Weber, Max - Economy and society (selección)

7/27/2019 Weber, Max - Economy and society (seleccin)

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-Max U1eber

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Edited by Guenther Rothand Claus Wittich

University ofCalifornia PressBerlreley Lo,'Angeles London,

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9 J Communal and Associative Relationships 4 3the same language, but because they have other types of interests,Orientation to the rules of a common language is thus primarily important as a means of conununicarion, not as the content of a social relationship. It is only with the emergence of a consciousness of d.ifferencefrom third persons who speak a different language that the fact thattwo persons speak the same language, and in that respect share a common situation, can lead them to a feeling of community and to modes ofsocial organization consciously based on the sharing of the commonlanguage.Participation in a "market" is of still another kind. It encouragesassociation between the exchanging parties and a social relationship,above all that of competition, between the individual participants whomust mutually orient their action to each other. But no further modesof association develop except in cases where certain participants enterinto agreements in order to better their competitive situations, or wherethey all agree on rules for the puIJXlSC of regulating transactions and ofsecuring favorable general conditions for all. (It may further be re-marked that the market and the competitive economy resting on it formthe most important type of the reciprocal detennination of action interms of pure self-interest, a type which is characteristic of modem eco-nomic life.)

10. Open and Closed RelationshipsA social relationship, regardless of whether it is communal or associ

active in character, will be spoken of as open" to outsiders if and i ~f.ar as its system of order does not deny participation. to anyone whowishes to join and is actually in a position to do so. A relationship will,on the other hand, bes called "closed" against outsiders. so far as, according to its subjective meaning and its binding rules, p a ~ p e t i o n of certainpersons is excluded, limited, or subjected ~ conditions. Whether a rela-tionship is open or dosed may he detennined traditionally,. affeetuaUy,or rationally in terms of wlues "" of expediency. It is espeQalIy likely tobe closed, for rational reasons, in the following type of situation: a'soc;ialrelationship may provide the parties to it with ~ r t u n i t i e s for thesatisfaction of spiritual or material interests, whether absolutely: or ~ ~mentally, or whether it is achi..,.j through cperative action or by acompromise of interests. If the porticipants expect that the admission ofothers will lead to an improvemeiti of their situation, an lmprovernent indegree, in kind, in the security or the value of the satisfaction, their i n t e r ~es, will be in keeping the relationship open. If, on the other hand. theirexpectations are of improving their position by monopolistic tactics, theirinterest is in a closed relationship.


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44 BASIC SOCIOLOGICAL TERMS [Ch, IThere are various ways in which i t is possible for a closed social rela

tionship to guarantee its monopOlized advantages to the parties. (a) Suchadvantages may be left free to competitive struggle within the group; (b)they may be regulated or rationed in amount and kind, or (c) they maybe appropriated by individuals or sub-groups on a permanent basis andbecome more or less inalienable. The last is a case of closure within, aswell as against .outsiders. Appropriated advantages will be called "rights."As detennined by the relevant order, appropriaqon may be ( I) for thebene:6t of the members of particular communal or associative groups (forinstance, household groups), or (2) for the benent of individuals. Inthe latter case, the individual may enjoy ,his rights on a purely personalbasis or in such a way that in case of his death one or more other personsrelated to the holder of the right by birth (kinship), or by some othersocial relationship, may inherit the rights in 'question. Or the rights maypass to one or more individuals specifically designated by the holder.These are cases of hereditary appropriation. Finally, (3) it may be thatthe holder is more or less fully empowered to alienate his rights by voluntary agreement, either to other specific persons or to anyone he chooses.This is alienable appropriation. A party to a closed social relationshipwill be called a "member"; in case his participation is regulated in sucha way as to guarantee him appropriated advantages, a privileged member (Rechtsgenosse). Appropriated rights which are enjoyed by individuals through inheritance or by hereditary groups, whether communal or!NOciative, will be called the "property" of the individual or of groupsin question; and, insofar as they are alienable, "free" property.

The apparendy gratuitous tedioumess involved in the elaborate def-inition of the above concepts is an example of the fact that we oftenneglect to think out clearly what seems to be o b v i ~ because it is in-tuitively familiar. .

I . (a) Examples of communal-relationships, which tend to be closedon a traditional basis, are those in which membership is determined byfamily relationship.(b) Personal emotional relationships are usually affectually closed.Examples are erode relationships and, very commonly, relations of per-sonalloyalty,(c) Closure on the basiS of value-rational commitment to values isusual in groups sharing a ccmmon system of e.1tplicit religious belief.Cd) Typical cases of rational closure on grounds of expediency areeconomic associations of a monopolistiC or a plutocratic character.A few examples may be taken at random. Whether a group of pe0ple engap in coo.versatioo. is open or closed depends on its content.General conversatiGt is apt to be open. as contrasted with intimate con-

v e r s a t i o n - ~ the i ~ p a r t i n g of o6iciaI infonnation. Market relatLonships,


