American Sociological Review, vol. 67, 2002, pp. 832-853.

The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber's Class Analysis.

Wright, Erik Olin.

Cita: Wright, Erik Olin (2002). The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber's Class Analysis. American Sociological Review, 67 832-853.

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ERIK OLIN WRIGHT University of Wisconsin-Madison

This analysis has two basic objectives: First, to understand as precisely as possible the inner structure of Weber's concept of class, its similarities and differences from Marx's concept, and its relationship to the problem of exploitation; second, to use this interrogation of Weber's work to defend the importance of the concept of exploi- tation for sociological theory. To understand the foundations of Weber's class analy- sis one must look beyond his most synoptic treatments of class in Economy and Society and see how his concept of class is intimately linked to his investigations of the broad problem of rationalization in modern society. Class, in these terms, is the way economic power is distributed when economic action is organized to the great- est degree in an instrumentally-rational manner The problem of exploitation-the extraction of labor effort from workers-is treated, in this framework, primarily as a problem of technical efficiency and economic rationality in creating work incentives and effective discipline. This conceptualization leads to a relatively impoverished understanding of the nature of antagonistic interests generated by class relations.

IF THEORETICAL frameworksare identi- bor effort as a pivotal feature of class rela- fied as loudly by their silences as by their tions and a central determinantof class con- proclamations,then one of the defining char- flict. Instead, Weber treats the problem of acteristics of class analysis in the Weberian eliciting work performance within capital- tradition is the virtual absence of a system- ism as an instance of technical inefficiencies atic concept of exploitation. Nothing better reflecting a tension between formal rational- captures the central contrast between the ity and substantive rationality within capital- Marxist and Weberian traditions of class ist economic relations. analysis than the difference between a class In this paper, I pursue two basic objec- concept centered on the problem of life tives: first, to understandas precisely as pos- chances in Weber and a concept rooted in the sible the inner structure of Weber's concept problem of exploitation in Marx. This is not of class, its similarities and differences from to say that Weber completely ignores some Marx's concept, and its relationship to the of the substantive issues connected to the problem of exploitation; second, to use this problem of exploitation. For example, We- interrogation of Weber's work to defend the ber, like Marx, sees an intimate connection importance of the concept of exploitation for between the nature of property relations in sociological theory. The first two sections capitalism and the problem employers face that follow set the context of the discussion in eliciting high levels of effort from work- by briefly situating the problem of class in ers. But he does not theorize this issue in Weber's larger theoretical project and then terms of a general concept of exploitation, examining a number of striking similarities nor does he see the problem of extracting la- between Weber's and Marx's concepts of class. Although Marxist and Weberiantradi- Direct all correspondence to Erik Olin Wright, tions of sociology are often pitted against Department of Sociology, University of Wiscon- one another, within the narrower arena of sin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, class analysis there is considerable overlap, WI 53706 ([email protected]). particularlyin their concept of class in capi-

832 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2002, VOL. 67 (DEcEMBER:832-853) EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 833 talist society. The third section then charac- Weber's career there are a numberof detailed terizes the pivotal difference in their class empirical and historical studies in which the concepts through the contrast between "life analysis of class figures prominently-most chances" and "exploitation." A fourth sec- notably his studies of East Elbian agricultural tion looks more closely at exploitation, pay- workers (Weber [1894] 1989), his research ing particular attention to the way Weber on the causes of the decline of the Roman deals with the problem of "extracting"labor Empire (Weber [1896] 1988), and his more effort under conditions that Marxists would general work on the agrarian sociology of describe as "exploitation." Finally, the last ancient civilizations, first published in the section examines the ramifications for the late 1890s and then revised in 1909 (Weber broader contours of a sociological analysis [1909] 1988).3 Much of this work, especially of class of Weber's marginalization of the the work on slavery in ancient civilizations, issue of exploitation. has a decidedly Marxian inflection and has had almost no impact on the analysis of class within what has come to be known as THE LOCATION OF CLASS Weberian sociology.4 Third, a great deal of ANALYSIS IN WEBER'S WORK Weber's work concerns the analysis of capi- Unlike Marx, for whom class was a founda- talism as a social order-its origins, its inter- tional concept in his broad theoretical nal logic, its dynamics of development, its agenda, the problem of class plays a rela- ramifications, its contrasts with other social tively peripheral role in Weber's work.' It orders-and while the problem of class is appears in his work in three principle ways. rarely explicitly foregroundedin these analy- First, there are the rare explicit theoretical ses, nevertheless much of what he says bears discussions of class, most notably in the chapter fragments assembled posthumously editors of the English edition of the text com- in Economy and Society.2 Second, early in ment: "This chapter is . . . a mere fragment which Weber intended to develop on a scale comparable with the others. Hence most of the material to 1 Because of the peripheral status of class in which this note refers was probably never writ- the Weberian oeuvre, it is surprising that so much ten down" (Weber [1922] 1978: 210, note 45). of the literature on class sees Weber as a central 3 A detailed exegesis of Weber's work on source. S0renson (2000) suggests that Weber's agrarian class relations can be found in Kasler prominence in class analysis comes from the ac- (1988). cident that his work on class was translated into 4 The analysis in Weber's 1896 study of the English: causes of decline of ancient civilizations has a The importance of the Weberian class concept in particularlyMarxian flavor to it. His central argu- the literature on class analysis is a bit curious. In ment is that the contradictions of slavery as a way Economy and Society Weber deals with class in of organizing production was the fundamental two places but both are very short fragments. cause of the ultimate collapse of the Roman Em- While Marx can be said to never have given a pire. Although Weber's later concerns with issues single explicit development of the class concept, he certainly has class as the central concern of of rationality and calculability in economic rela- analysis in all of his writings. For Weber, there is tions are already present in this early work, its neither a discussion nor an extensive analysis. main preoccupation is with the difficulty of ex- Class simply seems not to have been an impor- tracting adequate surplus in a slave-based tant concept for Weber.... Since only Marx and economy once slavery is no longer based on cap- Weber [among the German writers on class] have turing slaves in slave hunts, and the resulting been translated into English, Weber has become transformations of the political conditions of re- the main justification for developing class con- production of the Roman Empire. If one did not cepts that are alternative to Marx's, despite the know that this piece was written by Weber, most fragmentarynature of Weber's writings about this people would assume it was a fairly sophisticated of of and the lack importance class concepts in Marxist analysis of how the development of this his writings. (P. 1527, note 3) particularkind of class system tended to erode the 2 The chapter in Economy and Society in which conditions of its own reproduction. For further Weber proposes to define the concept of class discussion of this Marxian influence in Weber's (pt. 1, chap. 4, "Status Groups and Classes") is early work, see Schroeter (1985:6-7). For a con- unfinished. In a footnote to the first place in the trary view, which denies that this work has a sig- text in which Weber refers to this chapter, the nificant Marxian character, see Roth (1971). 834 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW on the problem of understanding classes in mensions demarcate these categories: first, capitalist societies. For example, Weber's the "sphere" or "order"within which social The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capi- interaction occurs (economic, communal, or talism ([1904] 1958) is not simply about the political),8 and second, the degree to which creation of the cultural-psychological condi- the category intrinsically invokes subjective tions for modem capitalism to become a dy- identity and collective forms of action. The namic force in the world; it is also about the combinations of these criteria differentiate ways in which this "spirit" is embodied in class, status, and party as illustrated in Table the distinctive orientations of people located 1. Within this analytical schema, class is de- in different class positions within capitalism. fined within the sphere of economic interac- Weber writes, "The treatment of labour as a tion and involves no necessary subjective calling became as characteristic of the mod- identity or collective action. An individual em worker as the corresponding attitude to- can be in a specific kind of class situation wards acquisition of the business man" (p. without this generating a specific form of 179).5 identity or participation in collective action: Most discussions of Weber's work on class "In our terminology, 'classes' are not com- are based on the first of these clusters of writ- munities; they merely representpossible, and ings, especially on his brief explicit concep- frequent, bases for social action" (Weber tual analyses of class in Economy and Soci- [1922] 1978: 927). Status groups are defined ety ([1922] 1978).6 What has become the within the sphere of communal interaction Weber-inspiredtradition of class analysis is (or what Weber calls the "social order") and largely based on these fragmentary exposi- always imply some level of identity in the tions (e.g., Giddens 1973; Parkin 1971; Scott sense of some recognized "positive or nega- 1996). Locating the concept of class within tive social estimation of honor" (Weber Weber's conceptual menu in these texts gen- [1922] 1978: 932). A status group cannot ex- erates the familiar contrast of "class" and ist without its members being in some way "status," the two most important terms in a conscious of being members of the group: "In threefold schema of stratification that also contrastto classes, Stande (status groups) are includes "party."7Two primaryanalytical di- normally groups" (Weber [1922] 1978:932). Status groups need not, however, imply any kind of collective action. Party, finally, al- 5The details of Weber's argument about the psychological ramifications of the ethic of ascetic ways implies collective action: "As over Protestantism for the spirit of capitalism are fa- against the actions of classes and status miliar. Two more specific citations will suffice. groups, for which this is not necessarily the For the Protestant bourgeoisie, Weber (1904 case, party-oriented social action always in- [1958]) writes, "as a performance of duty in a calling . . . [wealth] is not only morally permis- the principle source for commentaries on sible, but actually enjoined. ... [T]he providen- Weber's approach to class is titled "The Distri- tial interpretation of profit-making justified the bution of Power within the Political Community: activities of the businessman" (p. 163). For the Class, Status, Party" (Weber [1922] 1978:926- worker, on the other hand, "Labour must ... be 40). Nearly all of this chapter, however, is de- performed as if it were an absolute end in itself, voted to class and status, with only one page at a calling.... The ability of mental concentration, the end discussing "party." as well as the absolutely essential feeling of ob- 8 The terms Weber ([1922] 1978) uses to dif- ligation to one's job, are here most often com- ferentiate these spheres of social interaction are bined with a strict economy which calculates the "economic order," "social order" or "the sphere possibility of high earnings, and a cool self-con- of the distribution of honor," and "the sphere of trol and frugality which enormously increase per- power" (p. 938). This is somewhat confusing ter- formance" (pp. 61, 63). minology because class, status, and party all con- 6When Weber's work is excerpted in antholo- cern questions of power (and thus power should gies on stratification, the selections concerning not simply be identified with "party"), and all class are almost exclusively from these few ex- also involve social action (and thus the social plicit definitional statements of Economy and So- should not simply be identified with status). It is ciety (e.g., see Bendix and Lipset 1966; Giddens for this reason that the terminological distinction and Held 1982; Grusky 2001). between economic, communal, and political 7 The chapter in Economy and Society that is seems more useful in the present context. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 835

