Max_Weber_the_City

Max Weber: The City Classical Sociological Theory Kristina M. Hendriks Northern Illinois University Max Weber: The City This paper will examine Max Weber and his ideas as depicted through his text, The City, 1958. The City, published after his death, is just another account amongst many of his concepts of ideal types and rationalization of the west. In his texts he refers to the west as the occident. “Max Weber (1864-1920), combined a methodical, scientific approach with a concern about both the material conditions and idea systems of modern societies,” (Edles & Applerouth, 2005). This is something that will be seen through this discussion of The City. The ideal type of a city will be examined and evidence from the text will be given to support the development of cities into modern and rational cities. Weber is strongly tied to historical explanations and social evolution. This is seen not only in The City but also in his works like The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904), where he goes into great detail. Also, it is important to mention that Max Weber was highly influenced by German Idealism not just materialism. He focused on material facts but also used his ideal types to account for the validity of ideas. He is, in all his works, trying to show how modernity and rationalization happened in the west first. This is extremely evident in The City. To begin setting up Weber’s ideal type of a city, he does not see size as a determinant of whether or not some conglomerate of people constitutes a city. “The many definitions of the city have only one element in common: namely that the city consists simply of a collection of one or more separate dwellings but is a relatively closed settlement,” (Weber, pg. 65). This lays out his first point; the city is a closed settlement of individual dwellings. This means that the city could be made up of simply two separate homes or could be made up of a large amount of separate homes. There is no determinant as to the size of the city. This goes against the notion held by many today, and even in Weber’s time, that a city has to be made up of a large number of homes and an even larger number of people. Weber then goes into the economics of the city. “Economically defined, the city is a settlement the inhabitants of which live primarily off trade and commerce rather than agriculture,” (Weber, pg. 66). Weber is showing one of the first steps in the social evolutionary process that develops the modern city; that of trade and commerce rather than agriculture and basic subsistence living. Weber does not however believe that all places that have trade and commerce are cities. Any time that there was trade or bartering, even between friends or family there would be trade and commerce, therefore, the two friends or family members could be considered a city if this was true. Weber thus sees the need for versatility and adds that, “economic versatility can be established in at least two ways: by the presence of a feudal estate or a market. The economic and political needs of a feudal or princely estate can encourage specialization in trade products in providing a demand for which work is performed and goods are bartered. The other method of establishing economic versatility is more generally important for the ‘city’; this is the existence in the place of settlement of a regular rather than an occasional exchange of goods,” (Weber, pg. 66). Weber is arguing that a city not only needs separate residences in a closed settlement, but that it also needs an economy and commerce. This is achieved by economic versatility and a market. This exchange of goods has to happen regularly and consistently. This can be seen in the town centers of most places in the ancient and medieval times that Weber is writing of. The market is the livelihood of the settlement. It provides work, money, supplies, food, social interaction, and much more. Now, something of importance to Weber’s social evolution of the city needs to be addressed. Weber does not see a clear cut between market cities and agricultural civilizations. Further, he does not see a clear cut in any transitional state. He argues that many ancient cities participated not only in trade and commerce in an established settlement, but also they have agriculture as a means of feeding the population of the city and as a means of commerce. If agriculture still plays a large part in food production and still is a means of livelihood in many areas today it is reasonable to see it as a major part of life in developing ancient and medieval cities as well. Weber saw this and saw the uses of agriculture by more developed or modern cities. Another point of interest is the development of consumer and producer cities. “The trade city and merchant city are confronted by the consumer city in which the purchasing power of its larger consumers rests on the retail for profit of foreign products on the local market, the foreign sale for profit of local products or goods obtained by native producers, or the purchase of foreign products and their sale with or without storage at the place to the outside,” (Weber, pg. 69). The cities economic developments led them to be more and more versatile. This led them to be able to not only produce what they consume but produce what others consume and consume what others produce. Others being different cities or people outside of the city. Thus the city can be all types: merchant, trade, subsistence-based, consumer, and producer. The development of the city from basic settlement-bound mercantilism and trade into one that not only consumes what it produces but does so much more allows for the expansion of the city, further trade and wider trading, more specialization and differentiation, higher profitability, and the need of regulation. Regulation, according to Weber is necessary to a certain extent. He believes in individual agency but also in the importance of structure. “The urban economic policy was basically characterized by its attempts to stabilize the conditions of the local urban economy by means of economic regulations in the interest of permanently and cheaply feeding the masses and standardizing the economic opportunities of tradesmen and merchants,” (Weber, pg. 73). According to Weber the economic political policies came out of the need to regulate food and goods to allow for the consistent supply of those in the city as well as for those who were passing through the city for various reasons including foreign trade; foreign here meaning coming from any place outside of the city. He saw that most of this regulation developed from guilds which had developed to regulate their business, services, and compensation. The economic regulation of the times meant that a lot more was required of the city. The city had rules and rulers to abide by, it had land and goods to protect, and it had to perform well enough in commerce to keep itself alive. Having all of these requirements meant that there needed to be some way to protect the city and some way to defend it. Weber will argue that this is how the cities developed military (garrisons) and fortresses. Weber shows that not all places had fortresses. He gives the east as an example. “In