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10] Open and Close4 Relationships 45are in most, or at least in many, cases essentially open. In the case ofmany relationships, both communal and associative, there is a tendencyto shift from a phase of expansion to one of exclusiveness. Examples arethe guilds and the democratic city-states of Antiquity and the MiddleAges. At times these groups sought to increase their membership in theinterest of improving the security of their position of power by adequatenumbers. At other times they restricted their membership to protectthe value of their monopolistic position. The same phenomenon is notuncommon in monastic orders and religious sects which have passedfrom a stage of religious proselytizing to one of restriction in the interestof the maintenance of an ethical standard or for the protection of material interests. There is a similar close relationship between the extensionof market relationships in the interest of increased turnover on the onehand, their monopolistic restriction on the other. The promotion oflinguistic uniformity is today a natural result of the interests of publishers and writers, as opposed to the earlier, not uncommon, tendencyor status groups to maintain linguistic peculiarities or even for secretlanguages to emerge. .

2.. Both the extent and the methods of regulation and exclusion inrelation to outsiders may vary widely, so that the transition from a stateof openness to one of regulation and closure is gradual. Various conditions of participation may be laid down; qualifying tests, a period ofprobation, requirement of possession of a share which can be purchasedunder certain conditions, election of new .nembers by ballot, membership or eligibility by birth or by virtue of achievements open to anyone.Finally, in case of closure and the appropriation of rights within thegroup, participation may be dependent on the acquisition of an appropriated right. There is . wide variety of different degrees of closure andof conditions of participation. Thus regulation and closure are relativeconcepts. There are all manner of gradual shadings as between an ex-clusive dub, a theatrical audience the members of which have purchased tickets, and a party rally to which the largest possible numberhas been urged to come; similarly, from


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BASIC SOCIOLOGICAL TERMS [Ch. Iseparate holdings. In such cases all conceivable transitional and intermediate fonns can be found. Historically, the closure of eligibility toliefs, bendices, and offices within the group, and the appropriation onthe part of those enjoying them, have occurred in the most varied fonns.Similarly, the establishment of rights to and possession of partict1jobs on the part of workers may develop all the way from the "closedshop" to a right to a particular job. The Brst step in this developmentmay be to prohibit the dismissal of a worker without the consent 'of theworkers' representatives. The development of the "works councils" [inGermany after 19r8] might be a lirst step in this direction, though itneed not be.UAll the details must ~ reserved for the later analysis. The mostextreme form of pennanent appropriation is found in cases where particular rights are guaranteed to an individual or to certain groups ofthem, such as households, clans, families, in such a way that it is specilied in the order either that, in case of death, the rights descend to specilicheirs, or that the possessor is f r ~ to transfer them to any other personat will. Such a person thereby becomes a party to the social relationship so that, when appropriation has reached this extreme within thegroup, it becomes to that ~ x t e n t an open group in relation to outsiders.This is true so long, as acqt.:isition of membership is not subject to theratification of the other, prior members.4. The principal motives fO I closure of a relationship are: (a) Themaintenance of quality, which is often combined with the interest inprestige and the consequent opportunities to enjoy honor, and evenprolit; examples are communities oE ascetics, monastic orders, especially,Ear instance, the Indian mendicant orders, r e l i ~ sects like the Puritan,s, ~ g a n i z e d groups of warriors, of mmUteri.tla:and other onc- ,tionaries, organized citizen bodies as in the G r e e k , ~ , craft guilds;(b) the contraction of advantages in relatim to -consumption- needsCNahrungsspielraum);se examples are monopolies cI consumption, themost developed form of which is a self-subsistent village community;(c) the growing scarcity of opportunities for acquisition (Etwerbsspiel-fQUm). This is found in trade monopolies such as guilds, the ancient monopolies of fishing rights, and so on. Usually motive (a) iscombined with (b) or (c).

I I . The Imputation of Social Action: Representation andMutual ResponsibilityWithin a social relationship, whether it is traditional or enacted, cer

tai. kinds of action of each participant may be imputed to all others, inwhich case we speak of, "mutually responsible members"; or the action01 certain members (the "representatives") may be attributed to the

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CHAPTER IVSTATUS GROUPSAND CLASSES'

I . Class $ituation and Class Types,"Class situa'tion" means the typical probability ofr. procuring goods2. gaining a position in life and3- 6nding inner satisfactions,a probability which derives from the relative control over goods andskills and from their income-producing uses within a given economic

order."Class" means all persons in the same class situation.a) A "property class" is primarily determined by property differences,b) A "comtnP:Tcial class" by the-marketability of goods and services,c) A "social class" makes up the totality of those class situations

within which individual and generational mobility is easy and typical.Associations of class members---class organizations-may arise on the

'.basis of all three types of classes. However, this does net necessarily happen: "Class situation" and "class" refer only to the same (or similar)interests which an individual shares with others. In principle, the variouscontrols over consumer goods, means of prcxluction, assets, resources andskills each constitute a partkular class situation. A uniform class situationprevails only when completely unskilled and propertyless persons aredependent on irregular employment. Mobility among, and stability of,class positions differs, greatly; hence, the unity of a social class is highlyvariable. "'"