Table 1. Theoretical Location of the Concept of Class in Weber's Explicit Formulations in Economy and Society

Attributes Intrinsic to Categories of the Distribution of Power Sphere of Category That Locates Social Individuals within the Objective Subjective Collective Interaction Distribution of Power Properties Identity Action

Economic Class Yes No No

Communal Status group Yes Yes No

Political Party Yes Yes Yes

a Weber's terms for these spheres are "economic order,""social order"or "sphereof the distributionof honor,"and "sphereof power"(Weber [1922] 1978:938). volves association. For it is always directed fects material well-being indirectly, through toward a goal which is striven for in a the ways that categories of social honor un- planned manner" (Weber [1922] 1978:938). derwrite various coercive mechanisms that, In these terms, members of a class become a in Weber's ([1922] 1978) words, "go hand status group when they become conscious of in hand with the monopolization of ideal and sharing a common identity, and they become material goods or opportunities"(p. 935). a party when they organize on the basis of When the wider body of Weber's work is that identity.9 taken into consideration, especially his di- The conceptual contrast between class and verse writings on capitalism, the problem of status for Weber is not primarily a question class becomes embedded in a different con- of the motives of actors: It is not that status ceptual space. Here the pivotal question is groups are derived from purely symbolic the relationship between the concept of class motives and class categories are derived and the broad theoretical and historical prob- from material interests. Although people lem of rationalization of social relations. care about status categories in part because Table 2 indicates how class is located with of their importance for symbolic ideal inter- respect to this problem.'0 As in Table 1, this ests, class positions also entail such sym- conceptual space is also defined by two di- bolic interests, and both status and class are mensions: first, the sources of social power implicated in the pursuit of material inter- within social interactions, and second, the ests. As Weber ([1922] 1978) writes, "mate- degree of rationalization of social relations. rial monopolies provide the most effective Running throughoutWeber's work is a three- motives for the exclusiveness of a status fold distinction in the sources of power that group" (p. 935). Rather than motives, the individuals use to accomplish their goals: central contrast between class and status is social honor, material resources, and author- the nature of the mechanisms through which ity. Each of these, in turn, can be organized class and status shape inequalities of the ma- within social interactions in highly rational- terial and symbolic conditions people's ized forms or in relatively nonrationalized lives. Class affects material well-being di- forms. Class, in these terms, designates rectly through the kinds of economic assets highly rationalized social relations that gov- people bring to market exchanges. Status af- ern the way people get access to and use

9 Jones (1975) argues that because of the in- 10 Unlike Table 1, which is derived from the herent qualities of collective action, members of relatively explicit, if underdeveloped, theoretical class as defined by Weber could not even in prin- statements by Weber about the properties of the ciple act as a collective agent on the basis of their concept of class and its contrast to other con- class interests because collective action requires cepts, the typology in Table 2 is inferred from forms of identification and rationality beyond various arguments dispersed throughout Weber's mere instrumental interests. work. 836 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Table 2. The Theoretical Location of "Class" in Weber's Analysis of Rationalization

Degree of Rationalization of Social Relations Sources of Social Power RationalizedSocial Relations NonrationalizedSocial Relations

Social honor Meritocracticprestige Ascriptive status groups

Material conditions Class: Ascriptively based of life capital, labor consumptiongroups

