Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Examples of Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in the following topics:

• Economic Sociology

  • Sociology came of age in the late nineteenth century, at the same time as capitalism and modernity were taking root.
  • Max Weber's book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is the archetypical representation of the works of economic sociology's classical period .
  • Published in 1905, Weber argues that capitalism flourished in northern Europe because of a preexisting religious ethic that encouraged dedication and hard work in the course of proving oneself worthy of salvation.
  • The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is representative of classical economic sociology in that it uses sociological data on religion to explain the economic phenomenon of northern Europe's embrace of capitalism.
  • This picture shows the cover to the 1934 edition of Max Weber's The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

• Introduction to Provisioning

  • Economics as a provisioning problem includes the allocation problem but includes and analysis of the social infrastructure, knowledge and ideological framework in which economic behavior occurs.
  • The origins and nature of knowledge greatly influences the economic functions of a society.
  • Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1904-05) and Robert Tawney (Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, 1926) both hypothesize that the rise of the capitalist system was predicated on protestant beliefs.
  • These works have been controversial and the role of religion in the operation of economies is not accepted by everyone.
  • The flight of the Wright Brothers contributed to landing on the moon and the thousands of commercial flights each day.

• Protestant Work Ethic and Weber

  • In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, his most famous text, Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world.
  • He never claimed that religion was the complete, simple, isolated cause of the rise of capitalism in the West.
  • Furthermore, the Protestant ethic, while promoting the pursuit of economic gain, eschewed hedonistic pleasure.
  • Instead of being viewed as morally suspect, greedy, or ambitious, financially successful believers were viewed as being motivated by a highly moral and respectable philosophy, the "spirit of capitalism. " Eventually, the rational roots of this doctrine outgrew their religious origins and became autonomous cultural traits of capitalist society.
  • Thus, Weber explained the rise of capitalism by looking at systems of culture and ideas.

• Capitalism

  • Capitalism is an economic and social system in which capital and the non-labor factors of production or the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in markets; profits are taken by owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor.
  • Capitalism gradually spread throughout Europe and other parts of the world.
  • In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-1905), Max Weber sought to trace how a particular form of religious spirit, infused into traditional modes of economic activity, was a condition of possibility of modern western capitalism.
  • For Weber, the 'spirit of capitalism' was, in general, that of ascetic Protestantism; this ideology was able to motivate extreme rationalization of daily life, a propensity to accumulate capital by a religious ethic to advance economically, and thus also the propensity to reinvest capital: this was sufficient, then, to create "self-mediating capital" as conceived by Marx.
  • In the Protestant Ethic, Weber further stated that "moneymaking – provided it is done legally – is, within the modern economic order, the result and the expression of diligence in one's calling… And, "If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul or to any other), if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God's steward, and to accept His gifts and use them for him when He requierth it: you may labour to be rich for God, though not for the flesh and sin".

• Ethical Barriers

  • Likewise, owners and workers in specific sectors in capital-exporting countries bear much of the burden of adjusting to increased movement of capital.
  • The anti-globalization movement is a worldwide activist movement that is critical of the globalization of capitalism.
  • Meetings of such bodies are often met with strong protests, as demonstrators attempt to bring attention to the often devastating effects of global capital on local conditions.
  • This event came to symbolize the increased debate and growing conflict around the ethical questions on international trade, globalization and capitalization .
  • Demonstrations such as the mass protest at the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, highlight ethical questions on the effects of international trade on poor and developing nations.

• Impact of the Protestant Reformation

  • The Reformation was a religious movement in the 16th century that resulted in the theological divide between Roman Catholics and Protestants.
  • In terms of subject matter, iconic images of Christ and scenes from the Passion became less frequent, as did portrayals of the saints and clergy.
  • The Protestant Reformation also capitalized on the popularity of printmaking in northern Europe.
  • The Protestant Reformation induced a wave of iconoclasm, or the destruction of religious imagery, among the more radical evangelists.
  • Describe the Protestant Reformation and its effects on Western European art of the 16th century

• Progressivism and Religion

  • It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense of social activism.
  • The Woman's Christian Temperance Union mobilized Protestant women for social crusades against liquor, pornography and prostitution, and sparked the demand for woman suffrage.
  • In 1836, Mahan experienced what he called a baptism with the Holy Spirit.
  • In the late 19th century, many Protestants were disgusted by the poverty level and the low quality of living in the slums.
  • Rauschenbusch railed against the selfishness of capitalism and promoted a form of Christian Socialism that endorsed labor unions and cooperative economics.

• Personal ethics: four ethical approaches

  • The Utilitarian approach is perhaps the most familiar and easiest to understand of all approaches to ethics.
  • In this sense, Ethics becomes the discipline of discovering and practicing virtue.
  • All three approaches to ethics described above are principally focused on the individual: the singular conscience, rationally reflecting on the meaning of duty or responsibility, and in the case of Virtue ethics, the ethical athlete practicing and inculcating the capacity to achieve the state of eudemonia.
  • Amitai Etzioni, in Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities and the Communitarian Agenda described the principles of this somewhat disorganized movement.
  • Each has a broad and dedicated following and each is deeply problematic to the ethical maturing of any society.

• Ethics in Organizational Communications

  • Organizational ethics refers to the moral code of an organization, including how the organization responds to internal and external issues.
  • The ability to retain employees who are experienced and knowledgeable (generally referred to as human capital) can result in less employee turnover, less training time for new employees, and greater output.
  • Commonly used tools include codes of ethics and employee handbooks.
  • A code of ethics might also include the company's policy on price fixing, recordkeeping, and financial integrity.
  • In order to establish a clear and effective code of ethics, it is important for a company to understand the ramifications of operating unethically.

• The Challenge of Ethics and Governance

  • Ethics is at the core of corporate governance, and management must reflect accountability for their actions on a global community scale.
  • Furthermore, ethics often contrasts with the basic premise of capitalism and the demands of shareholders: profitability.
  • The 2008 financial collapse is a wonderful yet terrifying example of exactly what can go wrong and why corporate governance and ethics is of such importance to both a business and the society in which it operates.
  • Though this is only a simplified and small analysis of a complicated issue, it succinctly describes how corporate management saw each echelon of leadership ignore the core responsibility of ensuring ethical standards in lieu of capital gains.
  • Explain the role of management in setting strategic governance policies that conform to ethical and legal standards