Ideal type

About: Ideal type is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 400 publications have been published within this topic receiving 8012 citations.

For an Anthropology of Gaps, Discrepancies and Contradictions

Abstract: The propensity of anthropology to highlight the homogeneity of the groups it studied, related to the “primitivist” and “peasantist” contexts associated with the emergence of the discipline, can be referred to as “culturalism”. Such a scientific ideology underestimates the contradictions and diversities deployed within any social group studied by anthropologists, as well as the discrepancy between the rules of the social game and the actors’ real practices. Nevertheless, various anthropologists have long expressed an interest in both the internal inconsistencies of social orders and the non-compliant practices. Some examples are given of these considerations for differences, from Malinowski or the Manchester school to legal pluralism or the anthropology of organizations. The European anthropology of development, extended to-day into an anthropology of public actions and public policies, is undoubtedly the sub-discipline that has developed the most an empirically grounded approach of gaps and discrepancies, alongside a dialogue with sociology and political science. It has put the richness of ethnographic investigation and qualitative research to the service of investigating the implementation gaps of public policies and the behavioural gaps of public agents. This opens the way for a reconsideration of Max Weber’s ideal-type as a methodological gap.

Reconciling Republican “Egalité” and Global Excellence Values in French Higher Education

Abstract: Building prestigious higher education is today one of the main drivers of public policy. Many governments have initiated policies to support or create elite universities in the belief that they will boost their system’s prestige in the world. Despite the assumption that all countries will make similar world-class university policy choices, a growing body of criticism points out that elite universities are in fact an ideal type drawn from a narrow pool, Anglo-American in nature, and currently dominant. By examining how a system with different public norms and values managed excellence policies, the chapter considers how the idea of ‘world-class university’ might be generalised. The chapter looks at excellence initiatives in France to explore (a) how world-class university policies are introduced in a system with values which contradict those embodied by today’s prevailing notion of global excellence and (b) whether these initiatives benefit the system as a whole.

Putin and the Russian Mythscape: Dilemmas of Charismatic Legitimacy

Abstract: For decades now, President Vladimir Putin has consistently enjoyed markedly high approval rates and seemingly benefited from charismatic legitimacy, whereas systemic legal-rational legitimacy has remained low. This article discusses how, through the successful communication of political myth, legitimacy has become ever more personalized in Putin's Russia, and considers some of the dilemmas inherent in non-democratic settings where legitimacy builds on grounds that are not legal-rational in the Weberian sense. Vladimir Putin commands a unique power position as President of the Russian Federation, having held office from 2000 to 2008, and then, after an intermission when he formally served as prime minister under Dmitrii Medvedev, from 2012 onwards. (1) If the results of the presidential elections in 2018 go his way, there is no constitutional rule preventing him from remaining the incumbent until 2024. This article applies theories on legitimacy, political myth, and charisma to discuss the dilemmas inherent in highly personalized political regimes of the type that Putin represents. I begin by presenting general perspectives on legitimacy, taking as my point of departure Max Weber's discussion of ideal types of legal-rational, traditional, and charismatic authority (2) and the role of these typologies as foundations of a legitimate order. (3) The focus then shifts to legitimacy in non-democratic states, and next to the concept of political myth, which addresses the important link between charismatic political leaders and their followers. Turning to master myths in today's Russia, I argue that Putin has been very successful in communicating, as well as claiming to feature in, such myths. Lastly, I consider the dilemmas of political succession in regimes centered on individual charismatic leaders. Legitimacy in Non-democratic States The concept of "legitimacy" has a long history within political science and social thought. It refers to a solid and widespread belief within a political entity that the current arrangement of power is appropriate, proper, just, and in keeping with agreed rules. This is what forms a legitimate order. (4) Because of this legitimacy, people feel that they need to defer to decisions and rules and follow them voluntarily, out of obligation and responsibility to others. This contrasts with acting out of fear of coercion or because the powers persuade people through provision or promises of economic benefit. Most often, the concept of legitimacy is applied at the state, or indeed nation-state, level of analysis. The basic rationale holds that, if a state is to function effectively in the longer run, its ideational basis must appeal to the bulk of the population. (5) Being able to gain voluntary acquiescence from most of the people, most of the time, due to their sense of obligation and commitment, means that state and society can function even during periods of scarcity, crisis, and conflict. It creates a reservoir of support to be drawn upon under difficult circumstances, a support not contingent upon self-interest or coercion. Loss of legitimacy, by contrast, is likely to result in popular discontent and societal opposition to political leaders." It has become customary to use the Weberian ideal types of legal-rational, traditional, and charismatic authority as points of departure for discussing the foundations of a legitimate order. However, Weber anticipated that these ideal types would not appear in pure form, but were likely to blend with one another, albeit with one subtype dominating." The first ideal type, the legal-rational one, is the most refined, and undergirds society and politics in stable Western democracies. It rests on broad popular consent that exists because of the political leaders' conscientious observance of the letter and spirit of the legal and constitutional frame-work. Nevertheless, Weber made it clear that this Western ideal type of legal-rational authority is not the only way in which social arrangements of power can be justified and kept stable in a state. …

Developing Typologies in Qualitative Research: The Use of Ideal-type Analysis

Abstract: The tradition of developing typologies has been prominent in research, particularly within the fields of psychology and sociology, for decades. A typology is formed by grouping cases or participants into types on the basis of their common features. Despite the prominence of typologies in research, methodological guidance on the process of developing a typology, particularly as a qualitative method for analysing data, is scarce. Ideal-type analysis is a relatively new addition to the family of qualitative research methods, which offers a systematic, rigorous method for constructing typologies from qualitative data. In our approach to ideal-type analysis, the methodology consists of seven steps: becoming familiarised with the dataset; writing the case reconstructions; constructing the ideal types; identifying the optimal cases; forming the ideal-type descriptions; checking credibility; and making comparisons. This article is a summary of our approach to conducting ideal-type analysis. We hope that this article will help researchers to consider whether using ideal-type analysis may be a suitable approach for their own studies.

The Life and Work of Max Weber

Abstract: Weber's life, field of work, principal publications, 88. — His position on the method of social science, 90. — The "Ideal Type" and its methodological significance, 95. — Its bearing on the methods of economics, 98. — Weber as sociologist, 100. — Relation of sociology to other sciences, 103. — Conclusion, 106.