Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

It is likely that the concept of rationalization is most often linked with the work of Sigmund Freud on psychological defense mechanisms. However, while such usage is not unknown in sociology, the concept is most often associated with the work of Max Weber and his followers. For Weber, rationalization occurred only, at least to its fullest extent, in the modern West. Other parts of the world, for example India and China, failed to rationalize to any great extent because of barriers there such as basic idea systems and structures that were antithetical to rationalization. On the other hand, there was a series of factors in the West that expedited the development of rationalization in that region of the world. The best known of these factors is the role that the Protestant ethic played in the rise of rational capitalism, but Weber made it clear that this ethic was but one of many distinctive characteristics in the West that made rationalization possible. Furthermore, the rise of capitalistic society was only one of many manifestations of rationalization that also included the rise of the bureaucracy as an organizational form, and of the modern state, corporation, military, university, and church. While Weber saw all of these, and more, as undergoing a process of rationalization, he was careful to avoid a general model of rationalization and to outline the ways in which each of them ... log in or subscribe to read full text