Sovereignty and Secularization (RS 3CC3)
Winter 2009

TEXT PREPARATION 1

Assignment due in class on February 3* from members of Group 1

*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment is that it will prepare you to be an active participant in tutorial and in class, it may only be submitted in class on the day it is due.  If you have to miss that day's class, please contact the instructor or TA to make alternate arrangements.

Please read 

Max Weber, selections from Economy and Society (published posthumously, 1922):

  • selection from "The Types of Legitimate Domination" (Economy and Society, ed. Roth/Wittich, vol. 1: 212-16) [selection in Coursepack 1 / book on reserve]
  • "Power and Domination: Transitional Forms" (in Max Weber: Readings and Commentary on Modernity, ed. Kalberg: 179-86) [selection in Coursepack 1 / print personal copy from online edition / book on reserve]
  •  "Charisma and its Transformation" (Economy and Society, ed. Roth/Wittich, vol. 2: 1111-57)  [selection in Coursepack 1 / book on reserve]

and address the following two questions in 4-5 well-written paragraphs (spanning 3-4 pages). Since this is your first reading of this text, and since we have not yet discussed it in class, you are not being asked to supply definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on close attention to the text. Your answers may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion.  

1.
Note Weber's definition of domination/authority/rule (= Herrschaft in the German original) as (1) "the probability that [commands] will be obeyed by a given group of persons" (ES, 212) or (2) "the possibility of imposing one's will upon the behavior of other persons" (Kalberg, 181).  In the first two reading selections (ES, 212-16, and Kalberg, 179-86), Weber gives some examples of power relationships that are included in the concept of Herrschaft, and also excludes certain kinds of power relations from the concept of Herrschaft.  With detailed reference to the text, name one included phenomenon and one excluded phenomenon, and explain why they are included/excluded according to Weber.

2.
What is the "routinization" of charisma, and what are some examples or special cases of "routinization" described by Weber (in ES, 1111-57)?

In preparing this assignment, please follow the citation guidelines in 

For parenthetical page references to the selections from Weber, Economy and Society, please use the following abbreviations:

 

Your assignment should be printed double-spaced and with one-inch margins, using a 10-12-point font.  Please number and staple the pages you hand in. 

Please keep a copy of your assignment to refer to in our class discussion.

 

 

posted January 26, 2009