Political Sociology PDF

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY Power resources -​ Strong social network What are the resources based on which we -​ Education could say -​ Leadership position that someone has power? What kind of power? -​...

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY Power resources -​ Strong social network What are the resources based on which we -​ Education could say -​ Leadership position that someone has power? What kind of power? -​ All of these are primarily social in nature, Please think of five possible social resources that would give a person some kind of power Is power always explicit/obvious? Why (not)? ntroduction. The concept of power ​ What actually is power then? How do political sociologists Ability to achieve desired ends despite define power? resistance from ○​. Basically being able to get what you want done. others (Weber 1978); Power vs. authority: ​ Weber introduced the distinction between power and authority. Authority is ○​ Authority; legitimate domination; it allows whoever has legitimate – as opposed to power, which is power to operate with the trust or consent of the people coercive whom they have the power over. Converts raw power (Weber 1978) into rightful authority. When you have the trust of the An “individual, group, or structural capacity to people, then you are set because people believe that achieve your power is legitimate. intended effects as a result of 1) force 2) ​ 3. Talks about power in terms of obligations. The capacity to influence or 3) make sure other people perform the things we put on them. authority” (Dobratz et al 2019: 35) Capacity to “secure the performance of legitimate and binding obligations” by others Talcott Parsons Introduction. The concept of power ​ 1. Similar to hegemony and gramsci and the concept of Capacity to manipulate and shape the views ideologies. and actions of other people Anthony Orum “All kinds of influence between persons or groups” where people may be induced to act in a certain way through rewards Peter Blau Ability to influence people’s actions and ideas (Olsen and Marger) (See also table 1.3, Dobratz et al 2019: 35) Power as capacity to act and to obey ​ Duty and obligation: Power is negative when we are forced to Politics as a “generalized process by which the do something because someone has placed an obligation on us struggle over ○​ The law. A legal system. If we dont obey there are power in the socety is resolved” (Braungart sanctions 1981:2 in ​ Provides for more agency and capacity for action: Positive Drobratz et al, 2019: 4) dimensions: they can be capacity for actions, agency, freedom Capacity for action agency, positive and from something, or freedom to something- to be whoever you negative want to be. freedom Capacity for duty/obligation inherent in the law (custom, traditions, mores, also dominant values and social norms sanctions for violators) Power and resources ​ Examples of different types or typologies that provide social Allocative and authoritative resources Anthony actors with power. Each division represents different aspects of Giddens power. Utilitarian r,, coercive r., normative/symbolic ​ 1. Giddens: allocative vs authoritative. Material resources (capital, land Marx vs. ○​ allocative - those you can give someone. Money, land, wealth, and other material things. influence, prestige (status) Weber (Piven and ○​ Authoritative- controlling people not material things. Cloward Resources that allow you to have authority over others. 2005 Control, common, instruct, and tell them what to do. ​ 2. Utilitarian- some means of power are more material; you do this and I'll give you this. Something for something ○​ Coercive; if you can force someone to d thighs through coercion and violence ○​ Normative; using non material things like ideas, ideologies, beliefs, or values to force someone to do something. Someone can have symbolic power because people respect them. ​ 3. In general, they can be either material or non material. Three “faces” of power 3. Shaping political agenda; often the power to decide what constitutes Three dimensions/”faces” of power (Lukes a problem or what doesn't is as important as any other type of power. 1974, after What issues are you able to bring to the platform? Heywood 2004) Influencing the decison-making process 4. Something that particularly skillful politicians are able to exploit. Shaping political agenda Influencing people’s thoughts by manipulating their “perceptions and preferences” (Ibid.) Power and governance Power is inextricably linked to governance and legitimacy Governance – “all the different ways in which people are encouraged to behave in certain ways (and not others)” (Moore 2017) Who has the right to govern? Why do/should people obey authority Legitimacy -​ Weber was interested in what the sources are that motivates us Legitimacy – a belief in the right to govern to act as social agents. Legitimacy is “the quality that transforms -​ There is no such thing as an abstract hand wave- we all know naked power into rightful authority” (Heywood what it means because we share the meaning and cultural 2004) context of it. Can be conferred by 1) Willing consent 2) Or can be manufactured (by propaganda, hegemony of the ruling class, ideological domination) (Heywood 2004) Weber on authority -​ Weber was interested in what the sources are that motivates us to act as social agents. 1.