"Weber's theory mystifies the conditions of 'domination' by so posing the problem that the apparatuses, instruments, and sources of state power are ignored or derived from its claim to legitimacy. Outside of Weber's categories it is clear that the masses 'obey' states not for the reasons claimed by legitimating ideologies but because of the concrete mechanisms of compliance which the state as a social institution possesses. The source of these state powers is not some legitimatory claim but the political relation of social and economic forces to the state. To examine conditions of existence of the state in terms of its claims to legitimacy is to take the the ideological form of the state at face value and to deduce from 'obedience' the effectivity of legitimation. When a large proportion of the world's population is subject to military dictatorships or other forms of authoritarian rule Weber's theory is not simply wrong and obfuscatory, it is an authoritarian political ideology."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Paul Q. Hirst, "The Three Types of Legitimate Domination" in Social Evolution and Sociological Categories (1976), p. 51
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rational-legal_authority
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Rational-legal authority
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Rational-legal authority →
Related Quotes
"There are three pure types of legitimate domination. The validity of the claims to legitimacy may be based on:"
"At the outset, what immediately strikes a student of Weber's rationalization thesis is its seeming irreversibility an…"
"On a more analytical plateau, all these disparate processes of rationalization can be surmised as increasing knowledg…"
"It makes sense that Weber's rationalization thesis concludes with two strikingly dissimilar prophecies — one is the i…"
"To summarize, the irony with which Weber accounted for rationalization was driven by the deepening tension between mo…"
"Weber envisions the future of rationalization not only in terms of “mechanized petrification,” but also of a chaotic,…"
"It is above all the impersonal and economically rationalized (but for this very reason ethically irrational) characte…"
"All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowled…"
"Dear, I trusted you As holy men trust God. You could do naught That was not pure and loving—though the deed Might pie…"
"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."