MAX WEBER’S ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT- LESSONS FOR NIGERIA, 1999- 2017
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Background of the Study
Nigeria is a country blessed with rich human, mineral and natural resources, but sadly, the country continued to experience steady decline in economic development. This is because the rich human, mineral and natural resources the country is blessed with had turned out to be the exclusive patrimony of few powerful individuals, and as such, Nigeria has become a rich country with poor citizens and low economic development. According to 2015 World Bank report on Nigeria, the country ranked third among world‘s ten countries with extreme poor citizens. The report further said that Nigeria with about 170 million population falls among countries with extreme poverty where over 70% of the population live on $1.25 (#200) or even less per day. Specifically, the report revealed that 7% of the 1.2 billion people living below poverty level in the world are Nigerians. Nigeria unemployment rate is also on the increase. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria‘s unemployment rate rose from 14.2% to 18.8% in 2017. It also said that Nigeria‘s labour population increased from 83.9 million in the second quarter to 85.1 million in the third quarter of 2017, a difference of 1.2million in additional workforce. The number of people with the labour force who 2 were in unemployment or underemployment increased from 13.6 million and 17.7 million respectively in the second quarter 2017, to 15.9 million and 18.0 million in the third quarter 2017. It stated that total unemployment and underemployment combined increased from 37.2 per cent in the previous Quarter to 40.0 per cent in the third quarter. Again, Nigeria‘s inflation rate continues to be on the high side. The data released by National Bureau of Statistics in December, 2017 revealed that consumer prices in Nigeria increased 15.4 percent year-on-year in December of 2017, following a 15.9 percent rise in the previous month and below market expectations of 15.8 percent. Although inflation remained at its lowest level since April of 2016 and slowed for the eleventh consecutive month, as cost increased less mainly for food and non-alcoholic beverages and housing and utilities. Inflation rate in Nigeria averaged 12.48 percent from 1996 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 47.56 percent in January of 1996 and a record low of 12.49 percent in January of 2000. Furthermore, Nigeria has low literacy rate and the rate of illiteracy in the country is alarming. Education is the bedrock of any country‘s development and any country that does not educate its populace is bound to fail. ―Unfortunately, in Nigeria we have a very large population of illiterates; the 3 illiterates figure, considering our population, is unbecoming. Results of a UNESCO survey carried out in 2016 showed that despite improvements in the country‘s education system, 65 million Nigerians remain illiterate. It is the above dwindling indicators of economic development in a country blessed with rich human, mineral and natural resources that formed the background to the study of Max Weber‘s Ethics and principles of economic development: Lessons for Nigeria. Max Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist whose ideas influenced social theory, social research, and some disciplines of sociology. Weber is best known for his thesis which debunked the dysfunctional role of religion by August Comte and Karl Marx whose thought had great impact before him. He combined economic sociology and the sociology of religion, elaborated in his book on the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. He studied Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and Baptism which practiced worldly ascetism and produced a code of ethics which says that a person was called to a career by God. Weber believed that under certain conditions, religious beliefs can have a major influence on the economic behaviour. Corroborating the above belief, Bowyer (2013) maintained that religion is an essential driver of economic growth. This implies that there are certain social preconditions to economic development, 4 and that the way a society operates is important in regards to how prosperous that society can become. This is largely a matter of culture which basically encapsulates religion. Religion drives culture, culture drives social forms while social forms drive development (Bowyer, 2013). Max Weber's ‗The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism‘ was a study of the relationship between the ethics of ascetic Protestantism and the emergence of the spirit of modern capitalism. Weber argued that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played a role in creating the capitalistic spirit. Weber first observed a correlation between being Protestant and being involved in business, and declared his intent to explore religion as a potential cause of the modern economic conditions. He argued that the modern spirit of capitalism sees profit as an end in itself, and pursuing profit as virtuous. Weber's goal was to understand the source of this spirit. He turned to Protestantism for a potential explanation. Protestantism offers a concept of the worldly calling, and gives worldly activity a religious character. While important, this alone cannot explain the need to pursue profit. One branch of Protestantism, Calvinism, does provide this explanation. Calvinists believe in predestination, that God had already determined who is saved and damned. 5 As Calvinism developed, a deep psychological need for clues about whether one was actually saved arose, and Calvinists looked to their success in worldly activity for those clues. Thus, they came to value profit and material success as signs of God's favour. Other religious groups, such as the Pietists, Methodists, and the Baptist sects had similar attitudes to a lesser degree. Weber argued that this new attitude broke down the traditional economic system, paving the way for modern capitalism. However, once capitalism emerged, the Protestant values were no longer necessary, and their ethic took on a life of its own. We are now locked into the spirit of capitalism because it is so useful for modern economic activity.
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