Max Weber

1
Max Weber

• German
• Born in 1860s, died in 1920
• Enjoyed dueling (like with swords)
• Had major nervous breakdown
• Single most influential theorist in sociology

2
Whats Whats The Matter With Kansas?

• A book by Thomas Frank (2004)
• A common lament of contemporary liberals
• A good conceptual divide between Marxists and
  Weberians

3
U.S. Occupational Distribution 2006
Note x-axis in milions of workers. Source
Authors tablulations of BLS data.
4
The Bureaucracy

• Consciously organized, explicitly coordinated
• People are interchangeable/replaceable
• Each office given explicit jurisdiction
• Dont obey the person obey the office
• Bureaucrats dont own an office they fill it
• Bureaucrats chosen by formally rational criteria

5
President Saparmurat Niyazov
Yeah hes looking right at you
6
The Rise of Rational Action

• Whats rational action, you ask?
• Conscious, continuous, systematic effort to
  relate means to explicit ends
• This is new!
• Most societies throughout most of human history
  rely on traditional action
• Affectual social action also important

7
The wealthy are really wealthy!
8
Relative wealth stability, 1962-2004
9
Top .1 family income share
10
Relative poverty, 2000
Notes Poverty defined as ½ of median income.
Source State of Working America.
11
Infant mortality (deaths per 1,000 live births),
2002
Source Health, United States, 2005.
12
Life expectancy at birth
13
Obesity rates the world over
Source WHO (2005).
14
Incarceration rates the world over
Source International Centre for Prison Studies
(http//www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/home.html).
15
Persons incarcerated 1925-2004
Source Sentencing Project, Incarceration and
Crime A Complicated Relationship.
16
Incarceration and crime rates 1970-2004
Source Sentencing Project, Incarceration and
Crime A Complicated Relationship.
17
Persons incarcerated by offense type 1980 - 2004
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
18
Arrests for drug offenses 1970-2005
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
19
Drug offenses as a fraction of all prison
admissions 2003
Source Authors analysis of NCRP data.
20
New Jerseys incarceration costs
21
Murder rates 1900-2002
Source National Center for Health Statistics
(NCHS).