Max Weber's Social Action Theory

Resulting from a series of political revolutions such as the 1789 French Revolution and the 1760 Industrial Revolution, and a series of historical developments such as the subsequent rise of capitalism, Enlightenment thinkers sought to combine reason with empirical research in an effort to produce bodies of rational thought. These bodies of rational thought arose from the thinkers’ belief in using reason and research to comprehend and control society; focusing on the relationship between the individual and society to comprehend how society is possible. There was the growing concern of the impacts of such changes that is, the transition from pre-industrial economies to industrialized societies, on society and individuals. The founding

He was interested in situations in which people attach meaning to what they do; he believed that the individual is an entity which is capable of rationally interpreting his work. Referencing Ritzer 2004, Weber believes what matters are peoples’ conscious processes; what people believe about a situation is more important in understanding the actions they take than the objective situation in which they find themselves. Weber outlined four types of actions in his social action theory: traditional, affective, value-rational and means-ends rational action, each of which may guide the individual through different historical epochs, which to him was necessary as society was transitioning from a traditional to a rationalized society. Traditional action refers to the action taken on the basis of the ways things have been done habitually or customarily, though considered to be irrational, the individual is capable of explaining and

Marx understood capitalism to be founded upon a class division between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He believed society goes through five changes; Primitive, Ancient Slave owning, Feudal society, Capitalist and Communism being the final stage. A Capitalist society was considered to be the modern society where there will be conflict due to people striving for things that will benefit themselves, hence persons are self-interested. The devaluation of the human world increases in direct relation with the increase to the value of the world of things. Thus there is the alienation of the worker in the capitalist economy; the worker lacks control over the' disposal of his products, since what he produces is appropriated by others, so that he does not benefit from it. It is the core principle of the market economy that goods are produced for exchange; in capitalist production, the exchange and distribution of goods are controlled by the operations of the free market. The worker is alienated in the work task itself: if the product of labour is alienation, production itself must be active alienation; the alienation of activity and the activity of alienation. The work task does not offer intrinsic satisfactions which make it possible for the worker ‘to develop freely his mental and physical energies ', since it is labour which is imposed by force of external circumstances