The Faculty of Political Sciences – SPE1

Academic year 2005/2006, Semester 2

6 credits – mandatory course
POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Lecturer: Oana-Valentina Suciu

Type: 3 hours lecture + seminar
Objectives of the course: To present the main social and political relations with special attention to the
interaction between political power, processes and events, to the political ideas, behaviours and conflicts.
The course is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of general theoretical approaches to
the study of politics and society and to become acquainted with some recent literature in the field. Students
should become more aware of the nature and consequences of politics and to become aware of the nature
and consequences of politics and realize how politics is present in all aspects of social life.
This is a course during which we will spend a considerable amount of time discussing how the written
materials help us understand the current political life (Romanian, but also international), and students should
expect frequent discussions on the contemporary political life. Everyone is strongly encouraged to read
political news on a daily basis. No. students will not b tested on what they read in the daily papers, but class
discussions will be much more interesting if everyone is well informed, and questions about what is being
reported might be very helpful for stimulating thinking about politics in general and the course materials in
particular.

Grading:
CLASS ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION: 20%
POSITION PAPERS/ABSTRACTS: 20%
FINAL EXAM (written): 60%

Position papers: Students are expected to have the readings for a particular week done by class time. Each
student must submit typewritten abstracts and questions about the assigned readings. The distribution of
summaries of the students’ presentations to the classmates is encouraged. Each assignment should consist
of the following:
(a) Brief summary of the central points or arguments presented
(b) A brief assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s arguments.
(c) One or two questions related to the assigned readings that can be used to promote class discussion on
the topic.
To put it simply, I am requesting, an interpretative, thoughtful summary, not a detailed, factual summary. You
should try to present one or two key questions for discussion. It is not necessary to answer the question but
at least you should think of a pertinent answer before class time.

Plagiarism is strictly and severely penalised.

Plagiarism is the use, without acknowledgement, of the intellectual work of other people, and the act of
representing the ideas or discoveries of another as one’s own in written work submitted for assessment. To
copy sentences, phrases or even striking expressions without acknowledgement of the source (either by
inadequate citation or failure to indicate verbatim quotations), is plagiarism; to paraphrase without
acknowledgement is likewise plagiarism. Where such copying or paraphrase has occurred the mere mention
of the source in the bibliography shall not be deemed sufficient acknowledgement; each such instance must
be referred specifically to its source. Verbatim quotations must be either in inverted commas, or indented,
and directly acknowledged’.

1 What is political sociology? – introductory course

1.1 Terminology
1.2 The object of political sociology
1.3 Controversies regarding the object of political sociology

2. Politics and social stratification

2.1 Politics and social stratification
2.2 The main concepts: society, social structure, social stratification
2.3 Social and political networks

Assigned readings:
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• Plato, “The Basis of Social Organization” and “The Three Waves” (The Republic), in “The Great Political
Theories. Volume 1”, Michael Curtis (ed.), Avon Books, NY, 1981, pp. 34-43, 50-64
• Emile Durkheim, “Regulile Metodei Sociologice”, Cultura Nationala, 1924, pp. 46-56 (What is a Social
Fact?)
• Randall Collins, “A Conflict Theory of Stratification”, in “Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory
Science”, 1975, pp. 109-132
• Peter L. Berger & Thomas Luckmann, “Construirea Sociala a Realitatii”, Editura Univers, 1999, pp. 9-28
• S.M. Lipset, “Issues in Social Class Analysis”, in Revolution and Counterrevolution. Change and
Persistence in Social Structures”, Anchor Book, New York, 1970, pp. 157-201

3. The political power

3.1 The concept of power
3.2 Different forms of power
3.3 The political authority
3.4 Influence and prestige
3.5 Consensus and legitimacy
3.6 The social groups and their importance for the political power – the pressure/lobbying group

Assigned readings:
• Max Weber, “Bureaucracy and Revolution”, in “Max Weber. Essays in Sociology”, C.W. Mills (ed.), Oxford
University Press, 1959, pp.224-235
• Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”, in “The Great Political Theories. Volume 2”, Michael Curtis (ed.), Avon
Books, NY, 1981, pp. 426-436
• Machiavelli, “The Prince”, in “Social and Political Philosophy. Readings from Plato to Gandhi”, Anchor
Books, New York, 1963, pp. 110-126
• Robert Nisbet, “Social Authority: Authority, Power, Legitimacy”, in “The Social Bond”, Alfred A Knopf, New
York, 1970, pp. 139-147
• Michael Lerner, “Powerlessness Corrupts”, in “Surplus Powerlessness”, Oakland, CA, 1986, pp. 20-17
• Vaclav Havel, The Power of the Powerless”, in “Power of the Powerless et al”. M.E. Sharpe Inc., Armonk,
New York, 1990, pp. 23-96
• Gyorgy Konrad, “Antipolitics”, Quartet Books, London-New York, 1984, pp. 216-233

4. The political system and its internal elements

4.1 Political institutions, political relations, political ideas. Definition and approaches
4.2 Typology of the political systems
4.3 The functions of the political system

Assigned readings:
• David Easton, “A Systems Analysis of Political Life”, John Wiley and Sons, Prentice Hall, New York,
1965
• Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”, Avon Books, New York, 1981
• Max Weber, “The theory of Social and Economic Organization”, New York, Free Press, 1941
• Talcott Parsons: “A Paradigm for the Analysis of Social Systems and Change”, in “Systems, Change
and conflict”, The Free Press, NY, 1967, pp. 189-212

5. Elite theory
5.1 Political action and its agents
5.2 Elite typology
5.3 The political personality – the political leader
5.4 Political class

