GS201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Super Bowl Xxxi, Social Insurance, Super Bowl Xxxii
Document Summary
Gs201 lesson 4: max weber (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) A third foundational strain of western political thought. 1871 unification of germany following franco-prussian war. Bismark, minister president of prussia (under king wilhelm i) became germany"s first chancellor. Germany became europe"s industrial and military superpower. Bismark orchestrated the first social insurance and pension system. Liberals: in france, britain, america, middle class revolution. Conservatives: in germany, a middle class alignment with conservative values and nationalism. Weber agrees that ideas do not drive history, but he suggests that they exert an influence not permitted by marx"s economic determinism: not ideas, but material and ideal interests directly govern man"s conduct. Yet very frequently the world images which have been created by ideas have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interests . Not the same faith in progress: weber: progress can turn back on itself.
