Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (German pronunciation: [maks ˈveːbɐ]) (21 April 1864–14 June 1920) was a German lawyer, politician, scholar, political economist and sociologist, who profoundly influenced sociological theory. Weber's major works deal with rationalization in sociology of religion, government, organizational theory, and behavior. His most famous work is his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which began his work in the sociology of religion.

In this work, Weber argued that religion was one of the non-exclusive reasons for the different ways the cultures of the Occident and the Orient have developed, and stressed that particular characteristics of ascetic Protestantism influenced the development of capitalism, bureaucracy and the rational-legal state in the West. The essay examines the effects Protestantism had upon the beginnings of capitalism, arguing that capitalism is not purely materialist in Karl Marx's sense, but rather originates in religious ideals and ideas which cannot be solely explained by ownership relations, technology and advances in learning alone. In another major work, Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state as an entity which claims a "monopoly on the legitimate use of violence", a definition that became pivotal to the study of modern Western political science.

His analysis of bureaucracy in his Economy and Society is still central to the modern study of organizations. His most known contributions are often referred to as the "Weber Thesis". He was the first to recognize several diverse aspects of social authority, which he respectively categorized according to their charismatic, traditional, and legal forms.

His analysis of bureaucracy thus noted that modern state institutions are based on a form of rational-legal authority.

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