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Property Classes2. Property ClassesThe primary signi6cance ofa positively privileged property class liesG) its exclusive acquisition of high-priced consumers goods,fJ) its sales monopoly and its ability to pursue systematic policies inthis regard, "y) its monopolization of wealth accumulation out of unconsumedsurpluses.3) its monopolization of capital formation out of savings, i.e., of the

utilization of wealth in the fann of loan capital, and its resulting controlover executive positions in business,c) its monopolization of costly (educational) status privileges.1. Positively privileged property classes are typically rentiers, receiv-ing income from:

a) men (the case of sIave-owners),b) land.e) mines,d) installations (factories and equipment),e) ships.f) creditors (of livestock, grain or money),g) securities.II. Negatively privileged property classes are typicallya) the unfree (see under "Status Group"),b) the declassed (the proletarii of Antiquity), c) debtors,d) the "paupers".

In between are the various "middle classes" (Mittelstands1classen),which make a living from their property or their acquired skills. Someof them may be "commercial classes" (entrepreneurs with mainly positive privileges, proletarians with negative ones). However, not all ofthem fan into the latter category (witness peasants, craftsmen, officials).

The mere differentiation of property classes is not "dynamic," thatis, it need not result in class struggles and revolutions. The stronglyprivileged class of slave owners may coexist with the much less privilegedpeasants or even the declassed, frequently without any.class antagonismand sometimes in solidarity (against the unfree). However, the juxtaposition of property classes may lead to revolutionary conflict between

I . land owners and the declassed or2. creditor and debtors (often urban patricians versus rural peasantsor small urban craftsmen).These struggles need not focus on a change of the economic system,


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STATUS GROUPS AN D CLASSES [Ch. IVbut may aim primarily at a redistribution of vl'ealth. In this case we canspeak of "property revolutions" (Besitzklassenrevolutionen).

A classic example of the lack of class conRict was the relationship ofthe "poor white trash" to the plantation owners in the Southern States.The "poor white trash" were far mOre anti"Negro than the plantationowners, who were often imbued with patriarchal sentiments. The majorexamples for the struggle of the declassed against the propertied dateback to Antiquity, as does the antagonism between creditors and debtorsand land owners and the declassed.

3. Commercial ClassesThe primary significance of a poSitively privileged commercial classlies ina) the monopolization of entrepreneurial management for the sakeof its members and their business interests,fJ) the safeguarding of those interests through influence on the

e c o n o ~ i c policy of the political and other organizations.1. Positively privileged commercial classes are typically .entrepre-neurs:

a) merchants.b) shipowners,c) industrial andd ) agricultural entrepreneurs,e) bankers and financiers, sometimes alsof) professionals with sought-after expertise or privileged educa

--tion (such as lawyers, physicians, artists), org) workers with monopolistiC qualifications and skills (natural,or acquired through drill or training).

II." Negatively privileged commercial classes are typically laborerswith varying qualifications:

a) skilledb) semi-skilledc) unskilled.

In between again arc "middle classes": the self-employed farmers_ ? P _ ~ craftsmen and frequently:- a) public and private officials.

b) the last two groups mentioned in the first category [i.e., the "liberal professions" and the labor groups with exceptional qualifications].


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Social Classes

4. Social ClassesSocial classes ar ea ) the working class as a w h o l e - t h e more so, the more automatedthe work process becomes,b ) th e petty bourgeoisie,c ) the propertyless intelligentsia and specialists (technicians, various

kinds of white-collar employees, civil servants-possibly with considerable social differences depending on the cost of their training),

d ) the classes privileged through property and education.The unfinished last part of Karl Marx's Capital apparently wasintended to deal with the issue of class unity in the face of skill differentials. Crucial for this differentiation is the increasing importance ofsemi-skilled workers, who can be trained on the job in a relatively shorttime, over the apprenticed and sometimes also the unskilled workers.Semi-skilled qualification too can often become monopolistic (weavers,,for example, sometimes achieve their greatest efficiency after five years).

It used to be that every worker aspired to be a self-employed small businessman. However, this is less and less feasible. In the generationalsequence, the rise of groups a) and b ) into c ) (technicians, white-collarworkers) is relatively the easiest. Within class d) money increasinglybuys everything, at least in the sequence of generations. In hanks andcorporations, as well as in the higher ranks of the civil service, class c)members have a chance tomove up into class d).Class-eonscious organization succeeds most easilya ) against th e immediate economic opponents (workers against

entrepreneurs, but not agaimt stockholders, who truly draw "unearned"incomes, and also not in the case of pea sa nts c onfr onting manorial IONs);b) if large number s of persons are in the same class situation,

c ) if it is technically easy to organize them, especially if they areconcentrated at their place of work (as in a "workshop community"),

d ) if they are led toward readily understood goals, which are i m ~posed and interpreted by me n outside their class (intelligentsia).