Assigned readings:
• Gaetano Mosca, “The Ruling Class”, in “Images of Man”, C.W. Mills, (ed.), George Braziller, Inc, New
York, 1962, pp. 192-232
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• Robert Michels, “The Iron Law of Oligarchy”, in “Images of Man”, C.W. Mills, (ed.), George Braziller, Inc,
New York, 1962, pp. 233-261
• Vilfredo Pareto, “Elite, Force and Government”, in “Images of Man”, C.W. Mills, (ed.), George Braziller,
Inc, New York, 1962, pp. 262-291
• C.Wright Mills, “The Higher Circles”, in “Power Elite”, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 3-29
• Magnus Hagevi, “A Draft Concerning a Rusty Iron Law”, paper presented in 1998 at the International
Conference on Parliamentarians Committees in Central and eastern Europe, University of North Carolina
• G. Eyal, I. Szelenyi, E. Townsley, “Class and Elites in the Chnaging Structures of 20th Century Central
European Societies”, in “Making Capitalism without Capitalists. The Ruling New Elites in eastern Europe”,
Verso, London-New York, 2000
• Lazar Nikolic, “Political Styles of Elites in Post-Socialist Transformation: the Case of Serbia”, paper, 1998

6. The state
6.1 Historical evolution of the state
6.2 The characteristics of the modern state
6.3 Types of state organisation

Assigned readings:
• Jean Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract”, in “Social and Political Philosophy. Readings from Plato
to Gandhi”, Anchor Books, New York, 1963, pp. 205-220
• John G. Ikenberry & John A. Hall, “The State”, Open University Press, 1989
• Reinhard Bendix, “Legal Domination: The Modern State and the Struggle for Power”, in “Max Weber: An
Intellectual Portrait”, Anchor Books, New York, 1962, pp. 417-457
• Anthony Giddens, “The Modern State”, in “Sociology. A Brief but Critical Introduction”, Harcourt Court
Jovanovich Publishers, 1987, pp.71-91, 152-155
7. Political parties
8.1 The parties defined as organisations
8.2 The organisation of political parties
8.3 The typology of political parties
8.4 The party system
8.5 The functions of the political party

Assigned readings:
• Kaare Strom & Lars Svassand, “Political parties in Norway: Facing the Challenges of a New Society”,
1996, pp. 1-10
• Richard Katz &Peter Mair, “Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy. The
Emergence of the Cartel Party, in “Party Politics”, vol. 1, pp. 5-28
• Giovanni Sartori, “A Typology of Party Systems”, in “The Western European Party System”, Peter Mair
(ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 316-349
• David Olson, “Paradoxes of Institutional Development. The New Democratic Parliaments of Central
Europe”, in International Political Science Review, 1997, vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 401-416
• Arendt Lijphart, “Sisteme de partide”, in “Modele ale Democratiei”, Editura Polirom, Iasi, 2000, pp. 74-97

8. Electoral campaigns, political participation and voting behaviour

9.1 The objectives and strategies in the electoral campaigns
9.2 The role of the media and its effects
9.3 Political participation through voting. Explanations of political participation

Assigned readings:
• Seymour Martin Lipset, “Expression of the Democratic Class Struggle”, in “Political Man”, Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1981, pp. 230-302
• E.J. Dione, “Why Americans Hate Politics”, in Utne Reader, Nov/Dec. 1991, pp. 78-85
• Anthony Downs, “An Economic Theory of Democracy”, New York, Harper &Row, 1957, pp. 4-13, 296-300

9. Political conflicts
9.1 Social and political conflicts
9.2 Typology of political conflicts
9.3 Revolutions and reforms
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Assigned readings:
• Seymour Martin Lipset, “Social Conflict, Legitimacy and Democracy”, in “Political Man”, pp. 64-86
• Hannah Arendt, “The meaning of Revolution, pp. 13-52, in “On Revolution”, The Viking Press, New York,
1963, pp. 13-52
• George Orwell, “The Animal farm”, Penguin Books

10. Political ideologies

10.1 Ideology – the concept
10.2 The functions of ideology
10.3 Ideologies in the contemporary world
10.4 The relationship ideology – social sciences

• S.M. Lipset, “The End of Ideology”, in “Political Man”, pp. 439-458

• Karl Marx, “The German Ideology”, in “Karl Marx: Selected Writings” in “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”,
edited by David McLellan, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 157-189
• David McLellan, “Ideology”, Open University Press, 1995, pp. 9-18, 71-79, 80-83
• Slavoj Zizek, “Che Vuoi?”, in “the Sublime Objects of Ideology”, 1989, pp. 87-129
• Francis Fukuyama, “Are we at the end of ideology?”, in Fortune, January 1990, pp. 75-78

11. Political culture and political values

11.1 Definitions of “political culture”
11.2 Classifications of political cultures
11.3 Political culture and the political process
11.4 Projects of civic culture
11.5 Measuring the degree of civic culture
11.6 Political values

Assigned readings:
• Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, “The Civic Culture Revisited”, Newby Sage, 1989, pp. 1-36, 394-410
• Max Weber, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, Blackwell Publishers, , UK, 2002, pp. 13-48
• E. Durkheim, “On the Social Division of Labour in Society”, New York, Free Press, pp. 1-31, 70-85

12. Political socialisation

12.1 Definitions of political socialisation
12.2 The forms and agents of political socialisation
12.3 Political socialisation and political behaviour

Assigned readings:
• R. Dowse & J.Hughes, “The Family, the School and the Political Socialization Process”, in “the Sociology
of Modern Britain”, E. Buttenworth & David Weir (eds.), Fontana Original, 1978, pp. 218-234
• Ivan Volgyes, “Political Culture and Political Socialization in Hungary after the System Change”, in Central
European Political Science Review, vol. 2/No. 4/Summer 2001, pp. 161-174

13. Guest lecturer – t.b.a.