Institutions In Weber’s Own Time

During the late 1800’s, there was some institutional stability in Germany’s political sphere, thanks to the devotion to Rechtsstaat, or rule of law. This meant that all of those in the government were duty-bound to uphold the legal order, creating stability for the majority of Prussians. Unfortunately, because the compromises which had created the legal order had never been supported by the growing class of industrial workers, dissent began to arise among educated Germans. They thought that the “labor question” could only be solved through the state’s intervention. Max Weber heavily criticized the political arrangement, believing it to be solely the product of elites. However, the political elites had much more tacit support from the different classes of society than might be expected.

Unlike the previous regimes, the Weimar Republic had a weak institutional basis to begin with. After WWI, many socialist leaders found themselves in power. Not only were they completely unprepared to govern, they also had no confidence in the permanence of the republic. Their Marxist beliefs led them to think that Weimar was only a transitional period between capitalism and socialism; therefore they failed to attempt to cement their government’s legitimacy. They scorned the defense of ancient institutions as reactionary. Why bother to build strong governmental foundations if every change was a step toward socialism?