​ Traditional authority/Example: the -​ There is no such thing as an abstract hand wave- we all know monarchy what it means because we share the meaning and cultural ​ - Based on tradition, time-honoured context of it. customs, rooted in the past; see -​ Social action always has some sort of meaning behind it for mandate of medieval rulers as ‘chosen weber. ones’ of God -​ Weber typology of social action: -​ Rational, value-ration, etc -​ He liked to divide aspects of phenomena into types and he did the same with authority. Rational-legal authority/Example: -​ Authority is justification for why people obey and consider some representative (liberal) democracy sort of power legitimate and obey it. ​ - Based on law/rules and regulations -​ 3 main types of authority: they are conceptual constructs; just ​ - Bureaucratic authority models, they are ideal types. ​ - For example – current nation-states -​ Traditional, charismatic, rational-legal. Traditional -​ Any sort of power is deemed as legitimate because it's based on a long standing customer, history, or tradition. -​ Deemed to have been made sacred by the passage of time. -​ Medieval monarchies, or empires. -​ Traditional authority based on history, religion, or something rooted in the past. Rational-legal -​ Associated with the rise of the nation-state and bureaucracy, and capitalism. -​ This sort of authority is no longer based on person =, history, habit, or tradition. -​ It is based on written rules and the law, policies, procedures, guidebooks. -​ Example: our democracy. The power of the state comes down from rules that are not subject to one person's interpretation  because the rule of law ensures that the law is applied the same to everyone. -​ Impersonal, always valid regardless of who is in power. -​ Smaller scale: any bureaucratic organization is a rational legal authority; a university, school. Weber on authority Charismatic authority Charismatic authority/Example: authoritarian -​ Associated with the charisma of the leader or totalitarian rule -​ Large religious groups. ​ - Based on specific qualities/charisma -​ Typically seen in authoritarian and totalitarian state; a specific of the leader leader is able to assume power and they are able to convince ​ - Dictators the people either through charisma or force to obey them. ​ - But also religious leaders -​ Weakness; it often lasts only as the leader is alive or in power- ​ - Often lasts only for as long as the once they pass if they don't leave a strong enough legacy, the leader is in power whole thing disintegrates. -​ However if there is an institution or organization that Routinization of charisma persists after they die then their legacy can live on. ​ - Occurs when charismatic authority can be embodied in bureaucratic institutions and practices and thus can outlive the leader (Cf. Dobratz et al 2019: 7) POSTMODERN CONCEPTS OF POWER: The reason they are lumped together as postmodern is because they Michael foucault, giorgio agamben, and roberto are all subscribed to a specific view of society. esposito. Postmodernity- an intellectual cultural movement that questioned the existence of conventional traditional way of doing science and defining concepts, or looking at social structure ​ Up to the mid late 20th century, most scholars subscribed to the idea of structuralism; society composed of stable social structures that could be easily identified and defined; state, family, religion, communities. ○​ This view of the world made it seem like you could clearly define what everything means. ​ Then came postmodern scholars who wanted to challenge those definitions; definitions are not neutral, they are a social construct. ○​ They tried to question established definitions and patterned ways of thinking, doing science. ○​ Key aspect: fluidity of definitions. To question the existence of objective truth. The fact that objective truth doesn't exist because everything is a construct. ○​ Power can never be thought to be neutral, there is always someone who benefits, and often the people involved have no idea that power is revealing itself. ​ For example the power of experts; on the face of it it makes sense; experts should be given our trust. Foucault says we shouldn't. Discipline and punish Foucault: Discipline is “governance on a subtle and -​ discipline= a purposeful process by design. A rational process ubiquitous” scale to which society fashions like a docile body. (Moore 2014; Foucault 1977 – Discipline and -​ Social institutions exist to render us docile, passive, and unfree. punish. The birth of the prison) -​ Any major social institution (school, hospital) staffed by experts Discipline as the quest for the “docile body” who have power over others work like this. To render us into Power is couched and exists in language docile bodies. (discourse), normalized social practices and -​ For Foucault, it happens interceptively over time- happens in rules, and institutions the way society is organized because power is hidden from our view. -​ Power can be embedded in the rules but can also be expressed in the ways we talk and think about something, the systems of thought that we use to make sense of the world: discourse. Discipline and punish ​ The increasing interests of the agents of power in the human ​ “The classical age discovered the body. A renewed interest in everything about the human; body. body as an object and target of power As they became interested in the human body, they became on “anatomico-physical and interested in controlling it