WEEK I.

Sociology=social interaction (general definition)

Political sociology=>integrates politics into the society
1) The sociology that pays special attention to the interaction between political power,
institutions, processes, events and social relations.
2) the political science that attends on particular to the impact of social relations on
political power, institutions, processes, events
=>cause-effect relation
-political power=manifestation of the social power
-main concept regarding political sociology=conflicts (political ones)

Forms of organization of the society (organizing):
-conflicts
-institutions(the state)
-social groups
-political groups(parties)
-political behavior
-political ideas

Political sociology:
=>has the role to understand, to describe.
=>the study of interactions between society and politics and the dynamical associations among
and between the social origins of politics, the structure of politics or the political process, the
effects of politics on the surrounding society and culture.

Concepts related to:
Distinction between: Politics, Policies, Polities
=>POLITICS=all about obtaining and maintaining the power(highly conservative,subjective)
=>in order to obtain and maintain power, we need POLICIES
=>POLITY=a form of city organization, of civil administration, of an organized society

-society never changes fast or abrupt

CONFLICT: =>good for society it brings changes
=>bad for society it produces a rupture, a separation

Relationship between SOCIETY and POLITICS:
a) S < - > P what occurs: a small change between the two, without them influencing each
other too much (most popular approach)
b) 1. P -> S
2. P -> P looking towards the political sources of the political power
- interested only of what happens on the political sphere(not on the influence on
the society)
c) S -> S multivariate relationship
- Influenced by society, politics transforms the society
- politics does not appear out of nowhere

Main AUTHORS also considered sociologists:
Sociology=newest social sicence!

-Max Weber
-Plato
-Aristotle (spoke about evolution zoon politikon=evolution of species=>social relations)
=>relations between the social classes (philosophers, soldiers..)
=>relations between individual state

Great debate: for categorizing the authors (left or right):

LEFT RIGHT
Locke Machiavelli ( a prince can behave as
Rousseau a lean but also as a fool)
Hobbes
Montesquieu
Burke
Authors that covered the issues of political elites:
-Alfredo PARETO - WEBER
-Gaetano MOSCA -VILLE
-Roberto MICHELS -K. MAINNHEIM
=>conservative -E. DURKHEIM
=> democratic

AUGUSTE COMPTE =>created the concept of sociology