230087 VO+SE Political Sociology (2011W)

Today we are witnesses of dramatic political transformations in the Arabic world. One political system after the other lost its legitimity. Society fall into civil war or are stabilized by military interventions. Political sociology will sharpen our ability to interpret these situations and to undersand the relationship between social and political processes and structures. Political sociology can not claim to take control these processes by way of political analysis. Classic social theory conceptualized political sociology as froms of authority (Weber), a concept which allowed a systematic understanding of the relationship between society and the state. Other theorists studied structures and patterns of action of elites (Mosca, Pareto, Michels). But politics is not only grounded in institutional structures and representations of action. It is also grounded in ideas and sentiments which give it legitimation. The idea of a methematical and rational world plays a major role throughout Western history since the reform programmes of Kleisthenes. Rationality played a key role in the everyday life of politics and government which is administration. Modern democracies, on the other hand, can not do without a mythological foundation of order as Max Weber has shown by using the concept of charisma. Political sociology shall highlight the relationship between society and politics analytically and empirically. It shall make the conditions and processes of political change intelligible. In the lecture we will present a number of important theorists and of empirical work in the field of political sociology. In the seminar we will work on these materials by means of discussions and presentations.