ABSTRACT
It is rationalization, then, not capitalism per se, which for Weber lies at the root of the modern world order, and the reasons for this are to be found in various peculiarities of ‘the West’. Capitalism is but one theatre among others in which the drama of rationality is played out; and all the leading motifs of modern capitalism have their exact counterparts in many other arenas of social life. But if, for Weber, capitalism is no longer Marx’s demiurge of modern society, it continues to furnish him with the paradigms through which modernity is analysed. Not only is it the major agency of global rationalization, capitalism is also the template in terms of which the overall social consequences of rationalization are comprehended. In this sense it remains the keystone of his general sociology of the modern world.