Authority Rational-legaldomination: Patrimonial bureaucracy administration material resources.11It is thus contrasted, on gain access to and use material resources is one hand, with nonrationalized ways of gov- governed by rules that are objectively em- erning access to resources, especially bodied in the institutional settings within ascriptively based consumption groups, and which they live. When the rules allocate re- on the other hand, with rationalized forms of sources to people on the basis of ascriptive social relations involving other sources of characteristics, and when the use of those social power. material resources is given by tradition Rationalization, of course, is perhaps the rather than the result of a calculative weigh- most complex multidimensional concept in ing of alternatives, then economic interac- Weber's arsenal. Following Levine's (1985: tions take place under nonrationalized con- 210) decomposition of Weber's conceptual ditions. When those rules enable people to array of rationalizations, the problem of make precise calculations about alternative class with Weber is primarily situated within uses of those resources, and when they dis- one particular form of rationalization: the cipline people to use those resources in more objective instrumental rationalization of so- rather than less efficient ways on the basis cial order.'2In all societies, the ways people of those calculations, then those rules can be described as "rationalized."This occurs, in I A number of commentators on differences Weber's analysis, when market relations between Weber and Marx have emphasized the have the most pervasive influence on eco- centrality of the problem of rationalization in nomic interactions (i.e., in fully developed Weber's analysis of capitalism (e.g., see Jones capitalism). His definition of classes in 1975; Lowith [1932] 1982; Sayer 1991). Jones terms of the economic opportunities people and Sayer, in particular, link the problem of ra- face in the market, then, is simultaneously a tionalization explicitly to Weber's analysis of definition of classes in terms of rationalized classes. economic interactions. Class, in these terms, 12 different Levine (1985) differentiates eight assumes its central sociological meaning to forms of rationality in Weber's work. To the standarddistinction between instrumental ration- Weber as a description of the way people are ality (the rationality of adopting the best means related to the material conditions of life un- for given ends) and value rationality or substan- der conditions in which their economic in- tive rationality (the rationality of choosing ac- teractions are regulated in a maximally ra- tions that consistent with value commitments), he tionalized manner. adds conceptual rationality (the formation of in- Two examples, one a discussion of rural creasingly precise and abstractconcepts) andfor- class relations from early in Weber's career mal rationality (the creation of methodical, rationally defendable rules). Within each of these four types of rationality, he then distinguishes be- tinction not found so explicitly in Weber's work: tween objective rationality (rationality inscribed Within each of the four forms of objective ratio- in institutionalized norms) and subjective ration- nalization, Levine differentiates what he terms ality, (rationality in mental processes). After symbolic rationalization and organizational ratio- elaborating these forms of rationalization that nalization. The final result, then, is a typology of occur in Weber's writing, Levine adds one dis- 12 forms of rationalization (Levine 1985:210). EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 837 and the second a discussion of industrial other words, this process of development class relations in Economy and Society, il- brings the rural labourers steadily closer to lustrate this close link in Weber's thinking the form of a unified class of a proletarian type in its material conditions of life, a state between rationalization and class relations. already attained by the industrial prole- Both Weber and Marx recognized the impor- tariat." (Pp. 63, 172) tance of the destruction of traditional peas- ant rights in the countryside as a central part The emergence of a rural proletariat thus of the development of capitalism in agricul- represents the transformationof forms of ac- ture. In Weber's early writings on East cess to material conditions of life governed Elbian rural labor, he describes the impact by tradition to one governed by calculation of this process on class relations in terms of and pure economic interests. rationalization. Prior to the infusion of mar- The same basic argument appears in ket relations in the countryside, Weber Weber's analysis of the industrial working (1894] 1989) writes, the rurallaborer "found class. For Weber, as for Marx, a central de- himself confronted not with an 'employer' fining characteristic of the "working class" but with a small-scale territorial lord. The is its complete separation (or "expropria- low level of commercial ambition among es- tion") from the means of production. For tate owners was reinforced by the apathetic Marx, this is crucial because it enables capi- resignation of the labourer. . ." (p. 161). The talists to exploit workers; for Weber this ex- advance of capitalism destroyed these tradi- propriation is crucial because it allows for tional labor relations. The resulting impact the full realization of economic rationality on class relations, Weber describes as a pro- within production.In his extended discussion cess of rationalization: of this separation in Economy and Society, [I]n place of the landed aristocracy there Weber ([1922] 1978) stresses the relevance necessarily enters-with or without a of expropriation for economic rationality: change of person-a class of agriculturalen- The expropriationof workersin general,in- trepreneurswho are in principle no different cluding clerical personnel and technically to commercial entrepreneurs in their social trained persons, from possession of the characteristics. means of productionhas its economicrea- This transformation in the general type of sons above all in the following factors: ... rural employer has significant consequences The fact that, other things being equal, it is for the position of the labourer.... [In the generally possible to achieve a higher level patriarchalestate economy,] labour relations of economic rationality if the management were not arranged according to commercial has extensive control over the selection and principles and with the objective of profit- the modes of use of workers, as compared ability, but rather developed historically as with the situation created by the appropria- a means of the landlords a suitable affording tion of jobs or the existence of rights to par- existence. Under these conditions as little ticipate in management. These latter condi- deviation as possible was made from the tions produce technically irrationalobstacles natural and communal economic founda- as well as economic irrationalities. In par- tions of this order. Thus a rural working class with common economic interests could ticular, considerations appropriateto small- not and did not exist in the principal regions scale budgetary administrationand the inter- of the east. ests of workers in the maintenance of jobs ("livings") are often in conflict with the ra- Modern development seeks initially to intro- tionality of the organization. (Pp. 137-38, duce the principle of economic rationality italics in original) into the wage forms within this natural eco- nomic order. Accordingly, the communal Similar discussions can be found in Weber's remnants (plots of land, threshing shares, ([1909] 1958:53-56) analysis of the relation- grazing rates) are initially abolished.... ship between rationalization and free wage With this transformation a necessary condi- labor in The Protestant Ethic13 and in his tion of the patriarchalrelation collapses: the connection to one particular estate. The dif- 13 ferentiation between various categories of "However all these peculiarities of Western labour are reduced and the employer be- capitalism have derived their significance in the comes as "fungible" for the rural worker as last analysis only from their association with the he already is for the industrial labourer. In capitalistic organization of labour. . Exact cal- 838 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW discussions of the inefficiencies in slavery quasi-teleological theory of history, and (Weber [1909] 1988:53-56). In all of these Weber's multidimensional theory of histori- cases, the problem of the rationalization of cal development and contingency.14 When the economic order is the central theoretical the focus of comparison has centered on problem in which analyses of class and the stratification issues, the central theme in transformationsof class relations are embed- most discussions has also been the contrast ded. While class per se may be a relatively between Marx's preoccupation with a single secondary theme in Weber's sociology, it is, aspect of stratification-class-and Weber's nevertheless, intimately linked to one of his complex multidimensional view, in which most pervasive theoretical preoccupations- the relationship between class and other rationalization. bases of stratification, especially status, is of In the discussion that follows, I draw on central concern.'5 Relatively less attention both of these theoretical contexts of Weber's has been given to the fact that, in spite of thinking about class-the contrast between the different salience of class within the class and status as two forms of stratifica- overall theoretical agendas of Marx and We- tion, and the salience of rationalization in ber, there are deep similarities between the defining the theoretical relevance of class. concepts of class in these two traditions of Weber's distilled contrast between class and social theory.'6 To give precision to the spe- status is particularly useful in clarifying the cific problem of the location of exploitation substantive criteria embodied in his defini- within class analysis, I first review these tion of class relations in terms of market- strong similarities. based life chances; the broader analysis of rationalization will help to illuminate the 14 Although much of the commentary on We- ways in which Weber deals with the problem ber and Marx's overall frameworks focus on the of exploitation in capitalist society. differences in their approaches, some accounts emphasize significant convergences. For ex- ample, Lowith ([1932] 1982) discusses the rela- WEBER AND MARX ON CLASS: tionship between Weber's concept of rationaliza- CONVERGENCES tion and Marx's concept of alienation in their There is a long history of discussions of the theories of modern capitalism, and Sayer (1991) analyzes their respective understandings of mo- relationship between Marx's and Weber's dernity. For anthologies of comparative analyses social theories, beginning with occasional of Marx and Weber, see Antonio and Glassman comments by Weber himself, most famously (1985) and Wiley (1987). in his discussion of the Communist Mani- 15 For a recent, analytically rigorous discussion festo in a speech to Austrian officers towards of Marx's and Weber's approaches to class that the end of WorldWar I (Weber [1918] 1971). stresses the contrast between the multidimen- Although Weber was appreciative of Marx's sional characterof Weber's approach and Marx's theoretical formulations, he was highly criti- preoccupation with a single dimension, see Scott cal of its excessive materialism and dismiss- (1996). ive of the utopianism of Marx's theory of 16 Some writers have noted similarities be- tween Weber's and Marx's class concepts. history, with its optimistic deterministic pre- Bendix (1974:152) sees Weber's analysis of class diction of the transcendence of capitalism as departing from a "baseline that Marx had es- and the disappearance of classes and the tablished"; Holton and Turner (1989:181) ob- state. Much of the subsequent discussion of serve that "both Marx and Weber are concerned Marx and Weber has also revolved around with market relations in the constitution of the sharp differences in the broad contours classes"; Giddens (1973) sees Weber, like Marx, of their respective general theoretical frame- characterizing capitalism as a "class society"-a works for understanding the trajectory of society within which class is the primary axis of historical change-in particularthe contrast stratification. Still, in each of these cases, the ob- servation of similarity is given much less weight between Marx's historical materialism as a than are the differences between Marx's and Weber's class concepts. Sayer (1991) is one of culation-the basis of everything else-is only the few writers who regards the differences be- possible on a basis of free labour" (Weber [1904] tween Marx's and Weber's approaches to both 1958:22). class and status to be of secondary importance. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 839

RELATIONAL RATHER THAN [Action that is motivated by self-interest can GRADATIONAL CLASS CONCEPTS still be] substantively heteronomously deter- mined. . . [in] a market economy, though in Both Marx and Weber adopt relational con- a formally voluntary way. This is true when- ever the distribution of cepts of class. Neither defines classes sim- unequal wealth, and particularly of capital goods, forces the non- ply as nominal levels on some gradational owning group to comply with the authority hierarchy. For both, classes are derived from of others in order to obtain any return at all an account of systematic interactions of so- for the utilities they can offer on the mar- cial actors situated in relation to each other. ket.... In a purely capitalist organization of Classes for both Weber and Marx are thus production this is the fate of the entire work- not primarily identified by quantitative ing class. (Weber [1922] 1978:110) names like upper, upper-middle, middle, lower-middle, and lower, but by qualitative Although this statement may lack the rhe- names like capitalists and workers, debtors torical force of Marx's account of the essen- and creditors. (For more on relational and tial unfreedom of the worker, the point is gradational concepts of class, see Ossowski fundamentally the same: Being separated [1963]; Wright [1979, 1997:5-8].) from the means of production forces work- ers to subordinatethemselves to capitalists.

