Political Sociology Course

Lesson 1 • Classical Theoretical Roots

Traces foundational ideas from Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. Connects classical concepts to enduring debates about state, class, and legitimacy.

Lesson 2 • Major Research Traditions

Surveys structuralist, agency-centred, and cultural approaches. Students identify how each tradition shapes research questions and methods.

Lesson 3 • Defining Political Sociology

Distinguishes political sociology from political science and sociology. Establishes the field's unique focus on power embedded in social relations.

Lesson 1 • State Capacity and Autonomy

Examines variation in states' ability to implement policy and resist social pressures. Connects capacity to developmental and democratic outcomes.

Lesson 2 • Sovereignty and Territory

Explores how territorial control and sovereignty claims shape political order. Addresses challenges from globalisation and sub-state actors.

Lesson 3 • Sources and Types of Legitimacy

Applies Weber's typology of traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal authority. Students assess how legitimacy is constructed and contested.

Lesson 4 • Coercion, Consent, and Hegemony

Integrates Gramscian hegemony with coercion-based accounts of state power. Students analyse how consent is manufactured through culture and institutions.

Lesson 1 • Elite Theory and Power Elites

Analyses Mosca, Pareto, and Mills on ruling minorities. Students evaluate evidence for elite cohesion and circulation in democratic societies.

Lesson 2 • Class Structure and Political Behaviour

Examines how economic class shapes voting, mobilisation, and policy preferences. Connects class position to political identity and collective action.

Lesson 3 • Poverty, Wealth, and Policy Outcomes

Traces how economic inequality shapes redistributive policy and political voice. Links wealth concentration to agenda-setting and lobbying power.

Lesson 4 • Intersectionality and Political Inequality

Integrates race, gender, and class as overlapping axes of political disadvantage. Demonstrates how intersecting identities shape access to power.

Lesson 1 • Nationalism and Political Identity

Examines nationalism as a culturally constructed form of collective identity. Links national identity to state legitimacy and inter-group conflict.

Lesson 2 • Defining Political Culture

Introduces Almond and Verba's civic culture framework and its critics. Establishes political culture as a patterned set of orientations toward politics.

Lesson 3 • Cultural Change and Political Transformation

Applies post-materialist value theory to explain shifting political priorities. Connects cultural change to new social movements and party realignment.

Lesson 4 • Agents of Political Socialisation

Identifies family, schools, media, and peers as primary socialisation agents. Explains how each transmits political values across the life course.

Lesson 1 • Forms of Political Participation

Maps conventional and unconventional participation from voting to protest. Establishes a typology that guides analysis throughout the chapter.

Lesson 2 • Contentious Politics and Repertoires

Applies Tilly's concept of repertoires of contention to explain tactical choices. Connects historical repertoires to contemporary forms of disruption.

Lesson 3 • Social Movements and Mobilisation

Integrates resource mobilisation, political opportunity, and framing theories. Students apply these frameworks to historical and contemporary movements.

Lesson 4 • Determinants of Participation

Identifies socioeconomic, psychological, and institutional factors driving engagement. Explains why participation is unequally distributed across social groups.

Lesson 1 • Typologies of Political Regimes

Classifies regimes along democratic and authoritarian dimensions using established criteria. Provides a comparative framework for subsequent analysis.

Lesson 2 • Social Conditions for Democracy

Examines modernisation theory, class coalitions, and civil society as democratic prerequisites. Evaluates competing explanations for democratic stability.

Lesson 3 • Democratic Transitions and Consolidation

Applies transitology frameworks to explain negotiated and rupture-based transitions. Distinguishes transition from consolidation and identifies consolidation risks.

Lesson 4 • Populism and Democratic Backsliding

Defines populism as a thin ideology and traces its relationship to democratic erosion. Students identify institutional and social mechanisms of backsliding.

Lesson 1 • New Social Movements and Civil Society

Distinguishes new social movements from traditional labour movements by identity and tactics. Analyses their relationship to civil society and institutional politics.

Lesson 2 • Party Organisation and Change

Traces the evolution from mass parties to cartel and electoral-professional parties. Explains how organisational change affects representation and accountability.

Lesson 3 • Interest Groups and Lobbying

Analyses how organised interests access and influence policy-making processes. Evaluates pluralist and corporatist models of interest intermediation.

Lesson 4 • Civil Society Theories and Functions

Contrasts liberal, republican, and critical theories of civil society. Establishes civil society's role in accountability, deliberation, and mobilisation.

Lesson 1 • Migration, Citizenship, and Political Belonging

Examines how migration challenges territorial models of citizenship and political membership. Analyses post-national and multicultural citizenship frameworks.

Lesson 2 • Globalisation and Political Sociology

Defines economic, cultural, and political dimensions of globalisation. Establishes how each dimension challenges state-centric political sociology.

Lesson 3 • The Future of the State and Democracy

Synthesises course themes to assess prospects for democratic governance in a globalised world. Students develop evidence-based arguments about political futures.

Lesson 4 • Transnational Social Movements

Analyses how movements operate across borders using transnational advocacy networks. Connects global framing to local mobilisation and policy change.