Revision summary
Weber: domination is structured obedience; legitimacy is believed validity. Three types: traditional custom, charismatic gift, legal-rational office. Bureaucracy and the state’s monopoly of force complete the modern type. Class and status are related but not identical to these forms.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Max Weber analysed domination as the probability that a command will be obeyed. Legitimacy is the belief that the command is valid. He used a small set of ideal types, not a moral ranking of regimes.
Body
Domination and legitimacy
- Power is the chance to realise one’s will even against resistance. Domination is a structured command–obedience relation.
- Legitimate domination rests on a claimed validity that the staff and the ruled, in some measure, accept.
Three pure types
- Traditional domination rests on the sanctity of immemorial custom and personal loyalty, as in patrimonial and feudal staffs.
- Charismatic domination rests on devotion to an extraordinary person and on proof through success; it is unstable and must routinise.
- Legal-rational domination rests on impersonal rules, office, and a bureaucratic staff with files, competence, and hierarchy.
Related concepts he needed
- The administrative staff, monopoly of the means of administration, and, for the modern state, monopoly of legitimate physical force.
- Status honour and class situation sit beside domination; they are not the same as the three types of legitimacy.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD DOM[Domination] --> LEG[Claimed legitimacy] LEG --> T[Traditional] LEG --> C[Charismatic] LEG --> L[Legal-rational bureaucracy]
Conclusion
Weber analysed legitimate domination through power, legitimacy, and the three ideal types of traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational rule, plus bureaucracy and the modern state’s claim to force. The types mix in historical cases.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How had Enlightenment contributed to the emergence of sociology?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q3(c)). View answer →
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Did Weber say bureaucracy is the only real type?
No. It is the purest legal-rational staff. Tradition and charisma remain historically active.
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Is legitimacy the same as justice?
No. It is a sociological belief in validity, which can attach to unjust orders.
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