POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
Power
ability of individuals or groups to make their interests or concerns count, even against the will of others.
state
organization
culture
family
State
– history – is a dacoit or a state? Headless states, chiefs, chiefdoms and states.
Earliest – Mesopotamia.
Indus valley civilization.
e.g. bricks, citadel, planning.
Key features:
civil servants – revenue collection / legal system
social control machinery
Government (noun) – institutions.
Government (verb) – policies and their implementation by state.
Authority
– legitimate power.
e.g.s of legitimacy – misuse of government property. e.g. trains.
violence in Iraq
violence against buses
desire to leave country
compare – British policeman's not carrying a weapon.
Different models of state:
nation-state v/s pre-modern state.
Sovereignty – sharp demarkation of realm of institutions
Citizenship – active participation and awareness of identity
Nationalism – symbols / practices of identity.
Ashokan state – segmentary state v/s unitary state.
Mughal state – army
Emergence of modern state in western Europe, e.g. U.K.
Impact on rest of world.
India need not be the same as western Europe.
Iraq, East Timor.
Types of political systems
Monarchy (birth v/s other systems) – old, contemporary.
Authoritarianism (participatory v/s non-participatory (despotism))
Democracy – popular participation.
- participatory
- representative
Major tasks of government:
- people-centred wealth production and distribution
providing of amenities
sustaining morality
Authoritarian societies find these difficult to set up satisfactorily in a heterogeneous society.
Will dictatorship work? Legitimacy problem
Social groups and the state
Kanpur – why common analysis will not work. - politicians / people are responsible for all our problems.
Political economy of Kanpur, drawing from Erik Olin Wright.
Nature of state (forces acting on it)
Marxian view
Weberian view
State – autonomy
different focus on it.
Alternative models of the state
History of democracy
Athenian democracy
Despotism
Democracy
India:
Self ruling – ganas
Varying levels of control by military groups
kshatriya
a certain sub-group within them.
Buddhist sangha
3 times asked for dissent
Sometimes – consensus
majority vote
committee
Public assemblies – stronger in Buddist tradition.
Kautilya's Arthashastra: enemy of republics
Contrasting Values: equality, hierarchy
Segmentary state
Local control
State is referred to by local community for war, revenue collection, and only occasionally development
Referred to for resolution of larger disputes.
Return of democracy
Italy: 11-13 century
independent cities with merchants.
Venice, Florence, Genoa
Academy – patronized by aristocrats and princes. Growth of vernacular languages over Latin.
England
– Collapse of Roman empire
Emergence of feudalism
Church – domination. Emphasis on Latin, restrictions on reading of Bible.
Growth of King's powers – autocratic, nation-state.
Shift from land to money. Rise of individualism
Royal power came from land.
Rise of merchants and guilds.
Secularism, nationalism become important principles.
Rising power and cooption
1265 – start of parliaments.
Summoning of citizens / rich people by king. House of Commons.
1830s – property as the criterion for voting rights is reduced.
1867 – urban working class gets right to vote.
1872 – secret ballot is introduced.
1885 – rural working class gets right to vote.
1918 – women over 30 get right to vote.
1928 – women get same rights as men.
Oligarchy – control of powerful sections.
Impossibility of despotism, monarchism.
Alternative models:
How much does a democracy support human growth and freedom?
Rise and collapse of Soviet Union
India:
Maratha empire, segmentary structure.
Growth of sense of a nation. - language, communication.
Initial control of Congress by elites. Under Gandhi a turn to the people.
Major groups – industrialists, professionals, big landowners, middle / small farmers.
Congress as umbrella organization.
A new language of Indianness.
Fragmentation – 1960s.
linguistic
regional
jati identities
Fragmentation of present.
Monolithic v/s pluralist, multi-cultural nation.
IDENTITY AND POWER
Identities have enormous significance for people. Give a sense of strength, of brotherhood and a collective effervescence.
Changing contexts define identities in different ways.
Cultural boundaries
Social Boundaries
Polarization and power – political system, institutions.
Identities crystallize by threats, by advantages, by joy. Identity as a resource for politics.
Identity in a democracy: importance increases in political systems where the number of people behind you becomes important.
Different kinds of identities in different contexts:
family
gotra
jati
region
language
religion
nation
Nationalism and the national project
Ernest Gellner – need for very effective state in industrialized societies.
need for universalist institutions.
Schools, etc. create a homogenized society.
Importance of a mass society.
Discouragement of sub-identities under industrialization. e.g. factories.
Benedict Anderson – need not have industrialization. A sense of commonness is essential. - common media, language.
Multiple identities and a common state. Different approaches:
Jews and creation of Israel.
French speakers in Canada.
India:
Elite struggle and polarization of religious identity in India.
e.g. struggle for Pakistan. Problems in post-independence Pakistan.
Responses to multi-cultural societies:
Problem of political parties inculcating culture of violence and hatred.
Parties with single support-bases and parties with multiple support-bases.
Mass Movements
Power is diffuse, not restricted to the state.
Older mass movements – nationalist; class; parties;
Revolution – overthrow of existing political order by means of a mass movement, usually using violence.
Mass movements – collective attempts to secure a common goal or serve common interests.
New mass movements:
Environmentalist
Gender
Identity
Many challenges outside the institutional reach of the state. e.g. Khalistanis and women's dress.
Non-state institutions
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