I. Historical Materialism and the Specificity of Capitalism. 1. The separation of the 'economic' and the 'political' in capitalism. 2. Rethinking base and superstructure. 3. Class as process and relationship. 4. History or technological determinism? 5. History or teleology? Marx versus Weber -- II. Democracy Against Capitalism. 6. Labour and democracy, ancient and modern. 7. The demos versus 'we, the people': from ancient to modern conceptions of citizenship. 8. Civil society and the politics of identity. 9. Capitalism and human emancipation: race, gender and democracy.