Weber, when visiting non-western cultures, found the roots of capitalism firmly established, and yet capitalism still did not arise. The only force missing in these societies was the encouragement to abandon traditional ways. Thus, Weber was affirmed slightly in his belief of the protestant ethic.
Weber thought that bureaucracy could be considered to be a particular case of rationalization, when applied to human organization. Bureaucratic coordination of human action, Weber believed, was a distinctive mark of modern social structures. Bureaucracy, however, tends to result in oligarchy, or rule by a few, stunting democracy. Because bureaucracy is a form of organization superior to others, further rationalization and bureaucratization could be an inescapable fate. Bureaucracy provided efficient means to motivate the advancement of technologies, due to the fact that they benefited as society benefited. Without technology, societies could not have reached the heights they reach today, however, they will continue to grow and surpass themselves. Weber feared that our probable future would be even more bureaucratized, an "iron cage- that posed a threat to individuality and freedom, forcing people to work even longer and harder than before, in order to obtain the wealth they aspired to. In describing bureaucracy, Weber often used the image of a machine. People became the cogs in the machine, losing their sense of individuality, creativity, and freedom, as they contributed to the whole. .
Durkheim, in similar thoughts, believed that industrialization tended to dissolve restraints on the passions of humans. Where traditional societies "primarily through religion "successfully taught people to control their desires and goals, modern societies separated people and weakened social bonds. This is akin to Weber's theory of rationalization, and the image of a machine: separating people while modernizing, the masses seeking to achieve their own goals while achieving the set desires of the bureaucracy.