THE CENTRALITY OF PROPERTY RELATIONS CLASSES-AS-PLACES VERSUS CLASSES-AS-COLLECTIvE-ACTORS Both Marx and Weber see property owner- ship as the fundamental source of class divi- Central to the conception of class in both sion in capitalism. For Marx, classes are de- Weber and in Marx is a distinction between fined by the "relation to the means of pro- classes as objectively defined places and as duction," where "relation"here means own- collectively organized social actors. The lan- ership and control over resources used in guage they use to describe this contrast, of production. Similarly, Weber ([1922] 1978) course, differs. Weber ([1922] 1978:302, writes, "'Property' and 'lack of property' 927) uses the expression "class situation" to are, therefore, the basic categories of all designate the objectively defined places class situations" (p. 927). What is more, We- within social relations; Marx uses the ex- ber, like Marx, sees propertylessness as an pression "class-in-itself," and contemporary essentially coercive condition: "[Those who Marxists have used the expressions "class are propertyless] have nothing to offer but location" or "class position" or "class struc- their labor or the resulting products and ... ture," depending on the context. Weber are compelled to get rid of these products in ([1922] 1978:305) uses the expression "class order to subsist at all" (Weber [1922] 1978: conscious organization"to designate class as 927).17 He even acknowledges, like Marx, a collectively organized social actor; Marx that for the working class the apparently uses the expression "class-for-itself," and freely chosen, voluntary interactions of the contemporary Marxists use a variety of market are simply a formal reality, masking terms, such as "class formation" or "class an essentially coercive structureof social re- organization." But regardless of terminol- lations (which he refers to as "heterono- ogy, the basic idea is similar: Structurally mously determined action"): defined classes may have a tendency to gen- erate collectively organized forms of 17 In an earlier statement in Economy and So- struggle, but the two must be conceptually ciety, while discussing economic motivations, distinguished. Weber ([1922] 1978) writes: "[T]he motivation of economic activity under the conditions of a market economy ... for those without substan- CLASSES AND MATERIAL INTERESTS tial property [include] the fact that they run the risk of going entirely without provisions . . ." (p. Both Weber and Marx see objectively defin- 110). Also see Weber's ([1927] 1961:209) dis- able material interests as a central mecha- cussion of the "compulsion of the whip of hun- nism through which class locations influence ger" in his General Economic History. social action. By objectively definable ma- 840 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW terial interests I mean that an outside ob- the "factual direction of interests" could be server can, in principle, specify which very weak. Two earlier passages in Economy courses of action that are available to an in- and Society suggest that Weber in fact be- dividual by virtue of their location in a so- lieved that purely self-interested economic cial structure would improve that person's advantage had a high probability of giving material conditions of life. Both Marx and "factual direction" to motivations of most Weber claim that (1) a person's class loca- people much of the time. The first passage tion, defined by their relation to property, comes in a discussion of economic motiva- systematically affects material interests in tions within the formation of organizations. this sense; and (2) material interests so de- Weber ([1922] 1978) writes: fined do influence actual behavior. These Economic considerations have one very gen- claims are relatively uncontroversial for eral kind of sociological importance for the Marx, even though much debate has been formation of organizations if, as is almost waged over whether "class interests" in always true, the directing authority and the Marxism are "objective." Weber, on the administrative staff are remunerated. If this other hand, is often characterized as a theo- is the case, an overwhelmingly strong set of rist who emphasizes the subjective meanings economic interests become bound up with of actors and who rejects the idea of a deter- the continuation of the organization, even minate relation between objectively speci- though its primary ideological basis may in the meantime have ceased to exist. (Pp. of fied conditions and subjective states ac- 201-202, italics added) tors. Nevertheless, in his discussion of class, material interests rooted in individuals' ob- Even more starkly, in a discussion of eco- jectively defined class situations are seen as nomic activity in a potential socialist soci- a determinant-albeit a probabilistic deter- ety, Weber believes that motivations will be minant-of their behavior. Weber [1922] similar to those in a market society, and he 1978) writes: thus expresses considerable skepticism According to our terminology, the factor about the possibility that ideological com- that creates "class" is unambiguously eco- mitments will matter very much in social- nomic interest, and indeed, only those inter- ism. In the long run, Weber ([1922] 1978) ests involved in the existence of the market. argues, most people will be motivated by Nevertheless the concept of class-interest is self-interested material advantage, just as in an ambiguous one: even as an empirical con- a market economy: cept it is ambiguous as soon as one under- stands by it something other than the factual What is decisive is that in socialism, too, the direction of interests following with a cer- individual will under these conditions [in tain probability from the class situation for which individuals have some capacity to a certain average of those people subjected make economically relevant decisions] ask to the class situation. (Pp. 928-29, italics first whether to him, personally, the rations added) allotted and the work assigned, as compared with other possibilities, appear to conform Thus, Weber affirms that "for a certain aver- with his own interests.... [It] would be the age of those people subjected to the class interests of the individual, possibly orga- nized in terms of the similar interests of situation"there is a "certainprobability" that many individuals as opposed to those of oth- the "factual direction of interests" will coin- ers, which would underlie all action. The cide with class interests. Weber thus allows structure of interests and the relevant situa- for deviations between individual behavior tion would be different [from a market and the material interests associated with economy], and there would be other means class situations, but he also argues that there of pursuing interests, but this fundamental is at least a tendency, on average, for behav- factor would remain just as relevant as be- ior to be in line with those interests. fore. It is of course true that economic ac- Of course, the expression "a certain prob- tion which is oriented on purely ideological exist. ability" is rather vague and leaves open the grounds to the interests of others does But it is even more certain that the mass of possibility that this probability could be ex- men do not act in this way and that it is an tremely low and thus the relationship be- induction from experience that they cannot tween objectively defined class interests and do so and never will. (P. 203, italics added) EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 841

This is a powerful affirmation of the factual The degree to which "social action" and pos- predominance of subjective orientations de- sibly associations emerge from the mass be- rived from objectively definable material in- havior of members of a class is linked to gen- terests: Although it is theoretically possible eral cultural conditions, especially to those that ideological motivations could be impor- of an intellectual sort. It is also linked to the extent of the contrasts that have already tant, the mass of people do not act on purely evolved, and is especially linked to the trans- ideological grounds and, furthermore,"they parency of the connections between the cannot do so and never will." For both We- causes and the consequences of the class ber and Marx, therefore, the material inter- situation. For however different life chances ests structured by class locations have a may be, this fact in itself according to all strong tendency to shape the actual behavior experience, by no means gives birth to 'class of people within those locations. action' (social action by members of a class). For that, the real conditions and the results of the class situation must be distinctly rec- THE CONDITIONS FOR ognizable. For only then the contrast of life COLLECTIVE CLASS ACTION chances can be felt not as an absolutely given fact to be accepted, but as a resultant from If there is one aspect of class analysis where either (1) the given distribution of property, one might expect a sharp difference between or (2) the structureof the concrete economic Marx and Weber, it is in their understanding order. It is only then that people may react of the problem of class struggle. Although against the class structure not only through both may believe that class situations shape acts of intermittentand irrationalprotest, but individual class behaviors via material inter- in the form of rational association.... The ests, Marx believed that capitalism inher- most importanthistorical example of the sec- ond category (2) is the class ently generates collectively organized class situation of the modern proletariat. (Pp. 929-30) struggles, eventually culminating in revolu- tionary challenges to capitalism, whereas This complex paragraph involves several Weber rejects this prediction. Yet, even here, very Marxian-like theses: First, the emer- there is more similarity in their views than gence of class associations depends on intel- one might initially expect. lectual conditions; it is not simply the result In assessing arguments of this sort, it is of unmediated spontaneous consciousness of important to distinguish (1) the theoretical people in disadvantaged class situations. analysis of the conditions under which par- This is congruent with Marx's view of the ticular predictions hold, in this case that role of ideological mystification in prevent- class struggles are likely to emerge and in- ing class organization and the importance of tensify, from (2) the empirical expectations class-conscious intellectual leadership in about the likelihood of those conditions ac- raising working-class consciousness, a tually occurring. In these terms, Weber theme stressed in different ways by later shares much with Marx in terms of the first Marxists such as Gramsci and Lenin. consideration, but disagrees sharply over the Second, where class structures are experi- second. 18 enced as natural and inevitable, as "abso- In Economy and Society in a section la- lutely given facts," class mobilization is im- beled "social action flowing from class in- peded. Weber points here to the central issue terest," Weber ([1922] 1978) lays out some that Marx, especially in his discussion of of the conditions that he feels are conducive commodity fetishism and capital fetishism, to collectively organized class struggles: also identifies as the most important intel- lectual obstacle to class consciousness: the 18 Bendix (1974) recognizes that Weber shares belief in the naturalness and permanency of with Marx many elements of the theory of the the existing conditions and thus the impossi- conditions under which class mobilization is bility of any fundamental change. Much of likely to succeed: "[Cilass organizations occur Marx's in can only when an immediate economic opponent is work, fact, be viewed as an involved, organization is technically easy (as in attempt at a scientific challenge to such ap- the factory), and clear goals are articulated by an parent "naturalness"in the belief that such intelligentsia.... Weber accepted Marx's reasons demystification would contribute to forging for the success of such organizations" (p. 152). revolutionary consciousness. 842 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Third, the transparency of class relations CLASS AND STATUS facilitates class mobilization. Marx also be- lieved that class mobilization would be more Finally, Marx and Weber even have some difficult where there were lots of intermedi- similar things to say theoretically in an area ary classes-petty bourgeois, peasants, pro- where sociologists generally think they are fessionals-than where class structureswere most divergent: in their treatment of the re- highly polarized and the causal connection lationship between class and status. A cen- between the class structure and the condi- tral issue in Weberian sociology is the en- tions of people's lives were transparent.This during importance of status groups as a is an importantpart of Marx's prediction that source of identity and privilege. As such, capitalism's destruction of all precapitalist status groups are seen as competing with economic relations and the immiseration of class as bases of solidarity and collective ac- the proletariatwould lead to intensified class tion. Marx shared with Weber the views that conflict. (1) status groups impede the operation of Last, because of the relative transparency capitalist markets, and further, that (2) they of their class situation, the modern prole- constitute an alternative basis of identity to tariat comes to understandthat "the contrast class formation. And Weber shared with of life chances .. . [is the result of] the struc- Marx the view that (3) capitalist markets ture of the concrete economic order" (p. tended to erode the strength of status groups 929). Modern capitalism therefore creates and their effects on the system of stratifica- the required kind of transparency for class tion.20Weber ([1922] 1978) writes: associations of workers to be likely. When the bases of the acquisitionand dis- Weber and Marx thus share many ele- tribution of goods are relatively stable, ments in the theoretical specification of the stratificationby status is favored. Every conditions for class associations to emerge, technological repercussionand economic and Weber shares with Marx at least the lim- transformationthreatens stratificationby ited expectation that these conditions will be statusand pushes the class situationinto the minimally satisfied in the case of the mod- em proletariatin capitalist economies so that teenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, that in spite class associations and class struggles are of their common class interests, peasants had little capacity for collective action because they likely to occur. Where they differ-and this were so dispersed in the countryside and re- is a difference that matters-is in the empiri- mained as separate entities with no interdepen- cal prediction that the inner dynamics of dency-like a "sack of potatoes." Weber ([1894] capitalism are such that these conditions will 1989) makes a similar point about East Elbian be progressively strengthened over time, peasants: "For the [agricultural]labourer then the leading to a systematic tendency for long possibility of brutal personal domination that term intensification of class struggles within could be only escaped by flight gave way to com- capitalism. If Marx's empirical predictions mercial exploitation which, arising almost unno- about these conditions had been correct, then ticed, was actually much harder to evade and Weber would have shared with Marx the pre- which as a smallholder he was not in a position to do. Formal equality then placed the labourers diction that class conflicts would have a ten- in a struggle of interests for which, dispersed far dency to continually intensify in the course over the land as they were, they lacked the means of capitalist development. Where they differ, of resistance" (p. 171). therefore, is in their predictions about the 20 Mommsen (1985) makes the even stronger long-term trajectory of capitalism more than claim that, from early in his career, Weber be- in their views about the conditions under lieved that capitalism would not merely erode which capitalism would engender a class- traditional status orders, but destroy them: "As conscious organized working class.19 early as 1893 Weber predicted that within a few generations, capitalism would destroy all tradi- tion-bound social structures and that this process 19Another instance in which Weber shares was irreversible" (p. 234). Most sociologists Marx's theoretical analysis of conditions for ef- drawing on Weber's work assume that status re- fective, collective class mobilization, is in their mains a salient dimension of stratification even respective analyses of the peasantry. Marx though capitalism would significantly reduce its ([1852] 1970) is famous for arguing, in The Eigh- weight as a mechanism of identity and exclusion. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 843

