Reading Questions: Introduction to Max Weber via a Comparison with Marx.

1. According to Zeitlin, how does Weber’s methodological approach compare to Marx’s historical materialism? In what sense does Weber’s methodological approach round out and complement Marx’s approach?
2. What were the life-long intellectual preoccupations or aims of Marx and Weber respectively? What specific process is Weber interested in?
3. What specific aim or special task is Weber trying to achieve through the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (PESC)? Is it to refute Marx?
4. What is the central argument of PESC?
5. What kinds of conditions are central to the analyses of both Marx and Weber?
6. In his analysis of the feudalist and Asiatic modes of production, in what respects does Weber agree with Marx and where does he extend Marx’s work?
7. Why is Weber so interested in ancient Near Eastern and Asia religions? Be specific.
8. What ideas about preconditions of the modern economic system are shared by both Marx and Weber? (see pp. 227 ff).
9. According to Zeitin, what was the relationship between Marx’s class theory and Weber’s conception of class?
10. What noneconomic forms of power interested Weber interested and why? (Make sure you understand what larger process bureaucracy illustrates).
11. Marx argued that capitalism rests on the separation of workers from the means of production. How did Weber extend this analysis? (This question is closely linked to # 8).

Some key terms:

• Ideal-type:
• Economic rationalism:
• Asceticism:
•      Elective affinity:
• Retinue:
• Commons:
• Disenchantment
• Rationalization:
• Power:
• Bureaucracy