Max Weber, Democracy and Modernization

ROLAND AXTMANN Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen STEFAN BREUER Professor of Sociology, Hochschule fur Wirtschaft und Politik, Hamburg RANDALL COLLINS Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania SVEN ELIAESON Professor of Political Science, University of Karlstad STEFAN KALBERG Associate Professor of Sociology, Boston University ZDZISLAW KRASNODEBSKI Professor of Eastern European Cultural History, University of Bremen CARL LEVY Lecturer in European Politics, Goldsmith's College MOHAMMED NAFISSI Principal Lecturer, Department of Policy, Politics and Social Research, University of North London WOLFGANG SCHWENTKER Lecturer in Modern History, University of Dusseldorf SAM WHIMSTER Reader in Sociology, London Guildhall University

These essays bring Weber's sociology to bear on the current transformation of the political landscape. They cover a wide range of examples, from the United States to Western and Eastern Europe, and from Russia and Japan to the Islamic states.These essays bring Weber's sociology to bear on the current transformation of the political landscape. After the collapse of communism, many states are faced with the challenges of democratization: they need to establish their legitimacy in an uncertain economic climate and within a new geopolitical order. The essays in this volume develop Weberian concepts and apply his comparative-historical method to deepen our understanding of these problems. They cover a wide range of examples, from the United States to Western and Eastern Europe, and from Russia and Japan to the Islamic states.