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Examining Ralf Dahrendorf's political thought, commentators have attributed a great deal of influence to Karl Popper and other twentieth-century liberal theorists. While this interpretation is in line with Dahrendorf's own account, this article suggests that his materialist conception of politics and history radically differed from that of Popper and other liberals. Owing more to Karl Marx and Karl Mannheim, Dahrendorf thought of political action and ideas as determined by socio-economic factors. Dahrendorf's Marxian theory of history prompted him to adopt an agonistic version of liberalism, advocating political constitutions that allowed for social conflict in order to accommodate conflicting socially determined interests.
