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The Protestant work ethic (or the Puritan work ethic) is a concept in sociology, economics and history, attributable to the work of Max Weber. It is based upon the notion that the Calvinist emphasis on the necessity for hard work as a component of a person's calling and worldly success is a visible sign or result (not a cause) of personal salvation.
It is argued that Protestants beginning with Martin Luther had reconceptualised worldly work as a duty which benefits both the individual and society as a whole. Thus, the Catholic idea of good works was transformed into an obligation to work diligently as a sign of grace. Whereas Catholicism teaches that good works are required of Catholics to be saved (viewing salvation as a future event), the Reformers taught that good works were only a consequence of an already-received salvation.
However, the Calvinist and Lutheran theologians taught that only those who were predestined (cf. the Calvinist concept of double predestination) to be saved would be saved, by grace alone through faith in Jesus alone. Since it was impossible to know if one was predestined (since one might not receive the "grace of perseverance," and one's conversion might be only lip-service), the notion developed that it might be possible to discern that a person was elect (predestined) by observing their way of life. Hard work and frugality were thought to be two important consequences of being one of the elect; thus, Protestants were attracted to these qualities, seeking to be obedient to God to whom they owed their salvation.
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The term was first coined by Max Weber in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The Protestant work ethic is often credited with helping to define the societies of Northern Europe and other countries where Protestantism was common (for example, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America). Writer Frank Chodorov argued that the Protestant ethic was long considered indispensable for American political figures:[1]
There was a time, in these United States, when a candidate for public office could qualify with the electorate only by fixing his birthplace in or near the "log cabin." He may have acquired a competence, or even a fortune, since then, but it was in the tradition that he must have been born of poor parents and made his way up the ladder by sheer ability, self-reliance, and perseverance in the face of hardship. In short, he had to be "self made." The so-called Protestant Ethic then prevalent held that man was a sturdy and responsible individual, responsible to himself, his society, and his God. Anybody who could not measure up to that standard could not qualify for public office or even popular respect. One who was born "with a silver spoon in his mouth" might be envied, but he could not aspire to public acclaim; he had to live out his life in the seclusion of his own class.
In such societies, it is regarded by some as one of the cornerstones of national prosperity. They argue that people in countries with Protestant roots tend to be more focused on effective working practices when compared to people in many Catholic countries (for example, Latin America, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France) where, they would argue, the people have a more lax attitude towards work.
See also Max Weber#Historical_critiques.
There has been a revitalization of Weber's interest, particularly in a New York Times article, published in June 8, 2003, where the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released an article that seems to confirm that "the experience of Western Europe in the past quarter-century offers an unexpected confirmation of the Protestant ethic. To put it bluntly, we are witnessing the decline and fall of the Protestant work ethic in Europe. This represents the stunning triumph of secularization in Western Europe -- the simultaneous decline of both Protestantism and its unique work ethic.[2] "
See also Max Weber#Historical_critiques.
The concept of a Protestant work ethic neglects the extreme prosperity of Lombardy (as well as the city-states of Genoa and Venice), which was the most prosperous and influential region in Europe in the 15th century, the age of the Renaissance; and it neglects that Austria was a serious rival to Prussia (though less warlike and unlike Prussia blessed with resources), and that in the Thirty Years' War, the power that primarily supported the Protestant cause against Catholic Austria was Catholic France. It also forgets that the first global Superpower and Empire was Catholic Spain.
East Asian countries have become prosperous without ever having been Christian at all, with South Korea an exception. Japan is the most conspicuous example here, but Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the People's Republic of China (at least after Deng Xiaoping) have Confucian values, which puts a strong emphasis on education.
The effective capitalist development of Catholic regions, especially northern Italy, Spain, Bavaria, the Rhineland, and France, is often cited as a counter-argument that geographical, political, and other secular factors were the main drivers for capitalist development, as opposed to Protestantism per se; the driving force in Europe may have been the strengthening of property rights and lowering of transaction costs with the decline and monetization of feudalism, or even the increase in real wages following the epidemics of bubonic plague.
Becker and Wossmann at the University of Munich provide an alternate theory, stating that the literacy gap between Protestants (as a result of the Reformation) and Catholics sufficiently explains the economic gaps. The results also hold up when tested for concentric dispersion from Wittenberg.[3]