contrast to Japan (a country without fortresses), in China every city was surrounded with a gigantic ring of walls,” (Weber, pg. 75). The protection of the city was very important. In the west (occident), these developments led to the protection of cities from other cities conquering them and other nations or countries conquering their nation or country. It kept what was very important to the survival of the city safely tucked away by massive walls and gates. It is noteworthy that the east, which was still primarily agricultural, did not have these fortress type cities. The only exception he gives is China, who had walls around the cities but nothing more. The city also had to develop a military to protect the city and its inhabitants. This military later developed into part of the state which comprised its political affairs but in the beginning it was developed for protecting the city, conquering rival cities, maintaining social order, and more. “Wherever a castle existed artisans came or were settled for the satisfaction of manorial wants and the needs of the warriors. The consumption power of a prince’s military and the protection it guaranteed attracted the merchants,” (Weber, pg. 79). This shows how the two develop hand in hand. The economy develops to support the city and the leaders of the city and the military, and the fortresses develop which supports the economy and the financial and fiscal welfare of the city. However, cities that were mostly militaristic and not very economically based, as in Sparta, did not survive because there was not a vast economy to support the city, just as he would argue that cities that are primarily economic and have little means to defend themselves will fall away. So what does Weber say is required in a community' “To constitute a full urban community a settlement must display a relative predominance of trade-commercial relations with the settlement as a whole displaying the following features: 1. a fortification; 2. a market; 3. a court of its own and at least partially autonomous law; 4. a related form of association; and 5. at least partial autonomy and autocephaly, thus also an administration by authorities in the election of whom the burghers participated,” (Weber, pg. 81). In this excerpt, Weber shows some things that have already been discussed and some that have not. Weber is trying to show the development of a primitive city into a modern city that has democracy and regulation as well as autonomy. There had to be some sort of association among members of the city to keep them unified and willing to uphold the city. The people of the city had to have something in common, as well as they had to be differentiated to some extent to have association among members and to remain a city. When certain cities were lacking this association of parts they ultimately did not survive. Weber gives the example of Mecca to support this argument. The city had to have officials to decide on laws and regulations that were in the city’s best interest as well as to make sure that the laws and regulations were followed. One part of this is the legal aspect of handling problems that arise within the city. If there happens to be a dispute among the citizenry then there has to be some way to reach agreement and to make sure that action is taken to right any wrongs. Early in the history of the cities this was most likely done by the church or the king solely, but as the city developed there had to be some form of practical and fair means of social control and order. Thus the courts were created that handled problems of the citizenry and laws were established to try and keep the peace. At first, the city’s official positions were heritable only by the nobles, but as the cities developed and social unrest took hold when the peasantry was not satisfied or justice was not served, the positions became appointed which led to the first forms of democracy where individuals had agency because they could make decisions about who was in charge of regulating them. A lot of the city’s development followed along the lines of the Christian church. There were vast similarities between the hierarchical structure of the church and the hierarchical structure of ancient and medieval cities. This is evident in Weber’s assertion that, “urban cities must have at least partial autonomy and autocephaly.” These terms come out of early Christianity when officials did not have to go through the whole hierarchy, they could simply stay in connection to other churches without actually reporting to them. Theses concepts relate back to the city because the city has its own hierarchy of serfs and peasants, reinters and landlords, the guilds and master craftsmen, lords, knights, and many more in between and beyond, all the way to the top where the king held ultimate authority. The city held a certain amount of autonomy and autocephaly because although it was in commune with other cities such as the ancient Greek cities were, they ultimately did not have to report much beyond themselves. Christianity is important to Weber when showing the development of the city because the religion, which had its hold in the administration of ancient cities and medieval cities, was very different from the magic of the clans and tribes internal to the cities and surrounding the cities, thus, leading to their demise. “Christianity became the religion of these people who had been profoundly shaken in all their traditions. Christianity itself was the final element in the destruction of the religious significance of the clans, thus, Christianity became fundamentally important for the very founding of the medieval city,” (Weber, pg. 100). These clans and tribes could not survive on their own as the city developed and took over the countryside. They were based on familial relations and that was no match for what the city had to offer and what the city was imposing on them. He gives the comparison of Islam which was not able to dominate the internal and surrounding clans and tribes, thus was never able to fully develop the Arabic cities into modern ones. Here Weber is saying again that the occident is more modern and rational than the east. In his discussion of the west, Weber states, “The city of the Medieval Occident was economically a seat of trade and commerce, politically and economically a fortress and garrison, administratively a court district and socially an oath-bound confederation,” (pg. 104). It has already been discussed that the ideal type of a city had trade and commerce, a fortress and garrison, and a court district which ruled and regulated the city, but what of the oath-bound confederation' The term confederation seems to be interchangeable with the term fraternity in Weber’s writings. “The initial aim of the oath-bound fraternity was the union of locally resident land-owners for offensive and defensive purposes, for the peaceable settlement of internal disputes, and for the safeguarding of the administration of justice corresponding to the interests of urban residents. Not to be forgotten was the further aim of monopolizing the economic opportunities of the city,” (Weber, pg. 110). It is widely known now that the medieval cities had citizens who pledged their allegiance to the