Weber's and Marx Capitalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Weber's and Marx Capitalism - Essay Example This so-called Protestant ethic was the primary impulse for an almost accidental massive social phenomenon that led to the emergence of capitalism. Weber postulates that the unique characteristics of Protestantism and Calvinism were responsible for enabling society to absorb and embrace the capitalistic economic model. In his introduction he writes, A glance at the occupational statistics of any country of mixed religious composition brings to light with remarkable frequency a situation which has several times provoked discussion in the Catholic press and literature, and in Catholic congresses in Germany, namely, the fact that business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the higher grades of skilled labor, and even more the higher technically and commercially trained personnel of modern enterprises, are overwhelmingly Protestant. This is true not only in cases where the difference in religion coincides with one of nationality, and thus of cultural development, as in Eastern Germany between Germans and Poles. The same thing is shown in the figures of religious affiliation almost wherever capitalism, at t he time of its great expansion, has had a free hand to alter the social distribution of the population in accordance with its needs, and to determine its occupational structure. The more freedom it has had, the more clearly is the effect shown. It is true that the greater relative participation of Protestants in the ownership of capital, in management, and the upper ranks of labor in great modern industrial and commercial enterprises, may in part be explained in terms of historical circumstances, which extend far back into the past, and in which religious affiliation is not a cause of the economic conditions, but to a certain extent appears to be a result of them. Participation in the above economic functions usually involves some previous ownership of capital, and generally an expensive education; often both (1). This thesis (convincingly dubbed 'The Weber Thesis'), based on observations as to the distribution of Protestants in the capitalist world, essentially submits the enterprising and comparatively risky Protestant nature (perhaps a product of the then-fresh Protestant revolution) translated from the religious to the economic world, responsible for the development of the capitalistic economic model. This analysis has met with criticism from a number of academic minds. R. H. Tawney, one distinctive and well-known critic, agreed that capitalism and Protestantism were linked; however, in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism Tawney writes that Protestantism adopted the risk-taking, profit-making model from capitalism, and not that capitalism adopted these traits from Protestantism (Tawney, 1926). Sandra Pierotti continues, "The strongest connection that Tawney saw between capitalism and Protestantism was rationality. Protestantism was a revolt against traditionalism and as such advocated rationality as an approach to life and business. Tawney proposed that the rationality inherent in capitalism became a tenet of Protestantism because rationality was diametrically opposed to the traditionalism of Catholicism. Early Protestant leaders recognized that hard work and rational organization of time were capitalist virtues which fit very nicely into the concept of living one's life in the service of God. Tawney saw the capitalist concepts of division of labor and planned accumulation as being reflected in the dogma of Protestantism which urged its followers to use one's calling on earth for the greater glory of God.