The Max Weber-Studienausgabe (MWS) renders Max Weber's works and speeches accessible to a large audience, using the complete and reliable Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (MWG) as its basis while deliberately dispensing with its editorial apparatus. In this volume, Max Weber presents the most important forms of past and present communities and their structural principles. These range from the household to the family, the firm and then to ethnic and political communities. The market society is given a special position.