SOURCE: "Political Critiques," in Scholarship and Partisanship: Essays on Max Weber, by Reinhard Bendix and Guenther Roth, University of California Press, 1970, pp. 55-69.

Originally delivered as a lecture at a meeting of the American Sociological Association in 1964, the following essay articulates major objections to Weber's socio-political views, concluding that Weber sought to reconcile through his work the tension between opposing theoretical stances.

Max Weber has been a major target for a series of critiques aimed at political sociology in general, if not at most of social science. These critiques either use a sociological approach for political purposes or deny altogether the present rationale of political sociology and to some extent even the viability of Western pluralist society. Because Weber had a highly articulate view of politics and took his stand on political issues that have remained controversial to this day, it is not always easy to distinguish specific...