political sociology (ppt)
Post on 01-Jan-2016
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Political Sociology
Grand definitions:
• Who gets what, when and how• How political outcomes affect and effected by
social circumstances• How class and inequality affect demand for
welfare states• How different kinds of welfare states have
different impacts in inequality and class
Informal definitions
•how people relate to, and think about politics•what policies they want•what makes them participate and at what level•what divides or unites them.•things affecting political preferences, attitudes, values and behavior in society•how that affect policy and other political outcomes
Comparative Government focuses on the political institutions
Political Sociology focuses on the social circumstances in which those
institutions work
Political Sociology and Political science
• both are disciplines of social sciences• both deal with human behavior
What are the differences between Political Sociology
and Political science?
Keith Faulks defines political sociology• Is concerned with relationship between politics
sociology• Distinctiveness lies in its acknowledgement that
political actors operate within a wider social context• Political actors inevitably shape and in turn are shaped
by social structures• Social structures ensure that political sociology is that
power• Political sociologists find answers to the following
questions:which individuals and groups in society possess the capacity to pursue their interests and how
is this power exercised and institutionalized
• Polity• Politics• Policy
Basics Concepts Of Political Sociology
Polity• refers to the entire political domain• A political field where the political actors vie
for power• try to maintain or increase their power• struggle to have their interests prevail.
Politics• refers to the activities that political actors
engage within the political domain• Crafting bills, trying to influence legislators,
campaigning for elections, all these activities constitute politics
• with any social activity there are norms in place as to what is or what is not acceptable
Policy• refers to public actions that public policies and
the actual products of governance• These actions are distinguished by domain of
activity• economic policy, environment policy, labor
policy or educational policy are all public policies
Powerthe capacity to achieve
one’s objectives even when those objectives are in conflict with the
interest of another actor.
Hard Power• The exercise of power through
force or the threat of force.• Military power , a parent
spanking a child• May result in compliance on
the short term• Since it generates resentment,
it might have negative effects on the long term
Soft Power• refers to the exercise of
power through persuasion• Diplomacy, for instance, is a
form of soft power• Soft power tends to generate
better and more long term effects
• recipients do not feel bullied or forced against their will
Forms of Power
• Ideological• Economic• Military• Political
Ideological power
• derives from the human need• Control of an ideology• combining ultimate meaning, values, norms,
aesthetic and ritual brings general social power
• Examples: religions and secular ideologies like liberalism, socialism and nationalism.
Economic power
• derives from the need to allocate resources of nature
• it combines intensive, everyday labor cooperation with extensive circuits of the distribution, exchange and consumption of goods
• All the complex societies unequally distributed controls over economic resources, thus classes have been ubiquitous
Military power
• social organization of physical force• derives from the (necessity) of organized
defense and utility of aggression• both intensive and extensive aspects • Those who monopolize it, as military elites
and castes wield a degree of general social power
Political power
• derives from the usefulness of territorial and centralized regulation
• Political power means state power• It is essentially authoritative commanded and
willed from a center• State organization is twofold: a) Domestically: it is ‘territorially centralized’b) externally in involves geopolitics.”
Political Action and Participation:
• Voter Turnout• Citizen participation• Social movements• Political violence,
civil wars and revolutions
Social Cleavages
• Race and ethnicity• Extreme-right• Nationalism• Religion• Gender• Class
Class issues
• Political elites• Welfare regimes• Post materialism and
social attitudes
Any Questions?
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