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Rationalization of state and society:
a Weberian view of McCarthyism
Introduction
During the 1950s American liberals, influenced both by their identification with the New Deal presidency of FDR and their acceptance of the anti-Communist politics of the cold war years, sought to explain McCarthyism in terms of a mass-based, essentially non-partisan and non-conservative threat to American institutions. According to such scholars as Daniel Bell, Talcott Parsons, Hofstadter, and the other contributors to The New American Right (1955), McCarthyism was an irrational popular response to the rise of the modern secular state. Like Populism, McCarthyism was not only a dangerous popular movement, it was also rooted in resentments produced by status anxiety. ...
McCarthyism was not a mass movement of the “radical” right, I believe, but rather the product of routine conservative politics. McCarthyism did not split apart existing coalitions or create a new mass base; it was created by the actions and inactions of conservative and liberal elites. ... The topic forces us to question the role of ideology, the power of the state, and the nature of our society during this time period that spans over two decades.
Defining McCarthyism
There are today many Communists in America. ... And each carried in himself the germ of death for society. ... The word “McCarthyism” became a public label soon after February 9, 1950; the day Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a speech to a small gathering of Republican women in Wheeling, West Virginia. According to the Wheeling Intelligencer, he accused the State Department of knowingly harboring precisely 205 members of the Communist Party. ... In a telegram to then President Truman, Senator McCarthy claimed to “have in my possession the names of 57 communists who are in the state department at present” (NAIL). Behind this accusation lay the inference that State Department functionaries were responsible for handing China over to Communism the year before and Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union before that and the plotting of more betrayals. ... May (1952) in McCarthy, the Man, the Senator, the “Ism,” broadened the word “McCarthyism” to include all such bullies and good-for-nothings who used the Communist issue to tarnish those they disliked or disagreed with, no matter how hostile to Communism the falsely accused might be.
Senator McCarthy, riding a popular high, adopted the handle as his own publicly exclaiming that “McCarthyism” was a synonym for “Americanism” (Reeves 1982). In his 1952 campaign book, McCarthyism, the Fight for America, Senator McCarthy proudly conceded that he and his followers did not play by the rules, but that was because the enemy used those rules to its advantage. ... The word “McCarthyism” signified nothing of the virtues he attributed to it, only the vices associated with the man and his career. ...
The word “McCarthyism” creates problems, however. ... McCarthyism, therefore, can be defined as the great American red scare. ... McCarthyism, however, lasted decades and become a whole way of life. ...
Theoretical Perspective
In an effort to reveal the ideology, power of the state, and social context of McCarthyism, it is most appropriate to use a sociological rather than a political theoretical approach. ... We are able to reveal how we construct society through our actions and are constructed by it. ... Using the sociological imagination permits us to place McCarthyism in its historical and biographical context. ... He recognized the interrelationships among the economy, society, polity, organization, social stratification, religion, and so forth (Roth 1968). ...
Max Weber operated with a number of different definitions of the term, “rationalization,” and often failed to specify which definition he was using in a particular discussion (Kalberg 1980).
Approximate Word count = 2930
Approximate Pages = 11.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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