foreground. Epochs and countries in which both saw capitalism as systematically erod- the naked class situation is of predominant ing the salience of traditional status groups. significance are regularly the periods of technical and economic transformations. (P. 938) WEBER AND MARX ON CLASS: CENTRAL DIFFERENCES Using different rhetoric, Marx and Engels ([1848] 1968) in the Communist Manifesto If the above analysis is correct, then both made parallel arguments: Weber and Marx deploy varieties of prop- Constant revolutionizing of production, un- erty-centered relational concepts of class in interrupted disturbances of all social condi- which, among other things, (1) objectively tions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation definable material interests play a central distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all ear- role in explaining class action, (2) class lier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, structureand class struggle are distinguished, with their train of ancient and venerable (3) collective class action is facilitated by prejudices and opinions, are swept away. (P. class polarization, and (4) the dynamic pro- 38) cesses of capitalism create conditions favor- The reference to "all fixed, fast-frozen rela- able to class playing a pervasive role in sys- tions" taps the same kinds of categories that tems of stratification.Where they differ most Weber theorized as "stratificationby status," sharply is in their understandingof the causal and Marx and Engels, like Weber, see these mechanisms that are linked to such property- relations threatened by "revolutionizing of relational classes. For Weber, the pivotal is- production, . . . disturbances of all social sue is how classes determine the life chances conditions," or what Weber termed "periods of people within highly rationalized forms of of technical and economic transformations." economic interactions-markets; for Marx, So, both Marx and Weber see capitalism as the central issue is how class determines both undermining status groups and fostering a life chances and exploitation.22 predominance of what Weber called "naked The basic idea of the determinationof life class situation." They may have differed in chances by class is laid out in Weber's their beliefs about the long-term conse- ([1922] 1978) frequently cited passage: quences of this development for class mobi- We may speakof a "class"when (1) a num- lization and struggle-Marx believed it ber of people have in common a specific would reinforce tendencies towards polar- causal componentof their life chances,in- ized class struggle, whereas Weber believed that the development of capitalism was pro- 22 This is not the only way to characterize the ducing a much more complex class structure core difference between Marx's and Weber's less vulnerable to polarized struggle"-but conceptualization of class. Other synoptic con- trasts include: production versus exchange 21 In Weber's ([1918] 1971) "Speech for the (Burris 1986; Collins 1986), unidimensional ver- General Information of Austrian Officers in sus multidimensional (Burris 1986; Scott 1996), Vienna," in which he puts forth an extended dis- and dichotomous versus pluralistic class concepts cussion of Marxism and the prospects of social- (Giddens 1973). Other authors who discuss the ism in Germany, Weber explains how changes in life chances versus exploitation contrast include class structure tie the interests of large numbers Crompton and Gubbay (1977:3-20) and Wright of people to the bourgeoisie: (1997). Sayer (1991) also identifies the problem of exploitation as the central difference between Parallel to these very complex processes, how- Marx and Weber's approachto class, although he ever, there appears a rapid rise in the number of is skeptical that this matters very much: "On the clerks, i.e., in private bureaucracy-its growth of rate is statistically much greater than that of the question exploitation there remains an un- workers-and their interests certainly do not lie bridgeable gulf between Marx and Weber, which with one accord in the direction of a proletarian reflects the very different economic theories-re- dictatorship. Then again, the advent of highly di- spectively political economy and marginalism- verse and complicated ways of sharing interests upon which their sociologies of capitalism are means that at the present time it is quite impos- predicated. How important this is, I would argue, sible to maintain that the power and number of is debatable.... [A]ltogether too much ink has those directly or indirectly interested in the bour- been wasted over their supposed differences" geois order are on the wane. (P. 207) (pp. 104-105). 844 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