city and to the princely estate of the king who swore to protect them. The citizenry was also bound to protect the city and thus different militias among the different classes beyond the larger city garrison arose. These militias are important in that when there was social unrest, as happened when one section or class of society was not happy with either what they have been dealt by city regulations or by their taxation and lack of agency, these militias would demand fairness in storming the city themselves. As stated above, the city had nobles and officials that were heritable positions. They were strongly tied to the wants of the king and of other city officials. Thus, social unrest and the banding together of different militias when the citizenry was displeased led to the beginning of democracy. An important step in this that was just briefly touched on by Weber was the separation of church and state which took a lot of power away from the city officials because no longer was the church there to back their demands up. In pointing this out it is notable that the city was becoming more and more political. This meant that the elite of the city had to more actively participate in city affairs and compete with each other. Not only did city officials have to do this, but the guilds and the craftsmen had to as well when their only means of survival was them competing for monopolization of whatever trade and service they provided. This was not only due to competition within the city but foreign competition as well. As the city became more and more political it also became more militaristic. As stated above, a city primarily based on military will not survive. The militaristic nature of the ancient and medieval cities was helpful when they went to war with other nations, but was detrimental in that military conquest almost ruined the economy of the homeland. This is seen in Sparta where the military dominated and the economy eroded thus leading to the death of the city of Sparta. With the more political and militaristic nature of the city came more and more social unrest as the peasants were the ones paying higher taxes and supplying more and more of their goods to the nobles and the military to support these conquests. Therefore, as the city became more political, it reached a point where it became too political and actually fell, as the city of Rome did when the empire stretched too far. This led to cities becoming once again economically based. “The ancient city democracy was not only geographic but military and cultural. The ancient city was itself the bearer of the most highly developed military technique…The medieval city knew nothing of such purely militarily conditioned philosophy. The victory of the popolo rested primarily on economic foundations…The political situation of the medieval citizen shows him on the way toward becoming an economic man, while in Antiquity in the blossom-time of the polis which preserved the military technique of the war-band, the political situation of the citizen was reversed. The ancient citizen was a political man,” (Weber, pg. 209 & 212-213). This is important in that it shows a significant difference between the more modern medieval city and the ancient city that was primarily political and militaristic. The modern city needed to be rational and diversified so that it could survive. Survive by not only protecting itself with a military, but also having a strong government that was guarded against tyranny, and an economy that was strong and thriving that produced enough for the citizenry to be able to survive but also that the profitability of the economy supported the city without relying solely on its citizenry. Weber at the end of The City set out three main types of occidental cities. “The historical particularities of the medieval city were due to the location of the city within the total medieval political and social organization…The South European city, despite all differences, was closer to the ancient polis than the North European city,” (Weber, pg. 197). Weber leaves the Middle European city out of his sub-typing here. The southern cities resembled the ancient cities too much. They were not modern, but, they were on their way to being so. The middle cities were not notable, as to what I saw in Weber’s discussion of what the modern city was. Finally, the northern cities, such as North France, Germany, and England, were the most modern and rational. All of the cities that were in the east were not modern due to some number of flaws, all varying. Thus, the west is modern, rational, and democratic. Weber’s types of social action are apparent in this discussion of The City. Cities bases on affective action did not survive due to their lack of structure. Cities based on traditional action did not survive, as in clan and tribal cities, due to their lack of adaptability. Cities based on wertrational or value-rational action did not survive because the churches were at one point separated from the state, thus cities that relied on religious or ethical goals were not as modern as cities that separated church from state. In today’s times, the United States is case in point. Finally, in Weber’s types of social action there is zweckrational or instrumental rational action. Cities that had instrumental goals and that worked to achieve them by the most efficient means were the most modern and the most rational. These cities would be exampled by the northern cities of Europe that Weber mentions. In this discussion, Weber’s text, The City, is another classic example of his historical method of showing how rationality developed first in the occident. It evidences how important rationality is to modern cities. Remember that Weber gave us the ideal type definition of a modern urban city or community to base all comparisons off of. “To constitute a full urban community a settlement must display a relative predominance of trade-commercial relations with the settlement as a whole displaying the following features: 1. a fortification; 2. a market; 3. a court of its own and at least partially autonomous law; 4. a related form of association; and 5. at least partial autonomy and autocephaly, thus also an administration by authorities in the election of whom the burghers participated,” (Weber, pg. 81). He also added later that urban modern cities needed a form of capitalism that ensured a strong economy. Also, cities needed, at least in medieval and ancient times, a garrison and fortresses. They needed democracy. He concludes that cities that had all of these features were modern in Weber’s view. These would be the northern European cities that he laid out in the text and most of the cities and countries that are now the most developed and modern such as the United States with the economy, legal system, politics, and borders. In his text, the cities were not yet fully modern and rational but moving in that direction, but it can be concluded with certainty that rationality and modernity first happened in the west. References Edles, L. D., and Appelrouth, S.. (2005). Excerpt from Sociological Theory in the Classical Era. Weber, Max. (1904). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.. Weber, Max. (1958). The City. The Free Press.