The death of German sociologist Claus Offe on October 1 marked the passing of one of the last postwar European socialist intellectuals. Famous for his analysis of the contradictions of advanced capitalist societies in the 1960s and 1970s, he came from a cohort of thinkers who took as their horizon of thought questions concerning the balance of power between labor and capital, the possibilities and limits of reforms in capitalist society, and the evolving political economy of capitalism.

Offe made many contributions on these fronts, from participating in debates about the capitalist state to providing penetrating analysis of the structure of the labor market. His most significant contribution, however, is a little harder to classify. His essay “Two Logics of Collective Action: Theoretical Notes on Social Class and Organizational Form,” coauthored with Helmut Wiesenthal, encompasses everything from the nature of capitalist class power to the phenomenon of opportunism in the labor movement. First published in 1982, it remains a foundational work for anyone seeking to advance the socialist project.

To contextualize “Two Logics,” a few words on Offe’s intellectual background are in order. Offe was a product of the Frankfurt School, the renowned group of theorists first convened in the 1920s, whose analyses of capitalism and modernity would serve as touchstones for various thinkers over the next century. Many of its theorists, such as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse, would go into exile with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. While they were able to return to West Germany after the war, the division of Germany and the American occupation carved an intellectual canyon dividing the school’s prewar and postwar work. As Offe would later recall of his days at Frankfurt in the mid-1960s,