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Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism: a Systematization Author(S): Randall Collins Source: American Sociological Review, Vol Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism: A Systematization Author(s): Randall Collins Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 45, No. 6 (Dec., 1980), pp. 925-942 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094910 Accessed: 02/06/2009 08:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=asa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review. http://www.jstor.org WEBER'S LAST THEORY OF CAPITALISM: A SYSTEMATIZATION* RANDALL COLLINS University of Virginia AmericanSociological Review 1980, Vol. 45 (December):925-942 A systematic formulationis given of Weber's theory of the origins of large-scalecapitalism, based upon the lectures given just before his death. This last theory is predominantly institutional,unlike the emphasisupon religiousideas and motivationsin his early Protestant Ethic thesis, and unlike his analyses of the world religions. Weber's institutionaltheory involves a sequence of causal conditions. The outcome of the sequence is capitalism characterizedby the entrepreneurialorganization of capital,rationalized technology, free labor, and unrestrainedmarkets. Intermediateconditions are a calculable legal system and an economic ethic combininguniversal commercialization with the moderatepursuit of repetitive gains. These conditionsare fosteredby the bureaucraticstate and by legal citizenship,and more remotelyby a complex of administrative,military, and religiousfactors. The overall patternis one in which numerous elements must be balanced in continuous conflict if economic developmentis to take place. Weberderived much of this scheme in explicitconfrontation with Marxism.His conflict theory criticizes as well as deepens and extends a numberof Marxian themes, includinga theory of internationalcapitalism which both criticizes and complements Wallerstein'stheory of the world system. Max Weber had many intellectualinter- scholars have treated it as Weber's dis- ests, and there has been considerablede- tinctive contribution,or Weber's distinc- bate over the question of what constitutes tive fallacy, on the origins of capitalism the central theme of his life work. Besides (e.g., Tawney, 1938; McClelland, 1961; treating the origins of capitalism, Weber Samuelsson, 1961; Cohen, 1980). Debate dealt extensively with the nature of mod- about the validity of this part of Weber's ernity and of rationality(Tenbruck, 1975; theory has tended to obscure the more Kalberg, 1979; 1980;Seidman, 1980), and fundamental historical and institutional with politics, methodology, and various theory which he presented in his later substantive areas of sociology. Amid all works. the attentionwhich has been paid to these The so-called "Weber thesis," as thus concerns, one of Weber's most significant isolated, has been taken to be essentially contributions has been largely ignored. idealist. Weber (1930:90)defines his pur- This is his mature theory of the develop- pose in The Protestant Ethic as "a contri- ment of capitalism,found in his last work bution to the manner in which ideas be- (1961), General Economic History. come effective forces in history." He This is ironic because Weber's (1930) (1930:183)polemically remarks against the first major work, The Protestant Ethic and Marxiststhat he does not intendto replace the Spirit of Capitalism, has long been the a one-sided materialismwith its opposite, most famous of all. The argumentthat the but his correctingof the balance sheet in Calvinist doctrine of predestinationgave this work concentrates largely on ideal the psychological impetus for ration- factors. The germ of Weber's institutional alized, entrepreneurialcapitalism is only a theory of capitalismcan also be found in fragmentof Weber'sfull theory. But many The Protestant Ethic (1930:58, 76).1 But it remained an undeveloped backdrop for his main focus on the role of religious * Direct all correspondence to: Randall Collins; ideas. The same may be said about his Department of Sociology; University of Virginia; Charlottesville, VA 22903. (1951; 1952;1958b) comparative studies of I am indebted to Vatro Murvar and other partici- pants at the Max Weber Symposium at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, March, 1978, and to 1 The list of institutional characteristics given on Samuel W. Kaplan, Stephen Kalberg, Guenther pp. 21-25 of the English-language edition of The Roth, Walter Goldfrank, Norbert Wiley, and Whit- Protestant Ethic (1930), however, are not in the ney Pope, for their suggestions on an earlier version 1904-5 original, but are from an introduction written of this argument. in 1920 (1930:ix-x). 925 926 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW the world religions. These broadenedcon- One important change in the General siderablythe amountof materialon social, Economic History is that Weber pays a economic, and political conditions, but good deal more attention to Marxian the main theme still stressed that diver- themes than previously. This is a signifi- gent ideas made an autonomouscontribu- cant difference from the anti-Marxist tion to the emergence of world- comments scattered through The Protes- transformingcapitalism in the Christian tant Ethic (e.g., pp. 55-56, 61, 90-91, West ratherthan elsewhere in the world.2 183). In the General Economic History, Thus, Parsons (1963; 1967) treats these Weber reduces the ideal factor to a rela- works as extendingthe early Weberthesis tively small place in his overall scheme. from Protestantismto Christianityin gen- During this same period, to be sure, eral, describing an evolution of religious Weber was preparinga new introduction ideas and their accompanying motiva- and footnotes for the reissue of The Prot- tional propensities from ancient Judaism estant Ethic among his collected religious up through the secularized achievement writings, in which he defendedhis original culture of the modern United States. thesis about Calvinism.But his claims for From these works, and from (1968)Part its importance in the overall scheme of II of Economy and Society, it is possible things were not large, and the well- to pull out an extensive picture of institu- roundedmodel which he presents in Gen- tional factors which Weber includes in his eral Economic History does not even overall theory of capitalism.But Economy mention the doctrine of predestination. and Society is organized encyclopedi- Instead, what we find is a predominantly cally, by analytically defined topics, and institutionaltheory, in which religiousor- does not pull together the theory as a ganization plays a key role in the rise of whole. There is only one place in Weber's modern capitalism but especially in con- works where he brings together the full junction with particularforms of political theory of capitalism as a historical organization. dynamic. This is in the GeneralEconomic In what follows, I will attempt to state History, and, especially, in the 70-page systematically Weber's mature theory of section comprising Part IV of that work. capitalism, as it appears in the General These lectures, deliveredin the winter and Economic History, bolstered where ap- spring of 1919-20, before Weber's death propriateby the buildingblocks presented that summer,are Weber's last word on the in Economy and Society. This argument subject of capitalism. They are also the involves a series of causes, which we will most neglected of his works; General trace backward, from the most recent to Economic History is the only one of the most remote. This model, I would Weber's majorworks that remains out of suggest, is the most comprehensive gen- print today, both in English and in Ger- eral theory of the originsof capitalismthat man. is yet available. It continues to stand up well in comparison with recent theories, 2 Cf. the closing words of The Religion of China: including Wallerstein's (1974) historical "To be sure the basic characteristics of the 'men- theory of the capitalist world-system. tality,' in this case practical attitudes towards the Weber himself was primarilyconcerned world, were deeply co-determined by political and economic destinies. Yet, in view of their autono- with the sensitizing concepts necessary mous laws, one can hardly fail to ascribe to these for an interpretationof the unique pattern attitudes effects strongly counteractive to capitalist of history and, in his methodological development" (1951:249), and of The Religion of writings, he disavowed
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