Weber's Ethic and the Spirit of Anti-Capitalism

Abstract

This article explores Max Weber's critique of socialism in relation to his own diagnosis of modern capitalism and its pathologies. Weber does not defend the capitalist ‘system’ directly against its left-wing critics. Rather, he identifies and denounces those social forces which threaten to undermine the liberal ‘spirit’ of capitalism. One of these forces turns out to be capitalism itself, insofar as it favours the bureaucratization and cartelization of business units, the closure of markets, and growing lobby-driven state intervention. Weber distinguishes two basic types of socialist criticism: pan-moralism and ultra-rationalism, both criticized for their lack of ‘intellectual honesty’. Pan-moralists look out for a project which is considered hopelessly unfeasible. Ultra-rationalists tend to tear down – unintentionally – the last barriers against the total bureaucratization of social life. Both the theoretical structure and some weak points of this Weberian counter-criticism are elaborated.