5. Status and StatusGroup (Stand)"Status" (stiindische Lage) shall mean an effective claim to social

esteem in terms of positive or negative privileges; it is typically foundedon

a ) style of life, henceb ) formal education, which ma y be


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a) empirical training or .fJ) rational instruction, and the corresponding forms of behavior,

c) hereditary or occupational prestige.In practice, statusexpresses itself througha) connubium,(J) commensality, possibly)') monopolistic appropriation of privileged modes of acquisitionor the abhorrence of certain kinds of acquisition,8) status conventions (traditions) of other kinds.Status may rest on class position of a distinct or an ambiguous kind.However, it is not solely determined by it: Money and an entrepreneur

ial position are not in themselves status qualifications, although theymay lead to them; and the lack of property is not in itself a status dis-qualification, although this may be a reason for it. Conversely, status mayinfluence, if not completely determine, a class position without beingidentical with it. The class position of an officer, a civil selVant or astudent may vary greatly according to their wealth and yet not lead to adifferent status since upbringing and education create a common style oflife.A "status group" means a plurality of persons who, within a largergroup, successfully claim

a) a special social esteem, and possibly alsob) status monopolies.Status groups may come into being:a) in the first instance, by virtue of their own style of life, particularly the type of vocation: "self-styled" or occupational statusgroups,b) in the second instance, through hereditary charisma, by virtueof successful claims to higher-ranking descent: hereditary statusgroups, orc) through monopolistic appropriation of political or hierocraticpowers: political or hierocratic status groups.

The development of hereditary status groups is generally a form ofthe (hereditary) appropriation of privileges by an organization or qualified individuals. Every definite appropriation of political powers andthe corresponding economic opportunities tends to result in the rise ofstatus groups, and vice-versa.

Commercial classes arise in a market-oriented economy, but statusgroups' arise within the framework of organizations which satisfy theirwants through monopolistic liturgies, or in feudal or in stiindisch-patrimonial fashion. Depending on the prevailing mode of strati6cation,we shall speak of a "status society" or a "class society." The status group

STATUS GROUPS AND CLASSES [Ch. IV

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5 ] Sta"" and Sta"" Group (Stand) 3 0 7comes closest to the social class and is most unlike the commercial class.Status groups are often created by property classes.Every status society lives by conventions, which regulate the styleof life, and hence creates economically irrational consumption patternsand fetters the free market through monopolistic appropriations and bycurbing the individual's earning power.More on that separately.

NOTESI . For the early formulation of class and status, see Part Two, ch. IX:6. (R)


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6J Distribution of Power: Class, Status, Partythe legal order, but, at least normally, it is not their primary source.The legal order is rather an additional factor that enhances the chanceto hold power or honor; but it can not always secure them.

The way in which social honor is distributed in a community be-tween typical groups participating in this distribution we call the"status order." The social order and the economic order are related. in asimilar manner to the legal order. However, the economic order merelydefines the way in which eConomic goods and services are distributedand ~ . Of COUl,;e, the status order is strongly influenced by it, andin turn reacts upon it.Now: "classes," "status groups," and "parties" are phenomena of thedistribution vf power within a community.

B. DBTElU\HNATION OF CLASS SITUATION BY MARKET SITUATION. Inour terminology, "classes" are not communities; they merely representpossible, and frequent, bases for social action. We may speak of a"class" when (I) a number of people have in common a specific causalc o ~ p o n e n t of their life chances, insofar as (2) this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods andopportunities for income, and (3) is represented under the conditions ofthe commodity or labor markets. This is "class situation."

It is the most elemental economic fact that the way in which 'thedisposition over material property is distributed among a plurality ofpeople, meeting competitively in the market for the purpose of exchange,in itself creates specific life chances. The mode of distribution, in accordwith the law of marginal utility, excludes the non-wealthy from com-peting for highly valued goods; it favors the owners and, in fact, givesto them a monopoly to acquire such gocxls. Other things being equal,the mode of distribution monopolizes the opportunities for pro6tabledeals for all those who, provided with goods, do not necessarily haveto exchange them. It increases, at least generally, their power in the pricestruggle with those who, being p r o p e r t y ~ s , have nothing to offer huttheir labor or the resulting products, and who are compelled to get rid of. these products in order to subsist at all. The mode of distribution gives tothe propertied a monopoly on the posSibility of transferring propertyfrom the sphere of use as "wealth" to the sphere of "capital," that is,it gives them the entrepreneurial function and ali chances to sharedirectly or indirectly in returns on capital. All this holds true within thearea in which pure market conditions prevail. "Property" and "lack ofproperty" are, therefore, the basic categories of all class situations. Itdoes not matter whether these two categories become effective in thecompetitive struggles of the consumers or of the producers.Within these categories, however, class situations are further dif-


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POLITICAL C OMMUNIT IE S [Ch. IXferentiated: on the one hand, according to the kind of property that isusable for returns; and, on the other hand, according to the kind ofservices that can he offered in the market. Ownership of dwellings;worksliops; wareh


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6] Distribution of Power: Class, Status, Party 929stands by ft something other than the factual direction of interests followingwith a certain probability from the class situation for a certain average' of those people subjected to the class situation. The class situationand other circumstances remaining the same, the direction in whichthe individual worker, for instance, is likely to pUISue his interests mayvary widely. according to whether he is constitutionally qualified for thetask at hand to a high, to an average, or to a low degree. In the sameway, the direction of interests may vary according to whether or notsocial action of a larger or smaller portion of those commonly affectedby the class situation, or even an association among them, e.g., a tradeunion, has grown out of the class situation, from which the individualmay expect promising results for himself. The emergence of an associa-tion or even of mere social action from a common class situation is byno means a universal phenomenon.

