Weber's Theory on “the Spirit of Capitalism” and the Spirit of Socialism

Abstract

Weber's work on the relations of Protestantism and modern capitalism attracts much attention even today because of its methodological importance, and gives useful suggestions for studies of social change in Afro-Asian societies.
Two points should be taken into consideration when Weber's theory is referred. One points is that the spirit of capitalism means not only capitalist spirit but also labourer's spirit. Second point is about the relationships among motivation, action and its effect. Calvinists' motivation with their interest in salvation had peculiar bearing on their actions in the secular sphere, and gave birth to the spirit of capitalism. However this was unintended effect. Complicated relationships between motivation and effect should be considered in special reference to structural conditions. I studied these points in this article.
Socialism is one of the most important spiritual bases for social reforms in developing societies. Reforms are tried subjective-rationally (not necessarily objective-rationally) to perform by political leaders. Then the spirit of socialism often remains being only socialist spirit, and doesn't grow to people's spirit. African socialism with special reference to Tanzanian case was analysed from this point of view. Through this I considered the problem of social change and people's way of life.