Political Sociology I- Power and Domination Flashcards
Power (Macht)
Any ability to get your way, including violence or economic coercion even if others oppose you or are unwilling to obey
Dominance
The ability that others accept commands as valid; they go along with the command, rather than trying to resist it
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Legitimate Authority (obedience)
a reason or motive for obedience; the justification for following the commands of a particular person
Rational (obedience)
Authority derives from a legal, rational process, such as voting, or meritocratic system of exams to choose best candidate
Traditional (obedience)
Tradition makes this person authority; they can also designate officials whose authority thus stems from traditional
Charismatic (obedience)
This person has a ‘gift of grace’: they can inspire you to obey by force of their vision or personality
Critical theory (Soc. Power)
those in positions of power are usually doing it to benefit themselves or their group
Symbolic Interactionism (Soc. Power)
Those in power have diverse motives and methods of achieving their goals
Structural Functionalism
Institutions of power are there to benefit society of a whole, by keeping it stable
what does it mean to be value-neutral and who urges this view?
- not presupposing the acceptance of any particular values.
- Max Weber
political Sociology
The empirical study of the way social and economic factors affect the operation f power
what are the 2 differences between political sociology and political science?
- Political scientists are often more interested in political institution.
- Political sociologists look more at the ways politics interact with the rest of society
Base/Superstructure model
‘Vulgar’ Marxist model of society claiming that legal or political institutions are just a ‘superstructure’ that depend on its determined by he underlying economic base.
Class Politics
Term to describe political behaviour based on class origin
Populism
political movements that claim to speak ‘for the people’ often cast against elites
Political Culture
Lipset’s idea of broad set of beliefs ad values generally held in any one country or political entity
Seymour Lipset
Explained differences by looking at political cultures of several english speaking countries
2 distinct values that the US Political discourse emphasized
Political equality and achievements
Modernization
the transition from traditionally-structured agrarian societies
Barrington Moore
the relationship between industrialisation and the future government of a nation
Sapurmurat Niyazov
a leader who declared himself president for life of Turkmenistran
Propaganda
simple messages aimed at convincing masses to support a party or a leaderm
Ideology
a general world-view, consisting of a coherent set of related beliefs, ways of looking at the world, implying certain courses or types of action
Dominant Ideology
Expresses worldview of dominant groups in society
Reformist Ideology
Acceptance dominant ideology, but suggests small changes
Counter/radical Ideology
Questions based of dominant ideology, and suggests alternatives
Class consciousness
an individual’s awareness of their class position and corresponding interests and needs
False consciousness
misguided beliefs that may be held by dominated group, which end up advancing interests of rulers
Georg Lukacs
A marxist theorist that tried to explain why the working classes DID NOT adopt communism and instead seemed to stick with the ideology of heir oppressors
Hegemony (ideological)
Intellectual and ideological control of society by the dominant class, such that EVERYONE adopts their worldview
Antonio Gramsci
Marxist that explained the working class’s flase consciousness as a result of IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY
Theory of divine right of king
God selected one man to rule over us; his authority was passed to his heirs
Social contract theory
obedience from consenting to government under a rational constitution
Descriptive
the way things are: an objective, scientific, non-judgemental approach
Normative
The way things should be: a value judgement on whether current circumstances are ‘good’
Social exchange theroy
we can best understand society as the product of a series of calculations of cost and benefit by individual members
Classic social contract theory
suggest people agree to form a state and surrender to authority because stability benefitted them
George Homan
used the idea to analyse society as a whole in a way closer to symbolic interactionism
Liberalism
belief that government is authorised by the consent of the individuals governed by it
Democracy
belief in rule by ‘the people’ or the whole nation or state
Discourse Ethics
Combination of sociology and philosophy: establishes moral norms by examinging preconditions of all communication
Lifeworld (Habermas)
the common belief and values people in a community draw on when they communicate
System
impersonal social structures that ease social interactions by automating it
