Max Weber as an Economist and as a Sociologist: Towards a Fuller Understanding of Weber's View of Economics - Critical Essay

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Oct, 1999 by Richard Swedberg

RICHARD SWEDBERG [*]

ABSTRACT. In this article I first give a picture of Weber as an economist, mainly by focussing on a text which he distributed to his students when he taught economics in the 1890s. From this text it is, for example, clear that Weber was positive to the use of marginal utility theory in theoretical economics, but also felt that this approach was insufficient, by itself, to analyze empirical phenomena. I then outline Weber's work in economic sociology, relying primarily on Economy and Society and its central Chapter 2 ("Sociological Categories of Economic Action"). The differences between the approaches of economic theory and economic sociology, as seen by Weber, are summarized, and an account is given of some of Weber's most suggestive concepts in economic sociology. In the concluding section the question is raised as to when the analyst, according to Weber, should use economic sociology rather than economic theory, and vice versa. Weber's ideas about a broad economic science--what he termed Sozialokonomik or social economics--are also presented.

I

Introduction

IF ONE ASKS SOCIOLOGISTS and economists who Max Weber was, the answer comes quickly: "a sociologist" (e.g. Parson's [1937] 1968, Blaug 1986). If one consults histories of economic thought and histories of sociological thought one basically gets the same answer, but with some details added. Sociologists are, for example, well aware that Weber during one stage of his life worked as a professor of economics and that he produced some work in this capacity. All of this, however, is typically treated as an episode in Weber's evolution to becoming a sociologist; and his writings as an economist are usually cast as some kind of pre-sociological works, mainly of interest for their emphasis on the social dimension of economic phenomena (e.g. Bendix 1960; Kasler 1988). When historians of economic thought mention Weber at all (which is not very often), it is clear that they are aware that he played a role in German economics around the turn of the century. It is, however, equally clear that they find his work in economic s of little or no interest, especially when compared to the accomplishments of scholars such as Wilhelm Roscher and Gustav Schmoller. And when historians of economic thought do find Weber's work of interest, it is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism they have in mind as well as Weber's ideas on social science methodology, such as the notion of Verstehen and the role of objectivity in the social sciences (see e.g. the works listed in Swedberg 1998, pp. 204, 300).

One of the purposes of this article therefore is to show that Weber was not only a sociologist but also an economist, and that his efforts to work as a sociologist towards the end of his life does not mean that he stopped being an economist. Indeed, Weber always presented himself as an economist--from the mid-1890s, when his academic career began, until 1920, the year when he died. But once the historical record has been set straight on this point, a number of other and more important issues need to be addressed. How did Weber, who had an expert's knowledge of economics as well as of sociology, view the relationship between these two sciences? Did he argue that economic phenomena should be analyzed only from the perspective of one social science (economics? sociology?) or from several? If the latter is true, did Weber see economics as superior to sociology, the opposite, or that the two were somehow of equal standing? All of these questions are relevant for our understanding of Weber, but they also have a ge nerality which goes beyond Weber and makes them interesting for today's economists and sociologists. I will attempt to address these issues in Section IV of this paper. Before that, however, I shall first present Weber's work in economics (Section II) and in sociology (Section III).

II

Weber as an Economist

WHEN MAX WEBER (born 1864) entered the University of Heidelberg in 1882, he seems to have had no more than a vague notion of what he wanted to do in the future. His interests went in several directions and perhaps to postpone a decision he chose law, just as his father had. Taking a law degree in those days entailed taking an introductory course in economics, something which Weber did in 1883. His teacher was Karl Knies (1821-1898), one of the leading economists in Germany and also one of the founders of the German Historical School. The fashionable type of economics at the turn of the century in Germany--and also the one that Knies was interested in--can be described as a kind of institutional economics. The students were taught to apply a holistic and historical approach to the economy, not to focus on some particular mechanism in an analytical fashion.

While a doctoral student Weber also became a member of the main professional association for German economists, Verein fur Sozialpolitik, which saw as its task to produce empirical research as well as policy recommendations. After some time in the Verein Weber was asked to assist with one part of a huge research project on agricultural workers, and he quickly produced a huge volume on this topic (Weber, 1892). Weber's study was immediately recognized as a major achievement, and based on this work, he was offered a professorship in economics at the University of Freiburg in 1893.