Max Weber on Law and the Rise of Capitalism

Abstract

Max Weber dedicated much of his energy to explaining why industrial capitalism arose in the West. European law had unique features which made it more conducive to capitalism than were the legal systems of other civilizations. Weber’s decision to include law within a general sociological theory can be explained not only by his personal background as lawyer and legal historian, but also by the methods he employed to trace the rise of the distinctive form of economic activity and organization he called bourgeois capitalism. Weber believed that this type of capitalism required a legal order with a relatively high degree of “rationality.” Since such a system was unique to the West, the comparative study of legal systems helped answer Weber’s basic question about the causes of the rise of capitalism in Europe. Unique conditions in European history, Weber argued, led to the emergence of legalism.

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