M.A. SOCIOLOGY
          Course No. 405
          Lesson -1                                                                   Unit-I
             DEFINITION AND SUBJECTMATTER OF POLITICAL SOCIOLGY
          CONTENTS
          1.1     Introduction
          1.2     Definition of Political Sociology
          1.3     Nature and Scope of Political Sociology
          1.4     Emergence of Political Sociology
          1.5     Importance of Political Sociology
          1.6     Relation between sociology of politics & political sociology
                  1.6.1  Relationship between Sociology & Political Science
                  1.6.2  Difference between Sociology and political science
          1.7     Summary
          1.8     Model Test Paper
          1.9     Suggested readings
          OBJECTIVES
          After studying this lesson you should be able to:
                 give the definition of Political Sociology.
                 discuss the origin and development of political sociology.
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                        explain the linkage between political science and sociology.
                    1.1  INTRODUCTION
                         Human behaviour oscillates between two poles conflict and cooperation, as these
                    two have been the common experiences of man throughout human history. Where there is
                    conflict, there arises a political situation. Politics today is unthinkable and unapproachable
                    without sociology. Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The
                    term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed
                    in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions.
                    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.
                    1.2    DEFINITION OF POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
                         Political sociology provides a new vista in political analysis. It is the study of
                    interaction and linkages between society and politics; between a political system and its
                    social, economic and cultural environment. It examines social power and focuses on the
                    political attitudes, values and behaviour of people in different societies. It is concerned
                    with problems, regarding the management of conflict, the articulation of interests and issues,
                    and political integration and organization. The focal point in all these concerns is the
                    interdependence and interplay   of socio cultural, economic and political elements.
                         Robert E. Dowse & John A. Hughes, “Political Sociology is the study of political
                    behaviour within a sociological perspective of frame.”
                         Bendix & Lipset, “While political science starts with state and examines how it
                    affects the society, political sociology starts with society and examines how it affects state.”
                         A.K. Mukhopadhaya, “Political Sociology is the product of a cross fertilization
                    between sociology and political science that studies the impact of society on politics and
                    also the reverse, although viewing the substance of politics in a social form.”
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            Michael Rush and Phillip Althoff, “ Political Sociology is a discipline that
       examines the link between politics and society and as such it is a theoretical and
       methodological bridge between political science and sociology”.
            Essential features of political sociology are: (1) Political sociology is not political
       science since, unlike the later, it is not a state discipline or a study of the state craft.
       (2)Political sociology concerned with not only with social but with the political as well. (3)
       Political sociology revolves round the belief that there exists an identify of form between
       the social process and the political process. Political sociology tries to resolve the traditional
       dichotomy between state and society. Therefore, Political sociology acts a theoretical and
       methodological bridge between political science and sociology, what Sartori has called
       “an inter-disciplinary hybrid”.
       1.3    NATURE AND SCOPE OF POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
            Political sociology is a science like any other science. It employs systematic
       methods of investigation, theoretical thinking and logical assessment of arguments. As such,
       political sociology is nonpolitical by nature. It becomes society centered fixing its attention
       on the wider social panorama that shapes the political institutions. Political sociology is a
       science like any other science. It employs systematic methods of investigation, theoretical
       thinking and logical assessment of arguments. Political sociology collects evidence about
       the selected subject matter using planned and organized methods. explanations and
       conclusions are drawn on the basis of carefully collected evidences. Findings and conclusions
       are open to inspections, criticism and testing by other researchers. Political sociology
       involves systematic methods of investigation, analysis of data and the assessment of theories
       in the light of evidences and logical argument
       a)   It is basically concerned with the structures and processes in a society , thatis, the
             social behaviour in all its dimensions.
       b)    It seeks to understand the interaction between the government (State) and society,
             decision making authorities, conflict and interest.
       c)   It concentrates its attention in purely empirical theory building and proposing the
             models for comparative analysis.
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                     d)  Political Sociology studies the political process as a continuum of interaction
                         between society and its decision maker and between the decision making institutions
                         and social forces.
                     e)   It interprets political institutions in terms of the behavioural pattern of the individuals
                         who compose it and brings in order and reliability to political analysis.
                         To sum up, the very nature of political sociology has added precision to political
                     analysis by offering systematic explanation of social phenomena and brought order, reliability
                     and manipulativeness to political analysis.
                     SCOPE
                         Political sociology studies relationship between the state and society, party system
                     and its relation society. The scope of political sociology includes effect of social attitudes
                     on political participation, social class and political attitudes, voting and its political and
                     social implications. The scope of political sociology is very vast. An important concern of
                     political sociology is the decision-making process through public means. In this process, it
                     takes into account not only the social forces but also includes the economic factors that are
                     regulated by forces such as money, market and other resources scarcities. Political sociology
                     also analysis whether the person occupying the decision- making process has enough grip
                     over the people on whom they are exercising authority.  It also includes the concept of
                     political system, which introduces dynamism in political analysis. It not only stress on the
                     study of the major structures of the government such as legislature, courts and administrative
                     agencies, but also embassies on all the structure in their political aspects such as caste
                     groupings, kinship groups and formal organisations such as parties and interest groups.
                         Various scholars have discussed the scope of political sociology in different ways.
                     According to Greer and Orleans, it is concerned with the structure of the state; the nature
                     and conditions of legitimacy; the nature of the monopoly of force and its use by the state
                     and the nature of the subunits and their relation with the state. Lasswell explains that since
                     the entire society is characterized by the interplay of influence, influential and the influenced,
                     politics pervades all of society. Politics permeates every social group an association, class
                     and profession. Andreu Effrat suggests that political sociology is concerned with the causes,
                     patterns and consequences of the distribution and process of power and authority in all
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