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Contemporary political sociology involves, but is not limited to, the study of the relations between state and society.^[1] Where a typical research question in political sociology might have been: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?"^[2] or even, "What difference does it make if women get elected?" ^[3] political sociologists also now ask: "How is the body a site of power?",^[4] "How are emotions relevant to global poverty?" ^[5] or "What difference does knowledge make to democracy?" ^[6]

The opening up of political sociology does not mean that old topics have been discarded. Traditionally there were four main areas of research:

1. The socio-political formation of the modern state;
2. "Who rules"? How social inequality between groups (class, race, gender, etc.) influences politics;^[7]
3. How public personalities, social movements and trends outside of the formal institutions of political power affect formal politics;
4. Power relationships within and between social groups (e.g. families, workplaces, bureaucracy, media, etc.).^[8]

In other words, political sociology was traditionally concerned with how social trends, dynamics, and structures of domination affect formal political processes, as well as exploring how various social forces work together to change political policies.^[9] From this perspective we can identify three major theoretical frameworks: pluralism, elite or managerial theory, and class analysis (which overlaps with Marxist analysis).^[10] Pluralism sees politics primarily as a contest among competing interest groups. Elite or managerial theory is sometimes called a state-centered approach. It explains what the state does by looking at constraints from organizational structure, semi—autonomous state managers, and interests that arise from the state as a unique, power concentrating organization. A leading representative is Theda Skocpol. Social class theory analysis emphasizes the political power of capitalist elites.^[11] It can be split into two parts. One is the 'power structure' or 'instrumentalist' approach, another is the structuralist approach. The power structure approach focuses on 'Who Rules?' and its most well-known representative is G. William Domhoff. The structuralist approach emphasizes on the way a capitalist economy operates; only allowing and encouraging the state to do some things but not others (Nicos Poulantzas, Bob Jessop).

Contemporary political sociology takes these questions seriously, but it is concerned with the play of power and politics across societies, which includes- but is not restricted to- relations between the state and society. In part, this is a product of the growing complexity of social relations, the impact of social movement organising, and the relative weakening of the state as a result of globalization. In large part, however, it is due to the radical rethinking of social theory. This is as much focused now on micro questions (such as the formation of identity through social interaction, the politics of knowledge, and the effects of the contestation of meaning on structures), as it is on macro questions (such as how to capture and use state power). Chief influences here include cultural studies (Stuart Hall), post-structuralism (Michel Foucault, Judith Butler), pragmatism (Luc Boltanski), structuration theory (Anthony Giddens), and cultural sociology (Jeffrey C. Alexander).

References[link]

See also[link]

• Important publications in political sociology
• Political spectrum
• Political anthropology

Professor Claus Offe (born March 16, 1940 in Berlin)^[1] is a political sociologist of Marxist orientation. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt and his Habilitation at the University of Konstanz. In Germany, he has held chairs for Political Science and Political Sociology at the Universities of Bielefeld (1975–1989) and Bremen (1989–1995), as well as at the Humboldt-University of Berlin (1995–2005). He has worked as fellow and visiting professor at the Institutes for Advanced Study in Stanford, Princeton, and the Australian National University as well as Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley and the The New School University, New York. Once a student of Jürgen Habermas, the left-leaning German academic is counted among the second generation Frankfurt School. He currently teaches political psychology at a private university in Berlin, the Hertie School of Governance.

Part of a series on the
Frankfurt School
Major works
Reason and Revolution The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Eclipse of Reason The Fear of Freedom Dialectic of Enlightenment Minima Moralia Eros and Civilization One-Dimensional Man Negative Dialectics The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere The Theory of Communicative Action
Notable theorists
Max Horkheimer · Theodor Adorno Herbert Marcuse · Walter Benjamin Erich Fromm · Friedrich Pollock Leo Löwenthal · Jürgen Habermas
Important concepts
Critical Theory · Dialectic · Praxis Psychoanalysis · Antipositivism Popular culture · Culture industry Advanced capitalism · Privatism Non-Identity · Communicative Rationality Legitimation Crisis
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He has made substantive contributions to understanding the relationships between democracy and capitalism. His recent work has focused on economies and states in transition to democracy.

He has been married to Ulrike Poppe since 2001.

Fields of research[link]

This section requires expansion.

• Political sociology
• Social policy
• Democratic theory
• Transformation studies
• Dual allocation problem

Career movements[link]

• 2006 - Joint Professor of Theories of the State, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin (with Ulrich K. Preuss).
• 2005 — Retired in April.
• 1995-2005 — Professor of Political Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
• 1989-1995 — Teacher at University of Bremen and served as visiting professor at various academic institutions in US, Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Australia and Italy.
• 1973 — Habilitation from the University of Konstanz.
• 1968 — Received a doctorate from the University of Frankfurt.
• 1965 — Graduated from the Free University of Berlin.

Recent publications[link]

• 2005 — ”Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States”, Cambridge: University Press, ISBN 0-7456-3505-9.
• 1998 — ”Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies. Rebuilding the Ship at Sea.” (with Jon Elster and Ulrich K. Preuss), Cambridge: University Press, ISBN 0-521-47386-1
• 1996 — ”The Varieties of Transition: the East European and East German experience” (with Jeremy Gaines), Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-1608-9.
• 1996 — ”Modernity and The State: East and West.” (with Charles Turner and Jeremy Gaines), Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-1674-7.
• 1982 — with Volker Gransow. "Political Culture and the Politics of the Social Democratic Government". TELOS 53 (Fall 1982). New York: Telos Press

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Homepage of Claus Offe at the Hertie School of Governance

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Danielle S. Allen (born 1971)^[1] is an American classicist and political scientist, and UPS Foundation Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study.^[2][3]

She graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Classics in 1993, from Cambridge University with a Ph.D. in Classics in 1996, and from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Government in 2001. She taught at University of Chicago, and was Dean of the Division of Humanities from 2004 to 2007. She organized The Dewey Seminar: Education, Schools and the State, with Robert Reich.^[4] She currently serves as a trustee of Princeton University.

Awards and honors[link]

• 2001 Quantrell Award for Excellence ^[5]
• 2002 MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2009 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[1]

Works[link]

• "It's Up to Obama", Democracy Issue #16, Spring 2010
• The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens, 2000, (reprint Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-691-09489-2)
• Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown vs. the Board of Education, University of Chicago Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-226-01466-1
• Why Plato Wrote, John Wiley & Sons, Limited, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4443-3448-7

References[link]

External links[link]

• "An interview with Danielle S. Allen", University of Chicago Press
• "An Attack That Came Out of the Ether", The Washington Post, Matthew Mosk, June 28, 2008