Max Weber: Selections in Translation

The structure of every legal order (not only the ‘state’) has a direct influence on the distribution of power, whether economic or of any other kind, within the community concerned. By ‘power’ we mean very generally the chances which a man or a group of men have to realise their will in a communal activity, even against the opposition of others taking part in it. ‘Economically determined’ power is not, of course, the same thing as ‘power’ in general. On the contrary, economic power may result from the possession of power which rests on other foundations. Conversely, men do not only aspire to power for the sake of economic enrichment. Power, even economic power, may be valued for its own sake, and it is very often the case that men seek power in part for the sake of the honorific social ‘status’ which it brings. Not all power, however, brings status with it. The typical American ‘boss’, like the typical large-scale financial speculator, consciously renounces such status; and generally speaking it is precisely ‘pure’ economic power, especially power based on ‘naked’ cash, which is not accepted in any way as a basis of social ‘status’. On the other hand, power is not the only basis of social status. Quite the contrary: social status or prestige can be, and very often has been, the basis of power, even of economic power. The legal system may guarantee both power and status.