sofar as (2) this component is represented This definition is intimately connected to exclusively by economic interests in the the problem of rationalization. When people possession of goods and opportunities for meet to make an exchange in a market, they income, and (3) is represented under the rationally calculate the costs and benefits of conditions of the commodity or labor mar- alternatives on the basis of the prices they kets. This is "class situation." face in the market. These prices provide the It is the most elemental economic fact that kind of information required for people to the way in which the disposition over mate- make rational calculations, and the con- rial property is distributed among a plurality straints of market interactions force them to of people, meeting competitively in the mar- ket for the purpose of exchange, in itself cre- make decisions on the basis of these calcu- ates specific life chances.... lations in a more or less rational manner. Weber is, fundamentally, less interested in But always this is the generic connotation of the problem of the material deprivations and the concept of class: that the kind of chance advantages of different categories of people in the market is the decisive moment which presents a common condition for the as such, or in the collective struggles that individual's fate. Class situation is, in this might spring from those advantages and dis- sense, ultimately market situation. (Pp. 927- advantages, than he is in the underlying nor- 28) mative order and cognitive practices-in- strumentalrationality-that are embodied in "Opportunity"in this context is a descrip- the social interactionsthat generate these life tion of the feasible set individuals face, the chances. tradeoffs they encounter in deciding what to Marx would agree with Weber that the do to improve their material conditions. The ownership of different resources used in Weberianclaim is that in a market society- market exchanges affects life chances. And a society in which people acquire the where- like Weber, he recognizes that exchanges in withal to live by exchanging things with oth- the market constitute interactions based on ers in an instrumentally rational way-such calculation and instrumental rationality.23 opportunities are caused by the quality and But in Marx's class analysis, the effect of quantity of what people have to exchange. exchange on life chances is only half the When markets are fully and pervasively story. Of equal significance is how property present, opportunities are not mainly caused relations shape the process of exploitation. by economically irrelevant ascriptive at- Both "exploitation" and "life chances" tributes or by individuals' control of vio- identify inequalities in material well-being lence, but by the resources a person can that are generated by inequalities in access bring to the market for exchange. Owning to resources of various sorts. Thus, both of the means of production gives a person dif- these concepts point to conflicts of interest ferent alternatives from owning credentials, over the distribution of the assets. What ex- and both of these differ from simply owning ploitation adds to this is a claim that con- unskilled labor power. Furthermore, in a flicts of interest between classes are gener- market economy, access to market-derived ated not simply by conflicts over the distri- income affects a broad array of life experi- bution and value of resources people bring ences and opportunitiesfor oneself and one's to exchanges in the market, but also by the children. The study of the life-chances of nature of the interactions and interdepen- children based on parent's market capac- ity-the problem of class mobility-is thus an integral part of the Weberian agenda of 23 In Capital ([1867] 1967, vol. 1), Marx de- class analysis. Within a Weberian perspec- scribes exchange relations between labor and tive, therefore, the salient consequence that capital as taking place in a sphere in which "[t]he flows from people's links to different kinds only force that brings them together and puts them in relation with each the selfish- in other, is of economic resources deployed markets ness, the gain and the private interests of each" is the way these links confer on them differ- (p. 176). Although he does not use the language ent kinds of economic opportunities and dis- of rational instrumental action, the description advantages, thereby shaping their material here is entirely in line with Weber's view of mar- interests. ket exchange. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 845 dencies generated by the use of those re- talists. Exploitation constitutes a social rela- sources in productive activity. tion that simultaneously pits the interests of Exploitation, for Marx, identified the pro- one class against another, binds the two cess by which labor effort performed by one classes together in ongoing interactions, and group of economic actors is extracted and confers upon the disadvantaged group a real appropriatedby another group. That appro- form of power with which to challenge the priated labor is referred to as "surplus la- interests of exploiters. This is an important bor," meaning laboring activity above and point. Exploitation depends on the appropria- beyond what is required to reproduce the la- tion of labor effort in ongoing social interac- borers themselves. In capitalism, for Marx, tions. Because human beings are conscious this appropriationoccurs because employers agents, they always retain significant levels are able to force workers to work longer of control over their expenditure of effort. hours and perform more labor than is em- The extraction of effort within exploitative bodied in the products that they consume relations is thus always to a greater or lesser with their wages. Expressed in the classical extent problematic and precarious, requiring language of the labor theory of value, the la- active institutional devices for its reproduc- bor value of what they produce is greater tion. Such devices can become costly to ex- than the labor value of what they consume. ploiters in the form of the costs of supervi- The difference-surplus value-is appropri- sion, surveillance, sanctions, and so on. The ated by the capitalist. This appropriationis ability to impose such costs constitutes a exploitation.24 form of power of the exploited. The concept of exploitation, defined in this The exchange relations that shape life way, is used by Marx in two general explana- chances also involve conflicts of interest. tory contexts. First, Marx sees exploitation Yet, in an idealized competitive market in as the source of profits in capitalism: Capi- which direct coercion is absent from the ex- talists appropriatesurplus value from work- change process itself, these conflicts are ers that, when capitalists sell the commodi- muted by the apparent voluntariness of the ties embodying that surplus value, is turned act of exchange. As Weber ([1922] 1978) re- into money profits. Profits, in turn, are es- marks, "'Exchange' is a compromise of in- sential for investment and capital accumula- terests on the part of the parties in the course tion. In this way, exploitation figures cen- of which goods or other advantages are trally in Marx's account of the dynamics of passed as reciprocal compensation.... Ev- capitalism. Second, Marx sees exploitation ery case of rationally oriented exchange is as central to explaining the particular char- the resolution of a previously open or latent acter of conflict between workers and capi- conflict of interests by means of a compro- mise" (p. 72). Marx ([1867] 1967), similarly, 24 Although Marx elaborated the concept of sees the market exchanges between workers exploitation in terms of the labor theory of value, and capitalists as involving reciprocity and as a sociological concept exploitation does not a degree of commonality of interests: depend on this technical apparatus.As I have ar- gued (Wright 1997:4-17), class exploitation can [Exchangebetween labor and capital im- be understood as a social relation in which (1) plies] equalityt, becauseeach enters into re- the material well-being of exploiters occurs at the lationwith the other,as with a simpleowner expense of the well-being of the exploited, (2) of commodities,and they exchangeequiva- this inverse relation depends upon the exclusion lent for equivalent.... The only force that of the exploited from access to material re- bringsthem togetherand puts them in rela- sources, and (3) this exclusion from access to re- tion with each other,is the selfishness,the sources enables exploiters to appropriate of the gain and the privateinterests of each. Each labor effort of the exploited. Taken together, looks to himself only, and no one troubles these three criteria imply a relationship in which himselfabout the rest, andjust becausethey the advantaged groups depend on the efforts of do so, do they all, in accordancewith the the disadvantaged groups for the reproduction of pre-establishedharmony of things,or under their advantages. For a trenchant philosophical the auspices of an all-shrewdprovidence, discussion of why the concept of exploitation worktogether to theirmutual advantage, for does not logically depend on the labor theory of the commonweal and in the interestof all. value, see Cohen (1988). (P. 176) 846 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Basic Causal R . . Market capacity in Differentialcontrol over Structure of Weber's Relatonomicasts > instrumentally rational )0 income Class Analysis economic assets exchange relations (life chances)

Market capacity in Differentialcontrol over instrumentallyrational income exchange relations (life chances) Basic Causal Structure of Marx's Relationship to Class Analysis economic assets ______\ Location within Differentialcontrol over production relations of labor effort dominationand (exploitation) subordination

Figure 1. Core Elements in Weber's and Marx's Analysis of Class

Within production, on the other hand, the are a class, whereas for Marxists slavery containment of the conflict of interests be- constitutes one form of precapitalist class tween the performers of labor effort and the relations.25Weber ([1922] 1978) writes: appropriatorsof that effort requires the on- Those men whose fate is not determined by going exercise of domination through com- the chance of using goods or services for plex forms of surveillance, discipline, and themselves on the market, e.g., slaves, are control of the labor process. The conflict not, however, a class in the technical sense over exploitation is not settled in the recip- of the term. They are, rather, a status group. rocal compromise of a contractual moment; (P. 928) 26 it is continually present in the ongoing inter- For Weber ([ 1922] 1978), slaves are a spe- actions through which labor is performed. cific instance of a general theoretical cat- The central difference between Marx's and egory-status groups-that also includes Weber's concept of class, then, is that the ethnic groups, occupational groups, and Weberian account revolves exclusively other categories "that are stratified accord- around market transactions, whereas the ing to the principles of their consumption of Marxist account also emphasizes the impor- goods as representedby special styles of life" tance of conflict over the performance and (p. 937). These groups differ by the mean- appropriationof labor effort that takes place after market exchanges are contracted. This 25 contrast is illustrated in Figure 1 (modified For an alternative view of the relationship and simplified from Wright [1997:34]). between class and status in Marx's and Weber's treatment of slavery and see Weber's class analysis revolves around a feudalism, Sayer (1991), who argues that Marx used the word single causal nexus that works through mar- "class" in two quite different ways. In one sense, ket exchange; Marxist class analysis in- class is a generic term covering all systems of cludes the Weberian causal processes, but exploitation linked to production; in the other adds to them a causal structure within pro- sense, it is specific to capitalism. This second us- duction itself. The Marxist concept of class age of the word, Sayer argues, is the more funda- directs our attention both theoretically and mental to Marx's theory and thus, like Weber, empirically toward the systematic interac- Marx believed that only in capitalism were there tion of exchange and production. fully developed classes. One of the striking implications of this 26 In Weber's early work on agrarian econo- mies in ancient civilizations, which is marked by contrast between the Weberian and Marxist a much more Marxian kind of analysis than is his concepts of class is that Weber-at least in later work in Economy and Society, slaves were his most mature work when he is formaliz- treated as a class, and their relationship to slave- ing his concepts-rejects the idea that slaves owners was treated as involving exploitation. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 847 ings and criteria that accord differential so- Weber engages the problem of the perfor- cial honor to different "styles of life," and mance and appropriation of labor effort "slavery" is just one way of organizing such within the system of production primarily as status rankings. In contrast, Marxists would an issue of work discipline, the "incentives see slavery as, primarily, a special instance to work," and economic efficiency. This of a different general theoretical category- identification of the problem of extraction of class-that includes capitalists and workers labor effort and technical efficiency is one in capitalism, lords and serfs in feudalism, of the themes in Weber's ([1904] 1958) dis- slaves and slave-owners in slavery. Although cussion in The Protestant Ethic of the prob- these categories differ in lifestyles and the lem of using piece-rates as a strategy for get- cultural criteria used to impart symbolic ting workers to work harder.Here is the rel- rankings, the crucial issue is their differences evant passage: in mechanisms of exploitation-the ways in One of the technical means which the mod- which labor effort is appropriatedfrom one ern employer uses in order to secure the category by another. Marx, of course, like greatest possible amount of work from his Weber, recognized that in precapitalist soci- men is the device of piece-rates. In agricul- eties social division was organized around ture, for instance, the gathering of the har- status orders involving personal dependence vest is a case where the greatest possible in- and extra-economic coercion. But for Marx tensity of labour is called for, since, the the most salient feature of such status orders weather being uncertain, the difference be- was how they underwrote distinctive forms tween high profit and heavy loss may de- pend on the speed with which the harvesting of exploitation. It is this which justifies treat- can be done. Hence a system of piece-rates ing these as varieties of the abstractcategory is almost universal in this case. And since "class relations" within a class concept cen- the interest of the employer in a speeding up tering on exploitation. of harvesting increases with the increase of the results and the intensity of work, their attempt has again and again been made, by THE SHADOW OF EXPLOITATION increasing the piece-rates of the workmen, IN WEBER thereby giving them an opportunity to earn Although Weber's definition of the concept what for them is a very high wage, to inter- them in of class says nothing explicitly about exploi- est increasing their own efficiency. But a peculiar difficulty has been met with tation, it is nevertheless the case that in vari- surprising frequency: raising piece-rates has ous places in Economy and Society and else- often had the result that not more but less where Weber touches on the substantive has been accomplished in the same time, be- problems that, within Marxist coordinates, cause the worker reacted to the increase not would be characterized as involving the ex- by increasing but by decreasing the amount ploitation of labor. How Weber deals with of work.... The opportunity of working these problems is revealing of the inner logic more was less attractive than that of work- of his general approach to class analysis.27 ing less.... This is an example of what is here meant by traditionalism. A man does not "by nature"wish to earn more and more 27 The issue here is not the use of the word "ex- ploitation." Even in English this term can mean even the relatively morally charged term simply taking advantage of some kind of oppor- Ausnutzung (which suggests taking unfair advan- tunity, as in "exploiting natural resources," and tage). Rather, Weber used the much more neutral thus the real meaning of the term must be derived terms Benutzung or Verwertung,which basically from the context of its use. In any case, a variety mean "to use." In his earlier work on slavery, on of different German words can be translated into the other hand, Weber sometimes uses Ausnut- the English term "exploitation." The word does zung and occasionally the more technical Marx- appear in a few places in the English translation ist term Ausbeutung, again reflecting the greater of Economy and Society and even more fre- Marxian character of that work. In one place, he quently in Weber's earlier work on slavery. In uses the expression exploitationsrate, thus di- Economy and Society, the words in the original rectly invoking the Marxist meaning of exploita- German text that are translated as "exploitation" tion. In his later work, this Marxian usage is are never the German term used in Marxist tech- completely absent. I thank Phil Gorski for prov- nical discussions of exploitation, Ausbeutung, or ing me with guidance on these linguistic issues. 848 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

