The Patrimonial Thesis and Pre-Modern Japanese Herrschaft

This view of pre-industrial Japanese Herrschaft essentially is one that considers Japanese society as similar to the societies which arose in continental East Asia, with minor concessions granted to the uniqueness of all individual societies. I wish to dissent. I hasten to add immediately that I firmly believe that the patrimonial concept is useful, even essential, for an understanding of continental Asian societies, especially Chinese society, and hence, by developing the concept, Weber made a valuable contribution both to sociology and to the field of Asian studies. But, in converse to the specific Weberian thesis cited here, I would suggest that Japanese society, rather than being considered as patrimonial-prebendary, is better interpreted as feudal with the same essential structure as that of other feudal (especially western European) societies. One of the paramount assumptions of Weber's two major works on Asian religion 2 is that the religious systems of China and India must be treated as integral elements in respective social systems which are conceptualized as ideal-typical. The only variations over time which are significant are those which violate the logical limits of tolerance established by the range of concern of the ideal-typical system. The range of concern in the present discussion, of course, are those influences which pertain to patrimonialism versus feudalism. For example, in Chinese society, Weber would maintain that

China · Dissent · Epistemology · Feudalism · Ideal (ethics) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

• Economic rationality and social development

  Open Access•Norman Jacobs•Studies in Comparative…•1966

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