It is fortunate that many recent interpretations of Max Weber's contribution to the analysis of modern Western capitalist development have moved beyond certain well-worn tracks of the past. There are, for example, few who would now present Weber's sociology as profoundly antipathetical to Marxism in all its aspects. On the contrary, much of Weber's conceptualisation of capitalism and of his analysis of capitalist development may be shown to be complementary with thematic emphases in Marx (Birnbaum, 1953; Giddens, 1970; Turner, 1981). Similarly, not many writers now believe Weber's contribution to the transition debate to be dominated by the Protestant Ethic thesis as some kind of mono-causal "idealist" explanation of capitalist development.