Max Weber Domination Summary

Weber mentions that “Domination was defined above as the probability that certain specific commands (or all commands will be obeyed by a given group of persons…Domination in this sense may be based on the most diverse motives of compliance” (Weber:112). To explain, Weber believes that this legitimate domination can be habitually following orders from leaders such as the Narrator following company policies and, most importantly, his manager while at work. Weber says this behavior originates from the “uncritical, unresisting masses” (Weber:113); or humans who simply consent to all authority without thought or care. On the other hand, Weber also says that legitimate domination can be in the form of calculated ulterior motives for following someone’s orders. For example, Project Mayhem follow the orders of Tyler Durden with the expectation that their efforts will be noticed and they will advance in

Essay on the subject of power and way of thinking with refrences to the essays titled ;

The essays that comprise Traditional Classics on Leadership present varying notions of authority and of challenging authority. This is largely due to the fact that this manuscript is comprised of essays from 31 contributors, ranging from well-known political theorists to some of the more salient voices for individuality that the world has known. Still, there are some points of commonalities in these essays that present a synthesized viewpoint of the concept of challenging authority.

A professional is a person who relates to a job that requires special education, training, or skill. Max Weber, in his theories believed that there was set qualifications that allowed a specific person to be regarded as a so called professional. When comparing 19th century baseball players to Weber’s ideals, this specific criterion which includes qualifications such as, full time occupation, clientele, promotions, power and doctrine, and vocational qualifications among many others help to decide whether these players can be considered professionals. According to Weber’s theory, baseball players mainly were not professionalized because they mainly lacked power, clientele, and salaries.

The article presents Weber’s argument regarding social stratification in contrast to Marx’s. In his discussion of his theory of social stratification, he outlines three ways in which society is divided: by class (economically), status (socially) and by party (ideologically). He argues that the individual identity is not determined by the class identity, and that status and party identities often cross class divisions.

Both men mention that the leaders must have good reasons for what they are doing. Because the good reasons, ruler can dominate people easily. For example, if the prince had used punishment to people without any reasons,

In class, we talked about discrimination in society through economic inequality with Marx, and then with Durkheim. We discussed the positive viewing of individualism in society through inequality. Max Weber is comparable to Karl Marx because they both focus on inequality and capitalism. However, unlike Marx, Weber views the uneconomic actions in society. He has an interpretive view, and as an interpretive sociologist, this means he focuses on the concerns of the society itself and not the people

The employee devotion to their charismatic leader served as the motivation to perform. “Unlike Weber’s other two types of authority, charismatic authority relies on personal devotion to the figure that possesses the qualities exalted by the followers” (Pellegrino, 2010, p. 65). A flat hierarchy became a part of the work culture, but the owner’s recent retirement created a void within the bakery and exposed a leadership deficit. “Charismatic authority is individually based, and when the charismatic leader leaves the organization, the authority or ability to influence leaves with him or her. Weber believed charismatic authority contributed to unstable organizations and disorderly transition of power from person to another” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, p. 76). The leadership void and lack of hierarchy began to erode employee commitment and

Modern day power originates from the mind in that we give certain figures power based upon man-made forms of value or worth like money. The definition of power has fluctuated throughout time, and while the past may have emphasized the more violent aspects, today, we have shifted towards a more control based interpretation. Both Michael Foucault and John Berger delve into the idea of power and its functionality. Based on their texts, in our current socio-cultural setting, power is best exploited when the concept behind the power is deindividualized for many purposes, internalized by the people, and integrated throughout society to the point that its origins is mystified.

The issue of dominance and subordinance is addressed in the short stories “A Jury of her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “Mama Come Home” by James Tiptree, Jr. In the stories the subordinates are harmed by the dominants, but the subordinates overcome the suppression to triumph in the end. The groups with the power control the laws and the positions of the weaker group.

He made us aware on how so many individuals knowingly participated in the atrocious acts of violence against humanity and without much hesitance. He provided us the formula and a clear explanation on Max Weber views and how it was all possible for the bureaucratic domination of Germany, and the consequences of such power. Max Weber “was convinced that political domination would rest with whoever controlled the bureaucratic apparatus because of its indisputable superiority as an instrument for the organization of human action”. (Rubenstein, 23) Nazi Germany mastered the use of power and the management principles, this can be observed in Hitler’s organization of the concentration camps. Hitler replaced the existence camps with a more impersonal, systematized terror” camps. (Rubenstein, 24) Hitler and Nazi Germany established order in the camps, by applying bureaucracy principles. They established specialization, providing a meaning of set task and responsibilities each office and individual will handle and follow, making their job simpler and more efficient in following directions. They appointed individuals to ensure the written rules and regulations installed were being followed. This assured that individuals knew their responsibilities and made it easier for their assigned task to be completed. This also created recordkeeping of the rules, procedures and disciplinary actions.

My understanding of the Matrix of Domination is that it’s the intersectionality of social factors such as gender, class, and race, and their cumulative impact on a person's life. This relates to C Wright Mills’ “Sociological Imagination”, the relationship between personal troubles and societal issues,

For weber power is determined as something that when imposed, then a person has to follow it. For Weber domination is the probability that persons will obey commands. Weber mentioned power as being ‘ sociologically amorphous’. (Roth and Wittich, 1968) The probability of a command being accepted mainly relates to the surroundings of domination. An example of this is that, a supervisor could expect his colleague to obey his sayings but when they meet outside the business then the supervisor is unlikely to have such an expectation (Watson, 2003).

One way in particular that the authority can ensure that this power over all maintained, is by creating a system of differentiation amongst different groups; giving one group more significance than the other; as a way to gain unifying support from the preferred group. This is what we see with the totalitarian regime of the Nazi party, where the Jews were made out to be the inferior group. By successfully creating an enemy out of the Jews, Germans could now unify themselves in eliminating this common enemy. This according to Hayek is a necessary for a dictator in maintaining his power over the rest, meanwhile the rest are made to believe that their common hatred for Jews was necessary for the good of the whole. According to Hayek, “That the desire to organize social life according to a unitary plan itself springs largely from a desire for power. It is even more the outcome of the fact that, to achieve their end, collectivists must create power-power over men wielded by other men-of a magnitude never before know, and that their success will depend on the extent to which they achieve such power (165). Essentially, what is seen here is this relationship between unlimited state power over the individual and of

The Political scientist George Mac Gregor Burns, has been one of the first one to take the challenge for a throughout analysis of this topic. He has developed Max Webber’s thinking on the sources of authority and charisma by bringing a distinction between transactional and transformational leadership.