The class situation may be restricted in its efforts to the generation ofessentially similar reactions, that is to say, within our terminology, of" ~ a s s behavior." However. it may not even have this result. Furthermore, often merely amorphous social action emerges. For example, the"grumbling" of workers known in ancient Oriental ethics: The moraldisapproval of the work-roaster's conduct, which in its practical sig-nificance was probably equivalent to an increasingly typical phenomenonof precisely the latest industrial development, namely, the slowdown oflaborers by virtue of tacit agreement. The degree in which "social action"and possibly a ~ s o c i a t i o n s emerge from the mass behavior of the membersof a class is linked to general cultural conditions, especially to those ofan intellectual sort. It is also linked to the extent of the contrasts thathave already evolved, and is especially linked. to the transparency of theconnections between the causes and the consequences of the class situation. For however different life chances may be, this fact in itself,according to all experience, by nO means gives birth to "class action"(social action by the members of a class). For that, the real conditionsand the results of the class situation must he distinctly recognizable. Foronly then the contrast of life chances can be felt not as an a ~ l u t e l ygiven fact to he accepted, but as a resultant from either ( I ) the givendistribution of property, or (2) the structure of the concrete economicorder. It is only then that people may react against the class structurenot only through acts of intermittent and irrational protest, but in theform of rational association. There have been "class situations" ,of thefirst category (I), of a speci6cally naked and transparent sort, in theurban centers of Antiquity and during the Middle Ages; especially then.when great fortunes were accumulated by factually monopolized tradingin local industrial products or in foodstuffs; furthermore, under certain


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93 POLmCAL COMMUNITIES [Ch. IXconditions, in the rural economy of the most diverse periods. whenagriculture was increasingly exploited in a proht-making manner. Themost important historical example of the second category (2) is theclass situation of the m


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6 ] Distribution of Power: Class, Status, Party 9 3 Ifrom consumption credit toward, nrst, competitive struggles in the commodity market and then toward wage disputes on the labor market. Theclass struggles of Antiquity-to the extent that they were genuine classstruggles and not struggles between status groups-were initially carriedon by peasants and perhaps also artisans threatened by debt bondageand struggling against urban creditors. For debt bondage is the normalresult of the differentiation of wealth in commercial cities, especiallyin seaport cities. A similar situation has existed among cattle breeders. "Debt relationships as such produced class action up to the days ofCatilina. Along with this, and with an increase in provision of grain for.,the city by transporting it from the outside, the struggle over the means .?:of sustenance emeIged. It centered in the first place around the provision of bread and determination of the price of bread. It lasted throughout Antiquity and the entire Middle Ages. The propertyless Hockedtogether against those who actually and supposedly were interested inthe dearth of bread. This 6ght spread until it involved all those com-modities essential to the way of life and to handicraft production. Therew ~ only incipient discussions of wage disputes in Antiquity and inthe Middle Ages. But they have been slowly increasing up into modern'%'times. In the earlier periods they were completely secondary to slaverebellions as wen as to conflicts in the commodity market.

The propertyless of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages protestedagainst rq.onopoIies, preemption, forestalling, and the withholding ofgoods from the market in order to raise prices. Today the central issueis the determination of the price of labor. The transition is representedby the 6ght for access to the market and for the determination of theprice of products. Such 6ghts went on between merchants and workersin the putting-out system of domestic handicraft during the transitionto modern times. Since it is quite a general phenomenon we must mention here that the class antagonisms that are conditioned through themarket situations are usually most bitter between those who actually anddirectly participate as opponents in price wars. It is not the rentier, theshare-holder, and the banker who suffer the il l will of the worker, butalmost exclusively the manufacturer and the bUSiness executives whoare the direct opponents of workers in wage conflicts. This is so in spiteof the fact that it is precisely the cash boxes of the rentier, the share- .holder, and the banker into which the more or less unearned gains flow,rather than into the pockets of the manufacturers or of the businessexecutives. This simple state of affairs has very frequently been decisivefor the role the class situation has played in the formation of politicalparties. For example, it has made possible the varieties of patriarchalsocialism and the frequent attempts-formerly, at least--of threatened


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POLITICAL COMMUNIT IE S [Ch. IXstatus groUps to form alliances with the proletariat a g a i n ~ t the bourgeoisie.

