The origins of capitalism according to Max Weber

Résumé du document

The rationalization of economic activity shall ultimately have already had the occasion to emphasize the historical dynamic of rationalization which is characteristic of the West in all its dimensions. Similarly it shall defend itself explicitly as wanting to support "an absurdly doctrinaire thesis as that, for example, which suggests that 'the capitalist spirit' (always in the sense that this word is used here temporarily) could have originated only as an offshoot of the Reformation, or even that capitalism as an economic system is a product of the Reformation ". But Weber is already significantly less accurate when he proposes to establish positive relationships between three terms articulated by his analysis: Protestant ethic, "spirit of capitalism and modern capitalism ("rational"). To characterize these reports, he uses a rather vague notion, borrowed from Goethe, that of "elective affinity" it is on one side, "consider first whether and on what points we can detect 'elective affinities' between certain forms of religious faith and ethics of the profession-oriented and, on the other, considering that "the attitude or the different possible attitudes that we designate as "under the concept? of spirit of capitalism?. These forms of organization will appear exactly as specifically 'adequate' in one way or another, [that of the modern capitalist economy], i.e. as in 'elective affinity' with these forms of organization, for internal reasons ".

Extraits

[...] Is it provided to return to a materialistic causal interpretation, whereas the components of the "spirit of capitalism" have played only a superficial sense the superstructure that Marxism is usually given to this term in the formation of capitalist relations of production? No more. And Weber was right to shoot some poisonous arrows against such a design that minimizes the importance of subjective factors on the grounds of their ideological nature and scope. Basic analysis Moreover, on this point, as on many others, Marxism did not understand Marx. [...]

[...] The typical Puritan earned much money, spent little and pushed through ascetic compulsion to save, reinvested earnings in the form of capital in capitalist enterprises rational. The 'rationality' - that is our second lesson - inspired both ethical. But the only rational ethic of Puritanism, facing something beyond the world, has implemented an economic rationalism intraworldly down to its last consequences, precisely because in itself nothing was more alien precisely because the work in the world did she express to pursue a transcendent purpose. The world was fallen, according to the promise, because this ethic had 'sought God and his righteousness'. [...]

[...] On the other hand, this same causal interpretation is questionable on a historical level. The period covered by Weber is the beginnings of the Reformation at the dawn of the 'industrial revolution', roughly the first half of the sixteenth century in the second half of the eighteenth century. Period which is undoubtedly one of the completions of capitalist relations of production, which Protestant asceticism and has undoubtedly contributed no less, at least in part of northern Europe and its North American colonies which has exerted its influence, according to Weberian analysis. [...]

[...] And in this respect, the element is not the preferred material element (the productive forces) as repeated the Marxist vulgate or ideal element (representations, ideologies, attitudes) as Weber was thought, at least at times, but the institutional element: it is he who is always both the spring and the issue of conflict between players who are at the heart of the transformative dynamic of relations of production. In short, here as elsewhere, the class struggle and who has the last word. References See "The Origins of Capitalism by Max Weber," ¿Interrogations?, No www.revue-interrogations.org, online since 2er June 2006. [...]

[...] The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated Jean- Pierre Grossein, Gallimard page 90. Ibid, page 91. Ibid, page 384. Ibid, page 249. Ibid, page 25. Sociology of Religion, Gallimard pages 472-473. [...]