Weber and Durkheim’s theories of modern society have some similarities, but are mainly different in the way they determine the structure and creation of modern society. While the framework for a lot of their thinking is similar, the way they describe the differences between traditional and modern society varies. In order to describe their theories of modern society, their classification of traditional society must be taken into account.
According to Durkheim, traditional society is very rigid and mechanical. By this, he means that there is a segmented social structure and mechanical solidarity. The most pure example of a traditional society that Durkheim gives is the Iroquois. The Iroquois had a segmented social structure, where everyone had the same value attached to tasks and even the chiefs and council were considered equal to the rest of the clan. There was little differentiation of roles, and although men and women had different roles, they were valued the same and the purpose for both roles was the same.
The lack of division of labor in the workforce led to little individualism during traditional society. Durkheim likened traditional society to an earthworm, since each segment was nearly identical, similar to society. According to Durkheim, there are two sources of social life, which are likeness of conscious, and the division of labor. These sources are the primary elements that distinguish traditional and modern society from each other.
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The basis of solidarity in traditional society is likeness, since everyone has the same experiences since the social structure is segmented and undifferentiated. Likeness of conscious is required in order to have social order, because there needs to be some sense of commonality of morals in order to create laws that people think are just and would be willing to obey and enforce. In traditional society there was repressive law, which meant that charges would be brought from society onto a single person. This type of law would shock the conscious when broken, and would encourage conformity and discourage anything that went against the collective conscious.
With repressive law, punishment was carried out mechanically and punishment was mainly done to avenge and for the satisfaction of punishing. To further discourage deviation from the collective, punishment reached beyond the criminal and went after their family as well. Relating to crimes being against the common conscious, Durkheim had said ”We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it.” This reflects that punishment was mainly caused by people deviating from the norm, and that punishment was created to promote conformity.
Durkheim’s view of modern society contrasts dramatically and is fluid and organic rather than rigid and mechanical. The weakening of collective consciousness ultimately led to the beginnings of modern society. While some collective consciousness is necessary in societies to retain order, the primary focus shifted to the individual during modern society. As collective consciousness weakened, the idea of the individual greatly affected the workforce. From here the division of labor arose.
As Durkheim said, the division of labor is necessary for movement and change within a society because with specialization in the workforce, people get better at certain crafts and technology is able to grow. The shift from small towns and a feudal state to large cities encouraged the growth of individualism and specialization. While it may seem that the focus on individualism would weaken solidarity, Durkheim suggests that it actually strengthens it. With the specialization of labor, there is an increase in interdependence among everyone in society, since now they must rely on each other for all of their needs, and one cannot function within a city by only interacting with their family. This interdependence produces organic solidarity, which is stronger than mechanical solidarity since now people are bonded by necessity.
Durkheim likens this organic solidarity and modern society to living organisms and organs, since the organs are specialized, but the organs all rely on each other so the organism as a whole can function. Along with specialization of labor, there is also a specialization in law. Rather than repressive law, in modern society there is restitutive law. Now, instead of crimes being dictated by the tribe council or by a patrimonial figure, wrongdoings are dictated in commercial courts, administrative courts, councils of arbitration, etc. Restitutive law puts more emphasis on the person since instead of crimes being committed by a person against society, crimes can be committed by a person against a person.
With restitutive law crimes are dictated through contracts and damages are awarded to a person. Rather than punishing to avenge and for satisfaction like in traditional society, modern society punishes to defend and put fear into others to not commit crimes. However, both traditional and modern society have the essential element of punishment, vengeance, and crimes are still considered crimes due to collective consciousness. While in traditional society collective consciousness considered crimes as things that were against the common good, in modern society collective consciousness believed in the legitimacy of contracts, and crimes were committed by breaking contracts.
Weber has a very different approach to how modern society came to be. Weber argued that in society, people organized their lives by social class, status group or estate, political party, and religious sect. Unlike Durkheim, Weber thought that modern society was created mainly from religion and organization of the state. Weber argues that a key element of modern society is the emphasis of capitalism, which stemmed from religion.
The Protestant religion promoted the rejection of the pleasures of the flesh, being hardworking, and a devotion to service. This religion lead to a change in society, where society reflected the religion. Weber considered the Protestant ethic to be the spirit of capitalism, since it promoted working efficiently and investment. Initially, the creation of capitalism by the Protestants wasn’t about the pursuit of making money, but it was because they thought capitalism was the most rational economic system. In traditional society, unlike Durkheim, Weber suggests that there was some differentiation of labor.
The difference according to Weber is the efficiency of the labor, since with economic traditionalism Weber would suggest that someone would wait until their product is requested before they made it, but in modern society and capitalism he argues that the person would create their product and then advertise it in order to generate business. Weber and Durkheim are slightly similar in the way that Weber agrees that there is little room for individualism since businesses were often family businesses and there weren’t other options for where a person could work.
However, Weber says that with modern society it is more rational and individualism comes from being able to hire people that they think will do the best work, and not hiring people just because they are family. This introduced the idea of free labor, the idea that anyone can become anything that they want to, and that they are no longer tied to the profession and social class that belonged to their family in traditional society. Weber also attributed the growth of modern society to the Protestant ethic idea of devotion to service, and said that this related to investment. In modern society, people were now investing in the businesses that they were a part of, which allowed them to grow with better technology and increased specialization.
