Showing papers on "Ideal type published in 1986"

Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School of Economics

Abstract: Alfred Schutz's reconstruction of Max Weber's methodology is examined from two points of view: Schutz's decade-long affiliation with the Austrian school of economics and his project for the unification of the social sciences. Biographical and textual evidence shows that Schutz's methodological goals for his first book, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (published in 1932), wereshaped by the epistemological debates within the Austrian school of economics, rather than some abstract and unmotivated attempt to "synthesize" Weber and Hussl. Schutz modified Weber's concepts of Verstehen and the ideal type to meet Austrian objections, and revised them further to comply with canons of reliability adopted from the logical empiricist theory of science, with which he was familiar through his friend Felix Kaufmann. The essay concludes with a depiction of Schutz's little-known program for the unification of the social sciences, whose origin can be traced to the same intelectual context.

Charismatic Domination, Totalitarian Dictatorship, and Plebiscitary Democracy in the Twentieth Century

Abstract: This chapter is based on my recent study (1981) of Weber’s work on charisma and subsequent research in the field. I introduce an outline of a theory of charismatic domination which is not in agreement with current formulations on several points. (Weber himself, of course, always spoke of an “ideal type” rather than a theory.) In fact this theory has been influenced by a stream of thought chiefly developed by Durkheim (1912, 1924, 1925) and Parsons (1937,1951). I shall then discuss the topic of charismatic domination in the twentieth century, with a special regard to so-called totalitarian dictatorships and to plebiscitary democracy.