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.

Abbreviations Notes on the Contributors Introduction The Concept of Democracy in Weber's Political Sociology; S.Breuer Democratization in World-Historical Perspective; R.Collins State Formation and the Disciplined Individual in Weber's Historical Sociology; R.Axtmann Max Weber and Plebiscitary Democracy; S.Eliaeson The Nation-state, the Protestant Ethic, and Modernization; S.Whimster From Weber's Political Sociology to Contemporary Liberal Democracy; R.Schroeder Tocqueville and Weber on the Sociological Origins of Citizenship: The Political Culture of American Democracy; S.Kalberg Max Weber and European Integration; C.Levy Back to 'Mitteleuropa'? Weber, Germany, and Contemporary Central Europe; Z.Krasnodebski Soviet Communism and Weberian Sociology; S.Breuer Western Impact and Asian Values in Japan's Modernization; A Weberian Critique; W.Schwentker Reframing Orientalism: Weber and Islam; M.Nafissi Index

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