ABSTRACT
False impressions of distance between critical theory and mainstream social science also continue because the new perspectives of Max Weber studies, and the organization of Max Weber’s complete works, have yet to overturn the ideologies of modernization theory. The division of labor between economics, sociology, and political science envisioned by Weber remains valid. Scholarship on Max Weber since the 1980s helps clarify why the distance between financialization studies and mainstream social science is also overstated and counterproductive. Weber clearly stated, and wrote, that the democratic principle was a separate and far more problematic type of legitimate domination. Part of the ideologies of financialization involve imposing corporate conceptions of governance in the sphere of politics. Decentralization matters because of the extreme centralization implied by industrial concentration, bids for oligarchic and authoritarian rule, and the continued ideological insistence on central bank independence. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
