Max Weber uses a great German noun Stimmvieh to describe unthinking voting behavior. Literally translated into English, it means “voting cow,” or “voting livestock” which Weber wrote in 1918 or so. At the time, he had this love-hate relationship with the United States, so two of his illustrative examples of “voting cows” both came from there. He saw “voting cows” in both the United States Congress where voting members are herded into party line voting, and in the urban areas of the early twentieth century where ward bosses rounded up recent immigrants to cast votes based on pre-existing ethnic loyalties, rather than the issues involved.
As the United States heads watches as the Republican and Democratic parties “select” Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to represent ithem in November’s presidential election, a reflection on Weber’s concept is particularly relevant. At both conventions, delegates will be told to vote on matters big and small over which they in fact have little say–they are there only for the theater of the rituals.
I think the phenomenon is actually more general, rooted as it is in the need to conform to group dynamics, of which the Democratic and Republican conventions are only high profile examples. . In fact just yesterday I voted “aye” (or should I say “moo”) to approve meeting minutes that I had not read. In fact now that I think of it, on most of the committees I sit, I tend to vote in such a fashion—ratifying the pre-arranged decisions that are presented to me. I do it all the time on university committees. “How do you vote on X?” Altogether now “Mooooo.” Any opposed? (Silence). The motion passes. Now that I think of it, same thing happens on church councils, corporate boards of directors, and any number of other places people are told they have “great responsibility.” In the end? Mooooo!
Weber is of course writing about is the fact that people vote for things that they haven’t read all the time. I could of course pick on the US Congress which recently passed a monster bill on health care which few if any of the members had ever read. This is a well-known foible of the US Congress which happens time after time, no matter which party is in charge; after all Weber wrote about the phenomenon 100 years ago before there was a health care bill. Congress seemingly has not changed.
But more to the point, I could point to the “stuff” I vote for on the local ballots every year or so (after all I am an obedient and important voter supportive of democracy!). Thus, I am always thrilled to be ask my opinion on matters big and small, even if I don’t know anything about the subject, or for that interest have much interest in the things that appear on California’s election ballots. After all, if paid member of Congress don’t read the bills, why should I read everything that goes together in Califronia’s version of direct democracy? Still the fact that the Legislature and Governor asks me at the ballot box to decide big issues appeals to my vanity, and I dutifully weigh in with a considered opinion on election day.
Do I want to have the government buy bonds to do X, and Y to Z% interest rate? Oh, thank you for asking! Moooooo!
Who do you want to vote for to assess property in your county? Well, yes, thank you for again asking my expert opinion, and now that you mention it Moooooo!
Or do I have an opinion about the death penalty, property rights, air pollution regulations, school policy, sales tax, or the other multitude of issues that clutter the California ballot. Thanks for asking! Mooooo! Mooooo! And Mooooo!
So as a sociologist, I like the concept of Weber describes—but how to render Stimmvieh into English in a fashion that Weber might recognize? “Voting cows” does not capture the spirit of the German. “Voting sheep” works a little better, since in the English language sheep in particular are known via metaphor for the mindless herding mentality that Weber is referring to.
Indeed in the right wing blogosphere, they have started to use the word “Sheeple” which Wikipedia defines as
a term that highlights the herd behavior of people by likening them to sheep, a herd animal…. used to describe those who voluntarily acquiesce to a suggestion without critical analysis or research.
In other words Stimmvieh. That sounds like what I do before voting “Aye” on ratifying the minutes of meetings I have not read, voting for my county’s assessor, or weighing in on a bond issue which I really do not understand. The problem is that the right wing in the US has somehow appropriated the word “sheeple” and it has come to be associated only with the mindless voting behavior of the Democrats, rather than voters in general like Weber intended. But we need sheeple back, if for nothing else, because it is such a great idiomatic way to translate the equally idiomatic Stimmvieh. After all, Sheeplehood and Stimmvieh behavior is not only for Democrats, but all of us, including you, me, and the guy behind the tree. It is for whomever has voted “Mooooo,” whether it was to just to go along, inattention, or boredom.
Reposted from Ethnography.com 2015 and July 2016
Tony Waters is czar and editor of Ethnography.com. He came to us from the Sociology department at California State University at Chico where he has been a professor since 1996. In 2016 though he suddenly found himself with a new gig at Payap University in northern Thailand where he is on the faculty of the Peace Studies Department. He has also been a guest professor in Germany, and Tanzania. In the past, his main interests have been international development and refugees in Thailand, Tanzania, and California. This reflects a former career in the Peace Corps (Thailand), and refugee camps (Thailand and Tanzania). His books include: Crime and Immigrant Youth (1999), Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan (2001), The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture: Life Beneath of the Marketplace (2007), When Killing is a Crime (2007), and Schooling, Bureaucracy, and Childhood: Bureaucratizing the Child (2012). His hobby is trying to learn strange languages–and the mistakes that that implies. Tony is a prolific academic, you can read more of his work at academia.edu.or purchase one (or more!) of his books from Amazon.com.