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Max Weber - economy

From Wikipedia:


Economics

While Weber is best known and recognized today as one of the leading scholars and founders of modern sociology, he also accomplished much in other fields, notably economics, although this is largely forgotten today among orthodox economists, who pay very little attention to his works. The view that Weber is at all influential to modern economists comes largely from non-economists and economic critics with sociology backgrounds. During his life distinctions between the social sciences were less clear than they are now, and Weber considered himself a historian and an economist first, sociologist distant second


Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with Social class, Social status and party (or politicals) as conceptually distinct elements. Social class is based on economically determined relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee etc.). Status is based on non-economical qualities like honor, prestige and religion. Party refers to affiliations in the political domain.


All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".

Weber's other contributions to economics include a (seriously researched) economic history of Roman agrarian society, his work on the dual roles of idealism and materialism in the history of capitalism in his Economy and Society (1914) which present Weber's criticisms (or according to some, revisions) of some aspects of Marxism. Finally, his thoroughly researched General Economic History (1923) can be considered the Historical School at its empirical best.

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