Polity: Introduction Sociology YouTube Lecture Handouts

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Polity

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Political institutions are primarily concerned with division of power in the society. – T. B. Bottomore

Introduction

  • Sociological study of politics life
  • Role of social groups in political activities
  • To understand the mechanism of politics specially politics of power
  • Implication of power relations on various social organizations
  • To study political behaviour for example:
    • Leadership,
    • Political ideology,
    • Social movements to understand the collective behaviour
  • Some of the theories involved in sociology and polity
  • Power elite theory
  • Ideal type of bureaucracy
  • Marx՚s notion of communism and socialism

Sociological Relevance

To understand:

  • Consequences of power distribution
  • Political and social conflicts
  • Allocation of power
  • Struggle between different Nation and States
  • Participation of individuals in politics

Theories Related to Political Power

  • Consensus theory or structural functional approach to study political institutions
  • Based on cooperation and stability
  • Political institutions have values
  • Political system decides which value must be upheld or limited to maintain social order

Conflict Approach

  • It is the opposite of consensus theory
  • It considers conflict as central to political life
  • It believes that society is based upon peoples need for resources
  • Some groups get more than the others
  • The group with larger share has more power
  • The wealth and power by such groups control mass media, resources, political leaders and economic interests
  • In short this theory believes that political systems are run by elites to give shape to the values of society

Three Types of Political Systems

According to Edward Shills:

  • The totalitarian system -
    • State controls and regulates
    • Extreme form of authoritarianism government
    • Dictates the societies values, norms, rules, ideology
    • Centralized authority ruled by one political party or a powerful political ruling class or elite
  • The oligarchic system –
    • Oligarchic system ruled by a few self-regulating elite
    • Small group of elites hold power over large society
  • The Democratic system-
    • Accepted boundaries of norms and rules are set
    • Within which individuals can act
    • They have various rights
    • People govern themselves
    • It is an imagination of the replica of an equalitarian society

Functions of Political System

According to Almond and Coleman:

Input and output functions

  • To maintain integration of society by determining norms
  • To adapt to and change elements of socio-economic and religious systems
  • To achieve collective political goals
  • To protect the political system from outside threats

MCQs

Q.1. A political system usually performs some well – defined functions. The major functions of a political system may be categorized into two broad headings. They are

i. Function and dysfunction

ii. Structure and function

iii.Input and output function

iv. Political and economic function

Ans. (iii)

Q.1. A political system usually performs some well – defined functions. The major functions of a political system may be categorized into two broad headings. They are

i. Function and dysfunction

ii. Structure and function

iii.Input and output function

iv. Political and economic function

Ans. (iii)

#Sociological Concepts

#Social Institutions

#Polity

#UGC-NET

Chapters:

0: 00 Polity

0: 40 Introduction of Polity

2: 52 Sociological relevance

4: 18 Theories Related To Political Power

5: 00 Conflict Approach

6: 30 Three types of political systems

8: 10 Functions Of Political System

9: 30 MCQ about Polity

#sociologicalconcepts #socialinstitutions #polity #ugc-net #introductionofpolity #sociologicalrelevance #theoriesrelatedtopoliticalpower #conflictapproach #typesofpoliticalsystems #functionsofpoliticalsystem #mcqaboutpolity #testprep

Manishika