Westerman, WL - Westerman

… Historical materialism provided a new perspective on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, which had previously been considered solely in terms of the superstructure, by looking at it from the perspective of socio-economic structure. M. Weber, who saw Rome's prosperity as "ancient capitalism" and sought the cause of its fall in the disappearance of the conditions for its formation, and WL Westermann, who saw the end of antiquity in the establishment of the colonus system, also took the position that emphasized socio-economic factors. Rostovtzev, who rejected the theory of the cause of economic decline by viewing the crisis of the 3rd century as a conflict between the urban bourgeoisie and the peasant masses, also argued in his analysis of "The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire" that the transformation of the provinces into production areas due to the expansion of the market and the economic decline of Italy caused the collapse of the socio-economic structure of the empire. …

*Some of the terminology that mentions "Westerman, WL" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…　史的唯物論はそれまでもっぱら上部構造の面から考えられていたローマ帝国盛衰論を，社会経済的構造の面からみる新視点を与えた。ローマの繁栄を〈古代資本主義〉とみてその形成条件の消失に没落原因を求めるM.ウェーバー，コロヌス制(コロナトゥス)の成立に古代の終焉をみるウェスターマンW.L.Westermannも社会経済的要因を重視する立場に立つ。3世紀の危機を都市ブルジョアジーと農民大衆の対立としてとらえて経済的没落原因論を拒否したロストフツェフも，その《ローマ帝国社会経済史》における分析では，市場の外延的拡大に伴う属州の生産地化とイタリアの経済的下降が，帝国の社会経済的構造を崩壊させたとしている。…

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出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報