Weber, Max (1864–1920)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is arguably Weber's best known study, but its purpose and main results have often been misrepresented or misunderstood. Both terms in the title represent what Weber called “ideal types,” that is, they are not directly observable entities but rather constitute one-sided conceptual abstractions that provide the social scientist with a tool to better understand and interpret aspects of reality. In this [Page 2737]work, the particular aspect of reality that Weber was most interested in was a core constitutive element of the specifically modern type of capitalism: its underlying motivation or “spirit.” For Weber, modern capitalism's constitutive features were not only the systematic pursuit of profit and a rational organization of the production factors of labor and capital in the economy but also a distinctive modern ethos that guided work and acquisition.

Weber illustrated this ethos by using Benjamin Franklin's admonitions of how to act in order to succeed in business. Franklin stressed methodical, industrious, and frugal conduct, viewing it as an ethical responsibility to increase one's material well-being through honest hard labor and focusing thereby on long-term results. Such ethical responsibility, or duty, to pursue one's vocation or (secular) “calling” in a diligent and competent—thus, in the modern sense, professional—manner sets the “spirit” of modern capitalism and also sets apart modern capitalism itself from other economic motivations and forms of the economy. At the most general level, Weber distinguishes capitalism and its profit motive from (a) socialism/communism, which does not aim for profit making but for the satisfaction of the needs of a collective; (b) the “hand-to-mouth” existence in a subsistence economy, with no surplus to trade on markets; and (c) traditionalism, an economic motive according to which a person works only as much as is necessary to achieve or sustain a certain standard of living—an economic motive antithetical to dynamic and expanding markets. Capitalism itself can be differentiated into market capitalism and what Weber termed political capitalism. In political capitalism, a state uses its political power and resources to extract a surplus from its own citizens or even from other countries. This use of force contradicts the formally peaceful means employed in modern capitalism. The “spirit” of modern capitalism à la Franklin undergirds modern rational capitalism and sets it apart from robber and booty capitalism, by which a corporation or an individual employs force and illegal activities to gain an economic advantage, and from adventure capitalism, which, though not necessarily illegal, involves irrational speculation and a daredevil attitude. The motives of adventure and robber capitalists are incompatible with the spirit of capitalism and its emphasis on the engagement in a vocational calling with the aim to make renewed, long-term profit.

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