Marx & Weber Compared

Alienation is a concept that was examined by Karl Marx and Max Weber, both important foundational thinkers in the field of sociology.

According to Marx’s theory of alienation or estrangement revolves around the laborer and the object of his labor. According to Marx the modern capitalist society has alienated the laborer from the object, as opposed to previous systems such as the guild system. In the capitalist system, he argues, the laborer does not own the raw material from which the object is made, nor does he own the tools through which he fashions the object of his labor, nor even does he any longer own his own labor, for he has sold it to the capitalist. Labor thus becomes forced. The only reason he continues to work is, as Ritzer says, the work has become “a means to an end – earning money.” (50) Labor no longer leads to self-actualization.

Further, “The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces. The devaluation of the human world grows in direct proportion to the increase in value of the world of things. Labour not only produces commodities; it also produces itself and the workers as a commodity and it does so in the same proportion in which it produces commodities in general.” (Estranged Labour) The laborer is reduced from a human to a machine, leaving him unfulfilled.

Although production was his main focus, Marx also specifies other types of alienation caused by religion, economy and the state. "Objectification is the practice of alienation. Just as man, so long as he is engrossed in religion, can only objectify his essence by an alien and fantastic being; so under the sway of egoistic need, he can only affirm himself and produce objects in practice by subordinating his products and his own activity to the domination of an alien entity, and by attributing to them the significance of an alien entity, namely money."

Marx's theory of alienation is seen primarily in his early works, but it informs his later works. According to Tucker, alienation is embedded in Marx's conception of “wage labour”. Besides being transformed into a commodity, Marx also saw alienation as being caused by division of labor and private property. In this conception, the division of labor is another aspect of the capitalist system that prevents the worker from self-actualization. By preforming only one repetitive task, the worker is reduced to a cog in a machine. Private property also relates to alienation in that it keeps the worker from feeling any stake in his work. Whereas people in the past could work for the betterment of society, the worker sees no society significance to his work, as it is property of the capitalist.

It could be argued that the whole purpose of Marx's proposal of a Communist system is to abolish alienation. Marx and Engels state that in the Communist system there would be no specialization. In Communist society it would be possible to, “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” The Communist system is the culmination of Marx's hopes for humanity. In this Utopian vision, Marx sees the individual free of the alienation of the capitalist system, and totally free to self-actualize.

Whereas Marx's focus was on the economy, Weber explored economic, political and bureaucratic institutions. According to Weber's theory the structure of political and economic institutions is bureaucracy, and the process which lead to the rise of bureaucracy is rationalization. Rationalization is the process whereby actions are utilized for their efficacy and efficiency rather than because custom or emotion. Rationalization is a calculating process as opposed to traditional, apparently random processes. Weber sees rationalization as a dehumanizing, mechanical process.

Marx