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Work · Sociology & Social Theory

Economy and Society

1922 · by Max Weber

Published after his death by Marianne Weber: the basic concepts of interpretive sociology, the three types of legitimate rule – traditional, charismatic, legal-rational – and the sociology of bureaucracy, law and religion.

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Introduction

From about 1909 Weber worked on the book as his contribution to a large handbook of economics, the Grundriss der Sozialökonomik, but it was unfinished when he died in 1920. The first part, written last and prepared for print, sets out his basic sociological concepts – social action, social relationship, legitimate order, the state as the monopoly of legitimate force – in compressed definitions. The second part, assembled by Marianne Weber from older manuscripts, contains studies of the economy, communities, religion, law, domination and the city. How this material belongs together has been debated, especially since the critical Max Weber Gesamtausgabe published it in separate volumes. A complete English translation appeared only in 1968.

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