E . S TA TU S H ON OR . In contrast to classes, Stiinde (status groups) arenormally groups. They are, however, often of an amorphous kind. Incontrast to the purely economically determined "class situation," we wishto designate as status situation every typical component of the life ofmen that is determined by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor. This honor may be -connected with any quality shared bya plurality, and, of course, it can be knit to a class situation: class dis-tinctions are linked in the most varied ways with status distinctions.Property as such is not, always recognized as a status qualification, butin the long run it is, and with extraordinary regularity. In the subsistence economy of neighborhood associations, it is often simply therichest who is the "chieftain." However, this often is only an honorificpreference. For example, in the so-called pure modern democracy, that is,one devoid of any expressly ordered status privileges for individuals, itmay be that only the families coming under approximately the same taxclass dance with one another. This example is reported of certain smallerSwiss cities. But status honor need not necessarily be linked with a classsituation. O n the contrary, it normally stands in sharp opposition to thepretensions of sheer property.Both propertied and propertyless people can belong to the samestatus group, and frequently they do with very tangible consequences.This equality of social esteem may, however, in the long run becomequite precarious. The equality of status among American gentlemen, forinstance, is expressed by the fact that outside the subordination de-'termined by the different functions of business, it would be consideredstrictly repugnant-wherever the old tradition still prevails-if even therichest boss, while playing billiards or cards in his club would not treathis clerk as in every sense fully his equal ill birthright, but would bestowupon him the condescending status-conscious "benevolence" which theGerman boss can never dissever from his attitude. This is one of themost important reaSOns why in America the German clubs have neverbeen able to attain the attraction that the American clubs have.In content, status honor is normally expressed by the fact that aboveall else a specific style of life ~ expected from all those who wish tobelong to the circle. Linked with this expectation are restrictions onsocial intercourse (that is, intercourse which is not subservient to eco-nomic or any other purposes). These restrictions may confine normalmarriages to within the starus circle and may lead to complete epdogamous closure. Whenever this is not a mere individual and sociallyirrelevant imitation of another style of life, but consensual action of thisdosing character, the status development is under way.


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.,6 ] Distribution of Power: Class, Status, Party , 9 3 3

In its ~ h a r a c t e I i s t i c fotIn, stratification by status groups on the basisof conventional styles of life evolves at the present time in the UnitedStates out of the traditional democracy. For example, only the residentof a certain street ("the Street") is considered as belonging to "society,"is qualified for social intercourse, and is visited and invited. Above all,this differentiation evolves in such a way as to make for strict submissionto the fashion that is dominant at a given rime in society. This submission to fashion also exists among men in America to a degree un"known in Germany; it appears as an indication of the fact that a givenmaIl puts forward a claim to qualify as a gentleman. This submissi,ondecides, at least prima facie, that he win be treated as such. And thisrecognition becomes just as important for his employment chances inswank establishments, and above all, for social intercourse and marriagewith "esteemed" families, as the qualification for dueling among Germans. As for the rest, status honor is usurped by certain families residentfor a 10ng time, and, of course, correspondingly wealthy (e.g. F.F.V.,the First Families of Virginia), or by the actual or alleged descendantsof the "Indian Princess" Pocahontas, of the Pilgrim fathers, or of theKnickerbockers, the members of almost inaccessible sects and all sorts ofcircles setting themselves apart by means of any other characteristicsand badges. In this case stratific.ation is purely conventional and restslargely on usurpation (as does almost all status honor in its beginning).But the road to legal privilege, positive or negative, is easily traveledas soon as a certain stratification of the social order has in fact been"lived in" and has achieved stability by virtue of a stable distribution ofeconomic power.

F. ETHNIC SEGREGATION AND CASTE. Where the consequences havebeen realized to their full extent, the status group evolves into a dosedcaste. Status distinctions are then guaranteed not merely by conventions'and laws, but also by religious sanctions. This occurs in such a way thatevery physical canMct with a member of any caste that is considered to.be lower by the members of a higher caste is considered as making for aritualistic impurity and a stigma which-must be expiated by a religiousact. In addition, individual castes develop quite distinct cults and gods.

In general, however, the status structure reaches such extreme consequences only w ~ e r e there are underlying differences which are heldto be "ethnic." The caste is, indeed, the nonnal fonn in which ethniccommunitiffl that believe in blood relationship and exclude exogamousmarriage and social intercourse usually associate with one another. Asmentioned before Echo VI:vi:6J, such a caste situation is part of the phenomenon of pariah peoples and is found all over the world. These pe0-ple fonn communities, acquire speci6c occupational traditions of handicrafts or of other arts, and cultivate a belief in their ethnic community.


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9 3 -4 POLmCAL COMMUNITIES [Ch. IXThey live in a diaspora strictly segregated from all personal inte1COUrse,except that of an unavoidable sort, and their situation is legally precarious. Yet, by virtue of their economic indispensability, they are t o l ~etated-, indeed frequently privileged, and they live interspersed in thepolitical communities. The Jews are the most impressive historicalexample.A status segregation grown into a caste differs in its structure from amere ethnic segregation: the caste structure transfonns the horizontaland unconnected coexistences of ethnically segregated groups into a vertical social system of super- and subordination. Correctly fonnulate


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!

