Max Weber is considered an eminent founder of modern social sciences, rivaled by the figures of Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx.
Some students of Weberian thought have paid less attention to Weber's extensive and often passionate engagement with the politics of his day, particularly in the United States.
He was a target of Nazi persecution from which he escaped to England, where he became involved with the Labour Party and was a member of the faculty at the London School of Economics during the end of the Second World War.
[4][5] Mayer interpreted a "tragic" satisfaction with which Weber was seen to embrace "the empty character" of Heinrich Rickert's neo-Kantian philosophy of value.
According to Mommsen, Weber's sociological idea of charismatic authority was evident in his political views and was "close to fascist notions of plebiscitary leadership.
[4] Mommsen's thesis, that Max Weber supported parliamentary democracy as a means to serve the power interests of the German nation-state, met a sharp response because, in Raymond Aron's words, that removed "the new German democracy of a 'founding father,' a glorious ancestor, and a spokesman of genius.
[11] Günther Roth, Reinhard Bendix and Karl Loewenstein have defended Weberian sociology by arguing that it stands separate from his political convictions.
[4][7][11][12][13] They consider Weber's distinction between scientific value neutrality and evaluative politics to support this claim.
[11] Roth stated that his "major intent" was "not to provide an historical defense of Weber but a review of critiques as they seem to bear on the raison d'etre of political sociology.