money, but simply to live as he is accus- The third of these concerns the performance tomed to live and to earn as much as is nec- of labor effort. Weber ([1922] 1978) writes: essary for that purpose. Whenever modern capitalism has begun its work of increasing In the specific sense of incentive to execute the productivity of human labor by increas- one's own plans or those of persons super- ing its intensity, it has encountered the im- vising one's work [the inclination to work] mensely stubborn resistance of this leading must be determined either by a strong self- trait of pre-capitalistic labor. (Pp. 59-60) interest in the outcome or by direct or indi- rect compulsion. The latter is particularly Weber ([1904] 1958) concludes that this importantin relation to work which executes technical problem can be effectively solved the dispositions of others. This compulsion immediate threat of only when the laborer adopts a set of atti- may consist in the physical force or of other undesirable con- tudes toward work-the Protestant work sequences, or in the probability that unsatis- ethic-that generates a moral imperative for factory performance will have an adverse him or her to expend a maximum of effort: effect on earnings. Labour must, on the contrary, be performed The second type, which is essential to a mar- as if it were an absolute end in itself, a call- ket economy, appeals immensely more ing. But such an attitude is by no means a strongly to the worker's self-interest.(P. 150) product of nature. It cannot be evoked by low wages or high ones alone, but can only Weber then discusses a variety of conditions be a product of a long and arduous process that need to be met in order for this "indirect of education." (P. 61)28 compulsion," to be effective. He ([1922] 1978) cites three factors: (1) That employers Weber ([1922] 1978) discusses at greater have a free hand in hiring and firing work- length in Economy and Society the motiva- ers: "It also necessitates freedom of selec- tion of workers to expend effort in a discus- tion according to performance, both qualita- sion of the "conditions affecting the optimi- tively and quantitatively, though naturally zation of calculable performance by labor" from the point of view of its bearing on (p. 150). "Optimizationof calculable perfor- profit" (p. 150). (2) Workerslack both own- mance" is a specific problem within the ership and control over the means ofproduc- broaderdiscussion of the conditions that fos- tion: "It presupposes the expropriationof the ter or impede technical rationality in eco- workers from the means of production by nomic organization. Weber ([1922] 1978) owners is protected by force" (p. 150). (3) cites three primary conditions for this opti- Workersbear the responsibilityfor their own mization to occur: "(a) the optimum of apti- reproduction: "As compared with direct tude for the function; (b) the optimum of compulsion to work, this systems involves skill acquired through practice; (c) the opti- the transferral [of] . . . the responsibility for mum of inclination for the work" (p. 150). reproduction(in the family) ... to the work- ers themselves " (p. 151). 28 In The Protestant Ethic, Weber ([1904] Where the above three conditions are met, 1958) also discusses the reasons why "Low wages workers will expend the optimum amount of are by no means identical with cheap labor," as effort from the point of view of profits of the low wages may lead to a decline in effort and dili- capitalist. Where the conditions are not met, from a purely busi- gence: "Low wages fail even result- ness point of view wherever it is a question of labor effort will tend to be restricted, producing goods which require any sort of skilled ing in a decline in technical rationality. In labour, or the use of expensive machinery which particular, Weber ([1922] 1978) discusses is easily damaged, or in general wherever any situations in which the first condition is vio- great amount of sharp attention or of initiative is lated-conditions in which workers them- required. Here low wages do not pay, and their selves retain some significant degree of con- effect is the opposite of what was intended" (p. trol over the deployment of their labor: 61). Here Weber is laying out the essential argu- ments of what is now tellingly referred to as "ef- [O]pportunities for disposal of labor ser- ficiency wage theory." Again, the extraction of vices may be appropriatedby an organiza- labor effort is treated as a problem of instrumen- tion of workers, either without any appro- tal rationality and efficiency ratherthan as a prob- priation by the individual worker or with lem antagonistic interests. important limitations on such appropriation. EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 849

