Max Weber and Democratic Politics

In this work, Peter Breiner explores the implications of Max Weber's political sociology for political judgment and democratic theory. In the process, he rejects what is problematic and retains what is valuable in the theorist's political thought and then uses the results to elaborate upon and extend democratic
theory. The author analyzes the tensions between the subjective and objective dimensions of Weber's logic of rationality in his methodology, his reconstruction of economic theory, his views on political practice and value conflict, and his understanding of the demands that the "business" of politics imposes upon political ethics.

The book situates Weber in relation to the great political theorists of the past (Thucydides, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Gramsci) as well as engaging some of the most important Weberian scholarship. Rigorous, tightly argued, and concise, the volume will interest both political and social theorists: the former because of the focus on judgment and participatory democracy and the latter for the author's thorough and novel treatment of Weber.

Peter Breiner is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York, Albany.