olved in the effort to produce tools for the analysis of "the institutional underpinnings of the economy to show which forces fostered or hindered it in various societies" (Collins, 1994, p. 83).
Since Marx saw every aspect of society as necessarily shaped by economic forces Marxian sociological theories, despite a great deal of insight, tended to simplify the relationships among various social factors and, generally, to reduce the all-important concept of class struggle to opposition between a mere two classes--the owners of the means of production and those who owned nothing but their own labor. Because Marx began with the assumption of the historical inevitability of progress in human social organization he not only held that the eventual decline of capitalism was inevitable, he also believed that economic analysis would enable him to describe just how capitalism had "forged the weapons that bring death to itself" (Marx & Engels, History, 1994, p. 8). Marx's search for economic explanations began with his observation of the many evils of capitalism, thus the notion that the system produced the conditions of its own revolutionary defeat was particularly satisfying.
Unlike Marx, Weber was convinced that capitalism was a form of social organization that "enhanced human freedom and economic productivity" (Collins, 1994, p. 82). This did not mean that Weber was uncritical of capitalism, nor did it mean that his theory was necessarily antagonistic to Marx's ideas in all respects. Indeed, in terms of their sociological approaches Weber most often continued Marx's work (Collins, p. 83). But, while he addressed the same questions as those raised by Marx and Engels, Weber produced different, more complex answers. Because he was not concerned with the movement of vast historical forces, but with the wide range of factors that created the necessary conditions for capitalism Weber subjected these factors to a far more intensive scru...