6 ] Distribution 01 Power: Class, Status, Party 935moreover, resentment applies only to a limited extent; for one o, Nietzsche's main examples. Buddhism, it is not at all applicable.For the rest, the development of status groups from ethnic segrega-tions is by no means the normal phenomenon. On the contrary. Sinceobjective "racial differences" are by no means behind every subjectivesentiment of an ethnic community, the question of an ultimately racialfoundation of status structure is rightly a question of the concrete in-dividual ca'ie. Very frequently a status group is instrumental in theproduction of a thoroughbred anthropological type. Certainly statusgroups are to a high degree effective in producing extreme types, for theyselect peI'$onally qualified individuals (e.g. the knighthood selects thosewho are fit for warfare, physically and psychically). But individual selec-tion is far from being the only, or the predominant, way in which statusgroups are formed: political membership or class situation has at alltimes been at least as frequendy decisive. And today the class situationis by far the predominant factor. After all, the possibility of a style of

~ f e expected for members of a status group is usually conditionedeconomically.

G. STATUS PIUVIL.;>GES. For all practical purposes, stratification bystatus goes hand in hand with a monopolization of ideal and materialgoods or opportunities, in a manner we have come to know as typical.Besides the specific status honor, which always rests upon distance andexclusiveness, honorific preferences may consist of the privilege of wear-ing special costumes, of eating special dishes taboo to others, of carryingarms-which is most obvious in its consequences-, the right to be adilettante, for example, to play certain musical instruments. However,material monopolies provide the most effective motives for the exclusive-ness of a status group; althC'.l.gh, in themselves, they are rarely sufficient,almost always they come into play to some extent. Within a status circlethere is the question of inteT'l: :!rriage; the interest of the families in themonopolization of potential bridegrooms is at least of equal importanceand is parallel to the interest in the monopolization of daughters. Thedaughters of the members must be provided for, With an increasedclosure of the Status group, the C'0nventional preferential opportunitiesfor special employmer,t grow into a leg;!] mO'iOpoly of special offices forthe members, Certain goods become objects for monopolization by statusgroups, typically, entailed estates, and frequendy a l ~ the possession ofserfs or bondsmen and, finally, special trades. This monopolization oc-curs positively when the status group is exclusively entitled to own andto manage them; and negatively when, in order to maintain its specificway of life, the status group must not own and manage them. For thedecisive tole of a style of life in status honor means that status groups


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IlOLITICAL COMMUNITIES [Ch. IXare the specific bearers of all conventions. In whatever way it may bemanifest, all stylization of life either originates in status groups or is atleast conserved by them. Even if the principles of status conventionsdiffer greatly, they reveal ccrtain typical traits, especially among themost privileged strata. Quite generally, among privileged status groupsthere is a status disqualification that operates against the performance ofcommon physical labor. T h i ~ disqualification is now "setting in" inAmerica against the old tradition of esteem for labor. Very frequentlyevery rational economic pursuit, and especially entrepreneurial activity,is looked upon as a disqualification of status. Artistic and literary activityis also considered degrading work as soon as it is exploited for income, orat least when it is connected with hard physical exertion. An exampleis the sculptor working like a mason in his dusty smock as over againstthe painter in his salon-like studio and those forins of musical practicethat are acceptable to the status group.H. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND EFFEcrs OF STATUS STRATIFICATION.

The frequent disqualification of the gainfully employed as such is adirect result of the principle of status stratification, and of course, ofthis principle's opposition to a distribution of power which is regulatedexclusively through the market. These two factors operate along withvarious individual ones, which will be touched upon balow.We have seen above that the market and its processes knows nopersonal distinctions; "functional" interests dominatc it. It knows nothing of honor. The status order means precisely the reverse; stratificationin terms of honor and styles of life peculiar to status groups such.

The status order would be threatened at its very root if mere economicacquisition and naked economic power still bearing the stigma of itsextra-status origin could bestow upon anyone who has won them thesame or even greater honor as the vested interests claim for themselves.After all, given equality of status honor, property per se represents anaddition even if it is not ovenly acknowledged to be such. Therefore allgroups having interest in the status order react with special sharpnessprecisely against the pretensions of purely economic acquisition. In mostcases they react the more vigorously the more they feel themselvesthreatened. Calderon's respectful treatment of the peasant, for instance,as opposed to Shakespeare's simultaneous ostensible disdain of thecanaille illustrates the different way in which a firmly structured statusouk ': ~ c a c t s as compared with a status order that has become eeonomically precarious. This is an example of a state of affairs that recurs everywhere. Precisely because of the rigorous reactions against the claims ofproperty per se, the "parvenu" is never accepted, personally and withoutreservation, by the privileged "tatus groups, no matter how cO.!fJpleteIy


