Political Sociology Conventional Theories of the State Lecture One: Power, State, and Society

What Is Political Sociology? Daniel Egan and Levon A. Chorbajian, Power: A Critical Reader (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005) Political sociology is the branch of sociology that deals mostly with power in society and its effects on the allocation of major resources. These resources include education, employment, housing, health care, food, and physical and psychological well-beings.(p. xiii)

Anthony M. Orum and John G Anthony M. Orum and John G. Dale, Political Sociology: Power and Participation in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2009) Political sociology, a subfield of the broader discipline of sociology, originated in the writings of several nineteenth-century social theorists…….For one thing, political sociologists take a panoramic view of the world, seeking to see the connections between political and other institutions, especially economic ones. For another, political sociologists believe that while political institutions, like the state, can take on a life all their own, such institutions also are necessarily grounded in some fashion in the other institutions of the world. (pp. 1-2)

Karen Stanbridge and Howard Ramos, Seeing Politics Differently: A Brief Introduction to Political Sociology (Oxford University Press, 2012) [U]nlike political science, which tends to concentrate on institutional or formal politics and the mechanisms of governance, political sociologists are more concerned with examining and explaining how power is distributed and negotiated in society more generally and on what basis. Of course, political sociologists are interested in who rules and how. They recognize the importance of the state and pay attention to the officials and political parties in the government and the means by which they govern. But political sociologists are more likely to ask how these observations are linked to broader questions about how power is negotiated outside the formal realm of politics. (pp. 1-2)

Berch Berberoglu, Political Sociology in a Global Era: An Introduction to the State and Society (Paradigm Publishers, 2013) [T]his book is not a text in conventional political sociology, as the field is traditionally defined, for it does not deal with established mainstream political parties or electoral politics; nor is it a book of political theory as such, though various theories of the state and politics are discussed at length. Instead, this book goes to the heart of the nature and the role of the state in society and examines the linkages between class and state in different comparative and historical settings, for as the state has increasingly taken center stage in social life, these linkages, taken together, constitute the very foundation of the modern state as the central political institutions of our time. (p. xii)

Kate Nash, Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics, and Power (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) [C]ontemporary political sociology concerns cultural politics, which is the interpretation of social meanings that support, challenge, or change the definitions, perspectives, and identities of social actors, to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of others, across state and society. In comparison, the threat of using force to impose the will of some on others is much less common. (p. 37)

Power Defining Power: Materialist or Institutionalist, or Idealist and Culturalist Power as ability and capacity (Weber, Dahl) and power resources (individuals, groups, institutions) Power in relational and institutional (institution, bureaucracy, structural) Power as ideology (ideational hegemony, “brainwashing”, manipulation, “Happy Slaves” Power as knowledge and vice versa, critical and constructivist view (knowledge manufacturer and power)

Traditions of Political Sociology • Marxist Tradition: Marx, Engels, Tocquevillian and Durkheimian Tradition • Weberian Tradition • Foucauldian Critical Theory • Feminist Theory

Elitist Theories • Classical Elite Theories Nietzsche, Carlyle, Freud Mosca: The Ruling Class Pareto: The Rise and Fall of Elites Michels: Political Parties • Critical Elite Theories C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite. Pluralism and Elite Pluralism Robert Dahl: Who Governs? , Polyarchy. Seymour Martin Lipset: The Political Man. E.E. Schattschneider: The Semi-Sovereign People.