| Overview
Interpretive
Sociology
Max
Weber (1864—1920): “The task of sociology, according to Weber, is to understand
human conduct inasmuch as it is meaningful.” (p.38)
Ideal-Type
and Elective Affinity
“Ideal-types
are constructed by abstracting and combining a limited number of elements
from reality in order to open up the chaos of empirical events to description
and understanding.” (p.40)
“Weber
argued that the progressive influence of purposive-rational thought across
social institutions showed the theoretical necessity to break through both
materialist and idealist models of explanation to indicate the elective
affinity (Wahlverwandtschaft) that exists among societal conditions.” (p.41)
The Rationalization
of Society: Economy, Politics, and Bureaucracy
“Weber
argues that modern societies are most essentially marked by a high degree
of purposive rationalization.” (p.41)
The Rationality
of Modern Law
“Weber
specifies the ideal-types of formal and substantive rationality in terms
of lawmaking (legislation) and lawfinding (adjudication) as the two central
aspects of law.” (p.45)
“According
to Weber, the rationalization of modern law in Western societies takes
on the specific form of formal rationalization.” (p.46)
The Legacy
of Weber
“The
relevance and influence of Weber’s work in modern sociology cannot be neatly
demarcated and measured, for there is simply no modern sociology that does
not at least situate itself with respect to Weber’s theories and, almost
as often, is influenced by many of the key ideas in his work.” (p.48)
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Selected
Online Articles (external links)
 Weber,
Max. (1920). The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. [ link
to private site]
Weber,
Max. (1922). Basic
Concepts of Sociology. Selection from Economy and Society. [link
to private site]
Weber,
Max. Various
texts in German and English. [sources
via the sociosite]
Max
Weber. Ausgewählte
Schriften: Potsdamer Internet-Ausgabe. Collection of German original
sources. [at the PIA site]
Albrow,
Martin. 1975. "Legal
Positivism and Bourgeois Materialism: Max Weber's View of the Sociology
of Law." British Journal of Law and Society 2(1):14-31.
Lanza-Kaduce,
Lonn. 1982. "Formality,
Neutrality, and Goal-Rationality: The Legacy of Weber in Analyzing Legal
Thought." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 73(2):533-560.
Ewing,
Sally. 1987. “Formal
Justice and the Spirit of Capitalism: Max Weber’s Sociology of Law.”
Law & Society Review 21(3):487-512.
Trubek,
David. 1986.
“Max Weber’s Tragic Modernism and the Study of Law in Society.” Review
essay. Law & Society Review 20(4):573-598.
Sterling,
Joyce S. and Wilbert E. Moore. 1987. "Weber's
Analysis of Legal Rationalization: A Critique and Constructive Modification."
Sociological Forum 2(1):67-89.
Rocher,
Guy. 1988. “La
réception de l'œuvre de Max Weber dans la sociologie du droit aux
États-Unis.” Droit et Société 9:269-300. [at
Les classiques des sciences sociales]
Feldman,
Stephen M. 1991. "An
Interpretation of Max Weber's Theory of Law: Metaphysics, Economics, and
the Iron Cage of Constitutional Law." Law & Social Inquiry 16(2):205-248.
Savelsberg, Joachim J. 1992.
“Law
That Does Not Fit Society: Sentencing Guidelines as a Neoclassical Reaction
to the Dilemmas of Substantivized Law.” American Journal of Sociology
97(5):1346-1381.
Likhovski, Assaf. 1999. “Protestantism
and the Rationalization of English Law: A Variation on a Theme by Weber.”
Law and Society Review 33(2):365-391.
Marsh,
Robert M. 2000. "Weber's
Misunderstanding of Traditional Chinese Law." American Journal of Sociology
106(2):281-302.
Andrini,
Simona. 2004. “Max
Weber’s Sociology of Law as a Turning Point of His Methodological Approach.”
International Review of Sociology/Revue Internationale de Sociologie 14(2):143-152.
Kennedy,
Duncan. 2004. "The
Disenchantment of Logically Formal Legal Rationality or Max Weber's Sociology
in the Genealogy of the Contemporary Mode of Western Legal Thought."
bepress Legal Series. Working Paper 148. [at
The Berkeley Electronic Press]
Cserne,
Peter. 2005. "From
Law to Social Science and Back Again --the First Step: Remarks on the Juristic
Origin of Some Weberian Concepts." Pp. 457-473 in Ius Unum - Lex Multiplex
Liber amicorum Studia Z. Péteri dedicata. Studies in Comparative
law, Theory of State and Legal Philosophy, edited by István H. Szilágyi
and Máté Paksy. Budapest: Szent István Társulat.
[at The Berkeley Electronic
Press]
Vandenberghe,
Frédéric. 2005. “Entre
Science et Politique: La Conjonction du Positivisme et du Décisionnisme
dans la Sociologie du Droit de Max Weber.” Revue Canadienne Droit et
Société 20(1):157-169.
Sahni,
Isher-Paul. 2006. “Vanished
Mediators: On the Residual Status of Judges in Max Weber’s ‘Sociology of
Law’.” Journal of Classical Sociology 6(2):177-194. [at the publisher's
site]
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Mathieu Deflem. The pull quotes are copyrighted by Cambridge University
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