In his effort to escape from the individualizing and particularizing approach of historicism, Weber developed a key conceptual tool, the notion of the ideal type. It will be recalled that Weber argued that no scientific system is ever capable of reproducing all concrete reality. All science involves selection as well as abstraction.

An ideal type provides the basic method for historical-comparative study. It is not meant to refer to the “best” or to some moral ideal. There can be an “ideal type” of a religious sect, ideal type dictatorship, or an ideal democracy. To Max Weber, the term ‘ideal type’ has a distinctive meaning and there are certain underlying principles pertaining to its construction. Now we shall explain the general and Weberian meanings of the term ‘ideal type’, its construction and characteristics.

According to New Websters Dictionary ‘ideal’ is a conception or a standard of something in its highest perfection’. It refers to mental image or conception rather than a material object. It is a model. Ideal types seem to be the best example of the phenomenon or object under study. The term ‘type’ means a kind, class a group as distinguished by a particular character .

Weber used ideal type in a specific sense. To him, ideal type is a mental construct, like a model, for the scrutiny and systematic characterization of a concrete situation. He used ideal type as a methodological tool that looks at reality objectively. An ideal type provides the basic method for historical-comparative study. It is not meant to refer to the “best” or to some moral ideal. The ideal type never corresponds to concrete reality but is a description to which we can compare reality. It scrutinizes, classifies, systematizes and defines social reality without subjective bias. The ideal type has nothing to do with values. It function, as a research tool, is for classification and comparison.

To quote  Max Weber ,

“The ideal typical concept will develop our skill in research. It is not a description of reality but it aims to give unambiguous means of expression to such a description”.

In other words, ideal types are concepts formulated on the basis of facts collected carefully and analytically for empirical research. In this sense, ideal types are constructs or concepts, which are used as methodological devices or tools in our understanding and analysis of any social problem. Max Weber explains the construction of ideal types .

Construction

Ideal types are formulated by the abstraction and combination of an indefinite number of elements which though found in reality, are rarely or never discovered in specific form. Therefore, Weber does not consider that he is establishing a new conceptual method. He emphasizes that he is making explicit what is already done in practice.

For the construction of ideal types, the sociologist selects a certain number of traits from the whole, which is otherwise confusing and obscure, to constitute an intelligible entity. For example, if we wish to study the state of democracy in India (or for that matter of secularism, communalism, equality a court of law) then our first task will be to define the concept of democracy with the help of its essential and typical characteristics. here we can mention some of the essential characteristics of democracy, viz., existence of a multi-party system, universal adult franchise, formation of government by peoples representatives, peoples participation in the decision making, equality before law, respect to majority verdict and each others view as well. This formulation of a pure type or an ideal type concept of democracy will guide as and work as a tool in our analysis. Any deviation from or conformity to it will unfold the reality.

Ideal types, therefore, do not represent the common or the average characteristics but focus on the typical, do not represent the common or the average characteristics but focus on the typical and the essential characteristics. For instance in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber analyses the characteristics of the ‘Calvinist Ethic’. These characteristics are taken from various historical writings and involve those components of Calvinist doctrines, which Weber identifies as of particular importance in relation to the formulation of the capitalist spirit.

According to Weber ‘in its conceptual purity, this ideal mental construct cannot be found empirically anywhere in reality’. This then the way in which ideal types are constructed.

From the above discussion we can draw some important characteristics of ideal types

Ideal types are not general or average types. They are formulated on the basis of certain typical traits, which are essential to the construction of an ideal type concept.

Ideal types are not a presentation of total reality or they do not explain everything. Ideal types are neither description of any definite concept of reality, nor a hypothesis, but they can aid both in description and explanation.

Ideal types are different in scope and usage from descriptive concepts. They also help in reaching to general propositions and in comparative analysis. Ideal types serve to guide empirical research, and are used in systematization of data on historical and social reality.

Ideal types are not formed out of a nexus of purely conceptual thought, but are created, modified and sharpened through the empirical analysis of concrete problems.

Purpose And Use Of Ideal Types

Ideal types are constructed to facilitate the analysis of empirical questions. Most researchers are not fully aware of the concepts they use. As a result their formulations often tend to be imprecise and ambiguous, or as Weber himself, says, ‘the language which the historians talk contain hundreds of words which are ambiguous constructs created to meet the unconsciously conceived need for adequate expression, and whose meaning is definitely felt, but not clearly thought out.

Ideal type, key term in Weber’s methodological essays has been used by him as a device in understanding historical configurations of specific historical problems. For this he constructed ideal types, that is, to understand how events had actually taken place and to show that if some antecedents or other events had not occurred or had occurred differently, the event we are trying to explain would have been different as well. In this way ideal type concept also helps in the causal explanation of a phenomenon.

Besides examine any particular historical case Max Weber also used ideal types to analyse the abstract elements of social reality and to explain particular kinds of social behaviour.

Ideal Types In Weber’s Work

Weber used ideal types in three distinctive ways. Indeed, his three kinds of ideal types are distinguished by three levels of abstraction. The first kind of ideal types are rooted in the historical particularities viz., Western city, the Protestant Ethics etc. In reality, this kind of ideal types refer to the phenomena that appear only in the specific historical periods and in particular cultural areas. The second kind relates to the abstract elements of social reality, for example, the concepts of bureaucracy or feudalism. These elements of social reality are found in a variety of historical and cultural contexts. The third kind of ideal type relates to the reconstruction of a particular kind of behaviour. This type includes those elements that constitute rationalizing reconstructions of a particular kind of behaviour. For example, according to Weber, all propositions in economic theory are merely ideal typical reconstructions of the ways men would behave if they were pure economic subjects. These include laws of supply and demand, marginal utilities etc. Supply of commodity in the market governs prices in relation to demand. Similarly, utility of a commodity for consumption is higher or lower depending upon the units available for consumption. Economic theory rigorously conceives economic behaviour as consistent with its essence. This essence being defined in a precise manner .

Contribution

Talcott Parsons claimed that Weberian sociology managed to rise above the merely ideological disputes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  According to Parsons, Weberian sociology transcended the limited and partial perspectives of conservatism, liberalism, and socialism. He concluded his address by claim that Weber, “as one of the very few true founders of sociology,” understood that the “science” of sociology was probably destined to play “a major role” in shaping the world of the future.

In the more than sixty years that have elapsed since his death, Weber’s sociology has been used has been used and adapted by many different types of theorists.  The phenomenologist Alfred Schutz (1899-1959) took Weber’s conception of interpretive theory as the starting point for his own work.  Schutz agreed with Weber that the study of subjective understanding (Versteben) is crucial for sociological explanation.  The members of the Frankfurt school of critical theorists used Weber’s analysis of rationalization and rational-legal domination as the starting point of their analysis of modes of class oppression in advanced capitalist societies.  In the United States, theories of social stratification have generally been based on a pluralistic and Weberian, rather than Marxist – model of stratification. After seventy years, Weber’s comparative sociology of religion is still viewed by many as the most important contribution any one sociological theorist ever made to this subject.