Contemporary Capitalism and the Distribution of Power in Society

This article examines Weber’s partial and fragmentary discussions of power and domination. It reconstructs a basis for Weber’s argument through introducing ideas of persuasive and coercive influence and shows how Weber examined these forms of power in structures of class and status and in views of state authority and patterns of domination in economic markets. It is shown that the Weberian conceptualization can illuminate many ongoing debates in studies of corporate power and control over state power. The application of the ideas is considered through current evidence on the financialization and globalization of economic domination and the transformation and globalization of state power in contemporary capitalism.

Capitalism · Distribution (mathematics) · Economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Physics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Mathematics · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory