SOC260H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Political Sociology, Economic Determinism, Bourgeoisie
Document Summary
Most experts agree that the idea of power i. e. , who holds, wields, achieves, and seeks power, particularly within the state and/or civil society is a fundamental concern of political sociology. Lewis a. coser (1966: 1), for example, defines political sociology as that branch of sociology which is concerned with the social causes and consequences of given power distributionsetc. Political science, in the words of seymour m. lipset"s, tended to be the. State" discipline, the field concerned with the positive and manifest functions of political institutions. Political sociology, on the other hand, has been the radical" discipline, stressing social conflict and social change and focusing on latent functions, informal aspects, and the dysfunction aspects of politics (coser, 1966: 4-5). Marx"s analyses of the state: the coercive aspect of the state is. , in his later and more empirical writings, marx suggested. First, in the instrumental model: emphasized. economic power is quite simply translated into political power.
