Political Sociology

1. Political Sociology Josip Kregar November 19, 2013

2. SociologyandPolitics:relations between state and society • Theorigineofpoliticsandthemodern state; • "Who rules"? Decisionmakinginpolitics. Who has a power and how the power is legoitimized? • Thepersonalitiesandcharactere vs. institutions: political cultureandmovements; • Who getwhatandwhy? Power relationships andthe role ofideology

3. SociologyandPolitics:relations between state and society Political sociology investigates the association between society and politics, and can be considered the intersection of political science and sociology. More specifically, the main focus is on power. In sociology, power is defined as the ability to achieve one’s goals over the objections of another group. In political sociology, we study who has the power, how they use it, and how it is institutionalized. This can include the study of political activity of specific groups (race, class, gender, ideology), how social pressure forces change in policy, or how policy will affect society. http://www.allpsychologycareers.com/topics/political-sociology.html

4. Structures: Elections Models: • First past the post • Alternative vote • Twocircles or revoting • Proportionalsystem

5. Structures: Elections referendum Prons & cons Although some advocates of direct democracy would have the referendum become the dominant institution of government, in practice and in principle, in almost all cases, the referendum exists solely as a complement to the system of representative democracy, in which most major decisions are made by an elected legislature. Advocates of the referendum argue that certain decisions are best taken out of the hands of representatives and determined directly by the people. Some adopt a strict definition of democracy, saying elected parliaments are a necessary expedient to make governance possible in the large, modern nation-state, though direct democracy is nonetheless preferable and the referendum takes precedence over Parliamentary decisions. Other advocates insist that the principle of popular sovereignty demands that certain foundational questions, such as the adoption or amendment of a constitution, the secession of a state or the altering of national boundaries, be determined with the directly expressed consent of the people ;

6. Structures: Elections referendum Prons & cons Critics of the referendum argue that voters in a referendum are more likely driven by transient whims than careful deliberation, or that they are not sufficiently informed to make decisions on complicated or technical issues. Also, voters might be swayed by strong personalities, propaganda and expensive advertising campaigns. James Madison argued that direct democracy is the "tyranny of the majority." Some opposition to the referendum has arisen from its use by dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini who, it is argued, used the plebiscite to disguise oppressive policies as populism. Hitler's use of plebiscites is argued as reason why, since World War II, there has been no provision in Germany for the holding of referendums at the federal level.

7. Patten's criticism British politician Chris Patten summarized many of the arguments used by those who oppose the referendum in an interview in 2003 when discussing the possibility of a referendum in the United Kingdom on the European Union Constitution: “ I think referendums are awful. The late and great Julian Critchley used to say that, not very surprisingly, they were the favourite form of plebiscitary democracy of Mussolini and Hitler. They undermine Westminster. What they ensure, as we saw in the last election, is if you have a referendum on an issue politicians during an election campaign say oh we're not going to talk about that, we don't need to talk about that, that's all for the referendum. So during the last election campaign the euro was hardly debated. I think referendums are fundamentally anti-democratic in our system and I wouldn't have anything to do with them. On the whole, governments only concede them when governments are weak.[1]”

8. Structures: ConstitutionsandLaws Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. OttovonBismarck

9. LocalGovernment ''A democracy is only alive if the citizens take an interest in public affairs, and the local level is where citizen participation is easiest to realise,’ ''Public management is a triangle. The citizens are a first side of the triangle, the elected office-bearers representing them a second, and a third consists of the public servants who implement the policies intended by the office-bearers as a response to their fellow-citizens’ demands and needs. These three agents of civic governance each have their role to perform and must do so with awareness of the public interest,'' he added.

10. Political Parties Particracy tends to install itself as the cost of campaigning and the impact of the media increase so that it can be prevalent at the national level with large electoral districts but absent at a local level; a few prominent politicians of renown may hold enough influence on public opinion to resist their party or dominate it. In multi-party regimes, the degree of individual autonomy within each can vary according to the party rules and traditions, and depending on whether a party is in power, and if so alone (mostly in a de facto two party-system) or in a coalition. The mathematical need to form a coalition on the one hand prevents a single party from getting a potentially total grip, on the other hand provides the perfect excuse not to be accountable to the voter for not delivering the party program promises.

11. IronLawofOligarchy • An oligarchy is any form of organizational power structure that concentrates power in a few people or organizations. This differs from an autocracy, in which power is concentrated in one or a very small number of people who operate in tandem, because members of an oligarchy may have conflicting interests. Robert Michaels' Iron Law of Oligarchy posits that every large organization, regardless of content or structure, tends to concentrate power in the fashion of an oligarchy. • Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8653364_iron-law-oligarchy-mean.html#ixzz2l14t6ccK

12. Political Culture “the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a politicalprocess and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system". It Political culture is thus the manifestation in aggregate form of the psychological and subjective dimensions of politics. A political culture is the product of both the collective history of a political system and the life histories of the members of the system and thus it is rooted equally in public events and private experience