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POLITICAL COMMUNITIES [Ch. IXAs to the general economic conditions making for the predominanceof stratification by status, only the following can be said. When thebases of the acquisition and distribution of goods are relatively stable,stratification by Status is favored. Every technological repercussion andeconomic transformation threatens stratification by status and pushes theclass situation into the foreground. E ~ and countries in which thenaked class situation is of predominant significance are regularly theperiods of technical and economic transformations, And every slowingdown of the change in economic stratification leads, in due course, tothe growth of status structures and makes for a resuscitation of theimportant role of social honor,1. PARTIES. Whereas the genuine place of classes is within the ec0-nomic order, the place of status groups is within the social order, thatis .. within the sphere of the distribution of honor. From within thesespheres, classes and status groups inHuence,one another and the legalorder and are in tum influenced by it. "Parties" reside in the sphere ofpower. Their action is oriented toward the acquisition of social power,that is to say, toward influencing social action "no matter what its contentmay be. In principle, parties may exist in a social club as well as in a

state. As over against the actions of classes and status groups, for whichthis is not necessarily the case, party-oriented social action always in-volves association. For it is always directed toward a goal which isstriven for in a planned manner. This goal may be a cause (the partymay aim at realizing a program for ideal or material purposes), or thegoal may be personal (sinecures, power, and from these, honor for theleader and the followers of the party). Usually the party aims at all


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6 J Distribution of Power, Cz",s, Stat"" Pany 9 3 9to the kind of social aCtion which they struggle to influence; that means,they differ according to whether or not the community is stratified bystatus or by classes. Above aU else, they vary according to the structureof domination. For their leaders normally deal with its conquest. In ourgeneral terminology, parties are not only products of modem forms ofdomination. We shall also designate as parties the ancient and medievalones, despite the fact that they differ basically from modern parties.Since a party always struggles for political control (Herrschaft), itsorganization too is frequently strict and "authOtitarian." Because of thesevariations between the forms of domination, it is impossible to say anything about the structure of parties without discussing them first. There-, fore, we shall now tum to this central phenomenon of all social organization.Before we do this, we should add one more general observationabout classes, status groups and parties; The fact that they presuppose alar&.er association, especially the framework of a polity. does not meantrat they are confined to it. On the contrary, at all times it has been theorder of the day that such association (even when it aims at the use ofmilitary force in common) reaches beyond the st;3te boundaries. Thiscan be seen in the [interJocalJ solidarity of interests of oligarchs anddemocrats in Hellas, of Guelphs and Ghibellines in the Middle Ages.and within the Calvinist party during the age of religious struggles;and all the way up to the solidarity of landlords (hternational Congresses of Agriculture), princes (Holy Alliance, Karlsbad Decrees[of 18191), socialist workers, conservatives (the longing of PrusSia'n conservatives for Russian intervention in 18S0). But their aim is not necessarily the establishment of a new territorial dominion. In the main theyaim to influence the existing polity.

NOTESI . This is the early formulation of territorial political organization and of thestate, which Weber later summarized in sec. 17 of Part One, ch. I. (R)2. C a m Q T T a ~ w e l l o r . s : a n i z e d large-scale criminal gang operating in SouthemItaly, especially Naples; first appearance c. r 820 ; achieved effective power overNaples municipal goverllment in the 1890 'S, was defeated in the elections of 1901through the -effort of the Honest Govemment League, but Bared up repeatedly inlater times, especially about 191 I . (Rh)3. Cf. Soc. of Law. above, ch. VIILii; I and 5, and vi: I . (W)4. Cf. in this respect the role of the "military societies" as police organsamong the Plains Indians, as described by K. N. Llewellyn and E. A. Hoebel,

The Cheyenne Way (1941), esp. c. 5. (Bh)5. Cf. E. Fischer, Schweizergeschichre (3rd cd. 1947) J 50. (Rh)6. For a recent survey and synthesis of such studies, see R. Thumwald,


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94 POLITICAL COMMUNITIES [Ch. IXWerden, Wandel und GesUlltung von Staat und KultuT (1934); for illustrati.)nsof the type of society mentioned in the following sentences, see R. F. Barton,lfugao Law (1919) and The Kalingas (1948). (Rh)

7 See Reste rr.abischen Heidentums (sec. ed., r897; also Medina vor demIslam (Skiz;;:en.und Vorarbeiten, vol. IV, I , 1889). (W)" ,8. The German Customs Union (Zollverdn) was gradually establishedunder Prussian leadership in the 1820'S and 1830'S. After January I, 18J4, itcomprised all German states with the exception of Austria and two smaller states,i.e., practically' that part of Germany which under Bismarck's j('.adersh.ipemerged in 1871 as t h ~ new Geml1n Heich. In this development of Germanunity under Prussian hegemony, but also toward the exclusion of Austria, whichbecame final through the Prussi:m-AuHrian war of r866, the Zollverein constituted an important step. (Rh)

9 Cf. Weber, Agrarverhiiltnisse, in GAzSW, 271, 273f, 295f. (W)IO . On Franz Oppenheimer, see supra, Part One, ch. II, nn. 3 and Z2. (Wi)1r. Gaius Verres (c. 120-43 B.C.), Roman magisll:

Weber, Max - Economy and society (selección)

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