system of rules, the tasks of the organisation following a formal set of procedures and practices; and impersonality, individuals being treated on the basis of the rules rather than emotions and personality (Knights & Willmott, 2012). The mainstream perspective states that a bureaucratic organisation’s central aim is to maximise efficiency, objectivity and fairness and can be thought of as a ‘machine’ with the people making up the components (Knights & Willmott, 2012). This view attributes three problems to this rule-centred organisation: poor motivation, poor customer service and a resistance to innovation and change (Knights & Willmott, 2012). Employees in bureaucratic organisations tend not to be committed to their
Max Weber thought that "statements of fact are one thing, statements of value another, and any confusing of the two is impermissible," Ralf Dahrendorf writes in his essay "Max Weber and Modern Social Science" as he acknowledges that Weber clarified the difference between pronouncements of fact and of value. 1 Although Dahrendorf goes on to note the ambiguities in Weber's writings between factual analysis and value-influenced pronouncements, he stops short of offering an explanation for them other than to say that Weber, being human, could not always live with his own demands for objectivity. Indeed, Dahrendorf leaves unclear exactly what Weber's view of objectivity was. More specifically, Dahrendorf does not venture to lay out a detailed explanation of whether Weber believed that the social scientist could eliminate the influence of values from the analysis of facts.
Karl Weber, a sociologist and political economist, describes authority as a form legal domination. Followers comply with the rules of these individuals because they consider their authority to be legitimate. While the legitimacy of domination does not have to be rationality, right, or natural justice, it is legitimate because individuals accept, obey, and consider domination to be required. The president of the United States is considered a traditional, legal and charismatic authority, where the legitimate domination rests on the idea of the legality of enacted rules for these individuals elevated to their status to give commands. The news article Obama's Executive-Power Use Shows He Still Holds Some Cards by NPR.com shows the President Barrack Hussein Obama II, the 44th president of the United States, as a traditional, legal and charismatic authority figure based on the characteristics of domination defined by Karl Weber.
Similarly in Weber’s bureaucratic approach, organizations are divided into different echelons with each varying in its degrees of influence. Each unit being commanded by the one above it, a system that promotes stability and has a predictable line of communication. Both approaches of management rely heavily on regulated control. Whether governing task scientifically of people authoritatively. A solid form of control is mus...
According to Sapru R.K. (2008) p370-371 the traditional ideal of public administration which inclined to be firm and bureaucratic was based on processes instead of outcomes and on setting procedures to follow instead of focusing on results. This paradigm can be regarded as an administration under formal control of the political control, constructed on a firmly ranked model of bureaucracy, run by permanent and neutral public servants, driven only by public concern. In emerging nations the administration was true bureaucracy meaning government by officers. In this perspective Smith (1996) p235-6 perceived that“the bureaucracy controls and manages the means of production through the government. It increases chances for bureaucratic careers by the creation of public figures,demanding public managers, marketing boards.
Bureaucracy is an organizational design based on the concept of standardization. “It is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command” (Judge & Robbins, 2007, p.