Transcript Politics and Sociology

Politics and Sociology
The Definitions and its Methodology
Definitions
• Sociology - the study of human
behaviour within a society
• Politics - resolution of human
conflict, process of deciding and
allocating resources, functions of
government
• Political Sociology - links between
politics and society
… it studies the nexus of society and
politics, or the sociology of politics;
… it examines how society and various
social groups, defined by factors
such as social class, race, gender,
ethnicity, religion, occupation affect
politics, and vice versa
… study of power and power
structures at all levels
Relevancy???
• Understand the nature of society
(power) ….
• The decision making process and the
decision which affect us…..
• Moral and ethical concerns behind
... right for some people to dominate,
right for some people to suffer
because of …..
• What can we do…...
Traditional Approaches
• Historical - history is the root of
politics; politics is the fruit of history
• Legalistic - study of constitutions
and legal codes
• Institutional - legislature, executive
and judiciary
Contemporary Approaches
• Behavioural - behaviour of political
actors (empirical and value-free)
• Psychological - learning,
socialisation, personality, cognitive
dissonance …
• Systems - political structure and
process as systems, systems
interplay
• Communications - media,
information, perception, reception