more. technopolitical registers”. (Foucault ​ Power has undergone one key transformation that makes it 1977) successful; transformation from power that was brutal, physical, ​ Gradual transition from centralized and administered centrally, to power that is more diffused and and cruel means of punishment to occurs in the background. decentralized exercise of power by ​ Experts are crucial in this entire process also because they social institutions (schools, the military, have all that power over us- and pass certain judgements over hospitals, asylums) us. This power is dangerous because they get to declare who is ​ The power of experts to establish and normal and who is deviant. This isn't objective or natural. declare what is “normal” and, by extension, what is “deviant Administration as discipline ​ All of this has to be understood within the context of the ​ The tendency to manage and control growing tendency to manage and control and discipline populations grew over time populations over time. ​ Foucault’s description of the plague ​ Foucault is trying to present us with two models of society: lockdown with all citizens registered and 1.​ A controlled society where everyone is controlled controlled, and the written and locked in. a city lockdown where the documentation supplied to the government has the power to control us and magistrates collect our information. ​ Two symbolic images/models of 2.​ The opposite of the plague model- the model of community: the leper the leper; the exclusion of lepers which was (exclusion) and b) the city in lockdown something that was often done in history and (inclusion/enclosure lived in leper towns outside of where regular ​ and perfect control) people lived. Discipline and dispositif Agamben: “Further expanding the already large class of -​ Italian philosopher who greatly expands on the devices that are Foucauldian apparatuses, I shall call an used to make us docile bodies. apparatus literally anything that has in some way the capacity to capture, orient, determine, intercept, model, control, or secure the gestures, behaviors, opinions, or discourses of living beings. Not only, therefore, prisons, madhouses, the panopticon, schools, confession, factories, disciplines, judicial measures, and so forth (whose connection with power is in a certain sense evident), but also the pen, writing, literature,philosophy, agriculture, cigarettes, navigation, computers, cellular telephones and— why not —language itself (...)” (Agamben 2009) The Cuban panopticon – Presidio Modelo Penopticon: prison -​ A philosophical made up device (never built anywhere) of Photos taken from amusingplanet.com; philosopher. Wikipedia.org; havanatimes.org and alamy.com -​ Came up with a prison in which the guards can see you all the time and you are not sure if theyre watching. -​ A threat of constant surveillance. Zoe and bios. Aristotle meets Agamben Agamben: Qualitatively different kinds of life according to -​ Borrows the distinction between zoe and bios; the two kinds of Aristotle life. 1. Zoe (natural, biological life with its -​ Introduces the category that he calls la nuda vita- based on zoe physiological functions) -​ Life that is stripped of all rights. Life of a person who has 2. Bios – qualified life, life as a member of the been reduced to an ultimate docile body He disagrees society, political life, the only life worth living with any sort of state power who tries to control our bodies. Giorgio Agamben and “bare life” -​ Our bare life becomes more and more controlled by the state. Giorgio Agamben and “bare life (la nuda vita in Italian) “Bare life” is a life stripped of all rights, most importantly, the right to life and liberty bare life can be killed with no consequences, becoming an ultimate “docile body” Covid-19 lockdowns as control of “bare life” The “state of exception” and Covid-19 restrictions Roberto Esposito and biopolitics ​ He also draws from foucault and agamben In contemporary Western societies, we have ​ Says that we have a situation where the government and state been experiencing the “biologization of politics have become more and more interested in control and our and the politicization of biology” (Campbell, bodies. Authorities are more and more interested in regulating cited in Esposito 2008) our bodies and its activities, something that Foucault called Authorities increasingly interested in the biophysics I THINK. human body and in controlling its activities biopolitics as a “regime for the expansion of life (both in positive and negative sense) Human body as a subject of political control Roberto Esposito and biopolitics -​ An intersection of three separate spheres of our life that all 1) Bios (Greek – “life) come together to control different elements of our life. 2) nomos (Greek - “law”) and -​ The three become a complex that contributes to the state 3) tecnica (Greek – technology) in constant controlling our bodies more and more. tension. -​ Bio-politics. Esposito uses the words Biocracy instead. Politics can either serve the proliferation of life -​ The government of the state takes as its main or become an instrument of death. occupation the control of the human body and its Biocracy – the fusing of absolute control of the functions. state-run -​ Example: the nazi. The rules pertaining to what kinds of administration (bureaucracy) and (negative) people and their bodies were deemed to be citizens, biopolitics. and reduced to bare life. tanathopolitics (Esposito 2008