Marx And Weber And Social Action

While examining modern society, two sociologists from the 19th century bring attention to understanding this complex place. Karl Marx describes in detail two ways that people are classified that is dependent on their relationship to the means of production. Max Weber describes a more modern look into how people are, act, and do what they do in society based on people’s class, status, and party. While Marx describes outlooks into his view on peoples place in society through their means of production, alienation, and commodity fetish; Max Weber in particular provides accurate details that describe a person’s class, status, party in society, and what these categories portray people as. When looking at modern society one thing has been …show more content…
A social action “includes both failure to act and passive acquiescence, may be oriented to the past, present, or expected future behavior choice” (“Basic Sociological Terms”, Page 22). Marx would look at social action and compare it to the working class failing to join together and revolt. Weber points out in Bureaucracy, “The principles of office hierarchy and of levels of graded authority mean a firmly ordered system of super- and subordination in which there is a supervision of the lower offices by the high ones. Such a system offers the governed the possibility of appealing the decision of a lower office to its higher authority, in a definitely regulated manner” (Chapter Six). Weber discusses the lower working class to be able to appeal where they are, and challenge the status quo. Marx only discusses the fact that the working class need to find the problem with their spot in order to …show more content…
Weber points out clearly in Class, Status, and Party that there are classes and segregation among people along the lines of what Marx proposed. Weber goes into detail to describes the struggles of the people in the “Ethnic” segregation. “every physical contact with a member of any caste that is considered to be “lower” by the members of a “higher caste is considered as making for a ritualistic impurity and to be a stigma which must be expiated by a religious act” (“Class, Status, Party”, Page 57). In Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the religious idea is described as “By God, the purpose of life itself involves work” (Chapter five). Weber similar to Marx provides examples of why people need to work, but he ties it together to a religious reason. The basic reasons to work from both sociologists are to have food, provide for the family, and to survive. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the idea to work is because if you are hungry, no one will feed you. If you see someone in need of help, they must learn to