This may involve absolute or relative clo- limited willingness to work" (p. 152). But sure against outsiders and also prohibition of this situation creates other irrationalities, es- the dismissal of workers from employment pecially because "the interests of workers in by management without consent of the the maintenance of jobs ('livings') is often workers, or at least some kind of limitations in conflict with the rationality of the organi- on powers of dismissal.... zation" (p. 138). Thus, although it might be Every form of appropriation of jobs in the case in a worker-owned cooperative that profit-making enterprises by workers ... workers would work very hard, they would [results in] a limitation on theformal ratio- engage in technically irrational behavior in nalization of economic activity. (P. 128) their allocation of labor and their unwilling- At the core of this limitation on formal ra- ness to hire and fire labor as the market re- tionalization is the problem of labor effort. quired. If workers appropriatetheir jobs but owners Weber's stance toward the problem of still appropriatethe products of labor, tech- work effort in these passages is broadly in nical rationality is limited "through a ten- line with that of contemporary neoclassical dency to restrict the work effort, either by micro-economics. Most neoclassical econo- tradition, or by convention, or by contract; mists see any restriction by workers of also through the reduction or complete dis- managerial control of labor and the labor appearance ... of the worker's own interest process as generating efficiency losses, both in optimal effort," (Weber [1922] 1978: because of technically suboptimal alloca- 129). Weber goes on to argue that the prob- tions of resources and because of restrictions lem of getting a technically rational level of of labor effort by workers. Like Weber,these work effort from workers who control their economists believe that control of the work- jobs is similar to the problem of getting place by workers leads to worker opportun- work effort from slaves: ism-workers serving their own interests at the expense of efficiency. The only real so- The very opposite forms of appropriation- lution to such opportunism is preventing that of jobs by workers and that of workers by owners-nevertheless have in practice workers from appropriating their jobs and very similar results. [When workers are ap- making the alternative to conscientious per- propriated by owners] it is natural that ex- formance of work especially unpleasant. ploitation of labor services should, to a large Thus, they would endorse Weber's statement extent, be stereotyped; hence that worker ef- that "[f]ree labor and the complete appro- fort should be restricted and that the work- priation of the means of production [by the ers have little self-interest in the output.... owner] create the most favorable conditions Hence, almost universally the work effort of for discipline" (Weber [1922] 1978:138). appropriatedworkers has shown a tendency For Weber, the problem of the perfor- to restriction .... When jobs have been for- mally appropriatedby workers, the same re- mance and appropriation of work effort is, sult has come about even more rapidly. (Pp. thus, above all a question of the degree and 129-30) forms of rationality in economic organiza- tion. This does not mean that Weber ([1922] If one wants the technically most efficient 1978) was unaware that these forms of ra- performance of labor effort by workers tionality may impose harms on workers: within production, therefore, workers must "The fact that the maximum of formal ratio- not only be expropriated from the means of nality in capital accounting is possible only production, but must also lose any real con- where the workers are subjected to domina- trol over their jobs and the labor process. tion by entrepreneursis a further specific el- One situation in which Weber ([1922] ement of substantive irrationality in the 1978) sees that the appropriationof jobs by modem economic order"(p. 138). Indeed, as workers might not lead to restriction of work Mommsen (1985), Lowith ([1932] 1982), effort is where the workers are also owners Schroeter (1985), and others have noted, of the means of production: "The appropria- running throughout Weber's work is the tion of the means of production and personal view that rationalization has perverse effects control . . . over the process of workers con- that systematically threaten human dignity stitute one of the strongest incentives to un- and welfare, particularly because of the 850 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW ways in which it intensifies bureaucratic importance of extraction of labor effort, domination.29Weber thus hardly held a be- there is nothing in his framework that ac- nign view of capitalism and the work orga- tively blocks attention to this issue. And in- nization it entailed. Nevertheless, he did not deed, class analysts in the Weberiantradition treat this problem of extracting work effort have paid varying degrees of attention to the as central to the class relations of capitalism problem of work discipline, labor effort, and and the conflicts of interests that those rela- related matters. tions engendered. Nevertheless, there are consequences of elaborating the concept of class strictly in terms of market relations and life chances RAMIFICATIONS without a systematic connection to the prob- All in all, the formal characteristics of the lem of exploitation. Conceptual frameworks concept of class in capitalist societies are matter because, among other things, they di- rather similar in Weber and Marx. They dif- rect thinking and research in particularways. fer primarily in the broader theoretical con- Here I would emphasize two issues: First, text in which these definitions are embedded the ways in which explicitly linking exploi- and in their accounts of the central causal tation to the concept of class changes the mechanisms that are linked to class rela- way class conflict is understood, and second, tions. For Weber, these mechanisms are pri- the ways exploitation infuses class analysis marily centered in the ways in which owner- with a specific kind of normative concern. ship of property affects life chances via in- The concept of exploitation draws atten- strumentally rational exchanges in the mar- tion to the ways in which class conflicts do ket; for Marx, they concern the ways in not simply reflect conflicting interests over which ownership of property affects life the distribution of a pie. Rather, to charac- chances and exploitation through the inter- terize class relations as exploitative empha- play of markets and production. Although sizes the ways in which exploiting classes Weber also, if only in passing, touches on are dependent upon the exploited class for issues closely related to exploitation, par- their own economic well-being, and because ticularly the problem of labor discipline and of this dependency, the ways in which ex- domination, he does not integrate these con- ploited classes have capacities for resistance cerns into the general concept of class but that are organic to the class relation. Because treats them primarily as issues in the techni- workers always retain some control over the cal efficiency of systems of production. expenditure of effort and diligence, they One might still ask, so what? Does this re- have a capacity to resist their exploitation; ally matter? Even if Weber underplayed the and because capitalists need workers, there are constraints on the strategies available to 29 Mommsen (1985) describes Weber's stance capitalists to counter this resistance.30 toward capitalism this way:

Although he vigorously defended the capitalist 30 system against its critics from the Left,... he did As I have argued elsewhere (Wright 1997: not hesitate to criticize the system's inhumancon- 11-12), the ways in which exploitation acts as a sequences.... His concern for the preservation of constraint on the exploiter is revealed in histori- human dignity under the societal conditions cre- cal situations in which sharp conflicts over ex- ated by and typical for maturecapitalism (particu- clusion from economic resources occur in the ab- larly the severe discipline of work and exclusion sence of exploitation. There is a morally abhor- of all principles of personal ethical responsibility rent folk-saying from nineteenth-century United from industrial labor) is entirely consistent with States, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Marx's effort to find a way of overcoming the so- Such a saying has a kind of grotesque "rational- cial alienation of the proletariat under industrial ity" in the context of the struggles between Eu- capitalism. (P. 235) ropean settlers and indigenous people over con- Where Weber most deeply differed from Marx is trol of the land: Although there were sharp and in Weber's belief that socialism, in whatever violent conflicts with Native Americans over form, would only intensify this oppression, and their expulsion from the land, in general the la- thus no viable alternative to capitalism would be bor effort of Native Americans was not exploited, possible (unless one was willing to accept a dra- and thus the white settlers did not depend upon matic decline in technical rationality). Native Americans for their own prosperity. Na- EXPLOITATION IN WEBER'S CLASS ANALYSIS 851

Exploitation thus entails a specific kind mance of employees. The most fundamental of duality: conflicting material interests solution to this problem is for workers to de- plus a real capacity for resistance. This du- velop the right kinds of attitudes, as de- ality has implications for the way we think scribed in The Protestant Ethic and the about both the individual and collective Spirit of Capitalism. When workers see the power of workers: As individuals, the performance of labor effort as a calling- power of workers depends both on the scar- when they have the proper work ethic-then city of the kind of labor power they have to the problem of optimizing the calculable offer in the labor market (and thus their performanceof labor is greatly reduced, per- ability to extract individual "skill rents" haps even eliminated. In the absence of this through the sale of their labor power) and ethic, then, even with close supervision, the on their ability to control the expenditure of actual extraction of optimal levels of effort their individual effort within the labor pro- is an enduring problem. Instead of under- cess; as a collectivity, workers' power de- standing the capacity of workers to control pends on their ability to collectively regu- their own effort as a fundamental source of late the terms of exchange on the labor mar- class-based power available to workers in ket (typically through unions) and their their class struggles with capitalists, Weber ability to control the organization of work, sees this control as one of the obstacles to surveillance, and sanctions within produc- forming a fully rationalized economic order. tion. The concept of exploitation, therefore, Beyond the issue of the conceptual map- suggests a research agenda in which class ping of research agendas, Marx's and conflict and the balance of class power Weber's conceptual frameworks direct class must be understood in terms of the system- analysis toward different sets of normative atic interplay of interests and capacities concerns linked to the material interests of within both exchange and production. different classes. Both theorists ask ques- When the appropriationof labor effort is tions and pursue agendas rooted in their val- treated, not in terms of the basic social rela- ues, although Weber is undoubtedly more tions that bind together workers and capital- self-conscious than Marx about trying to ists, but in terms of the formal rationality of keep his values from shaping his conclu- the "conditions affecting the optimization of sions.31 The issue here is that the specific calculable performance by labor" (Weber way the concept of class is built directs at- [1922] 1978:150), the issue of the perfor- tention toward different kinds of normative mance of labor effort becomes analyzed pri- agendas. marily as a technical problem of overcom- Weber's treatmentof work effort as prima- ing the traditionalism or opportunism of rily a problem of economic rationality di- workers as individuals. Capitalists face a rects class analysis toward a set of norma- wide range of problems in enhancing ratio- tive concerns centered above all on the in- nal calculability in economic action. One terests of capitalists: efficiency and rational- problem revolves around the work perfor- ization. Although Weber is not blindly un- critical of capitalism and recognizes that, tive Americans were thus "dispensable" from the from the point of view of workers, the orga- settlers' point of view. The parallel aphorisms in nization of work may be "substantively irra- the case of slavery or workers in capitalist firms tional," throughout his discussion of work might be something like, "The only good slave is a docile slave," or "The only good worker is an 31 Weber, of course, is famous for arguing that obedient worker" (or in Weber's analysis, "a social science should attempt to be "objective" worker with a Protestant work ethic"), but it in the sense of trying to restrict its moral con- would make no sense to say, "The only good cerns to the posing of questions ratherthan to the slave is a dead slave," or "The only good worker substance of research and the selection of an- is a dead worker." It is in this sense that exploi- swers. Marx also believed in scientific objectiv- tation acts as a constraint on the strategies of ex- ity, but was skeptical that in social analysis the ploiters: They must seek ways of responding to analyst could in practice keep the substance of resistance of the exploited that reproduce, rather ideas from being influenced by the analyst's own than destroy, their interactions with the ex- relationship to social forces-especially class in- ploited. terests-in the society. 852 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW effort the emphasis is on how arrangements perbacks. that enhance worker control and autonomy Collins, Randall. 1986. Weberian Sociological are technically irrational. Whether or not Theory. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univer- Weber was sympathetic to the conditions of sity Press. Crompton, Rosemary and John Gubbay. 1977. workers, this preoccupation is very much in Economy and Class Structure. London, En- line with the interests of owners and manag- gland: Macmillan. ers. 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