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GERTRUD LENZER
National Authority" in new nations-such as early America and the new
states of contemporary Asia and Africa- he argues that "a basic condition
for acquiring legitimacy in a new state is effectiveness, particularly in the
economic sphere.
In return for support, the populace demands from its
leaders rewards, some symbolic in content, such as national heroes and
prestige, and others, perhaps more important, of a
tangible
nature."
It is this "Need for 'Pay-Off'" which once satisfied fosters the legiti–
matizing of authority. Lipset then innocently proceeds to introduce both
values, equality and achievement, and moves on to conclude that the
"revolutionary, democratic values that thus became part of the national
self-image, and the basis for its authority structure, gained legitimacy as
they proved to be effective-that is, as the nation prospered."
In a key section, Lipset examines religion as that American institu"
tion which is "most intimately connected with the value system." He
states that Americans have always been of an "exceptional religiosity"
(again testified to by the travelers), and that they "continue to be a
highly religious people." (This latter assertion is "proved" primarily
by the use of church affiliation statistics.) In this section of the text,
Max Weber is summoned forth to give false testimony.
If
one bothers
to refer to the pages which Lipset cites, one finds that Weber presents
what is virtually a sardonic account of the "exceptional religiosity" of
Americans.
"If
one looked more closely at the matter in the United
States," Weber says, "one could easily see that the question of religious
affiliation was almost always posed in social life and in business life
which depended on permanent and credit relations." And Weber re–
counts an incident he himself witnessed while he was in America. He
had attended a baptism ceremony, and a friend explained to Weber the
newly baptized man's motive for going through this ritual-he wanted
to open a bank in the community. Strangely enough, Lipset doesn't
accuse Weber of interpreting such matters in a "very materialistic
fashion," as he does accuse that other traveler who remarked on what
is unremarkably true-that American clergymen resemble businessmen.
Value analysis may indeed be a powerful instrument in the socio–
logical armory. In Lipset's hands, however, it is powerless
to
penetrate
that notoriously tough and recalcitrant American "reality." Seen in the
light of the evidence which he himself offers, the two basic values are
progressively revealed to be mere euphemisms. He sometimes refers to
them as ideologies, but such references can only be understood as slips
of the tongue. Whether they are in fact part of the American ideology
is a separate question, but they are certainly part of Lipset's ideology.
For if one strips away that
valuable
superstructure of rationalizations
