Political Sociology

Political Sociology: Readings in Research and Theory deals with the major theoretical, conceptual, and empirical issues in the field of political sociology. The readings explore a number of old and new concepts, issues, and developments both within and across political systems and societies. This anthology is based on articles published in the Journal of Political and Military Sociology. Political Sociology is organized around five major dimensions: conceptual and pedagogical perspectives, political participation, collective protest and radicalism, violence and coercion, and national and cross-national studies. In the first section the editors provide a concise, critical, and integrated overview of the field in both the teaching and research aspects of political sociology, especially dur-ing the last ten years. Part II explores some theoretical and empirical issues by offering models of the interrelationships between politics and society. Politi-cal participation within a stratification framework is examined in Part III, while some of the major issues and developments on collective protest and radicalism are discussed in Part IV. Violence and coercion are age-old problems of political and social systems. Part V attempts to evaluate and integrate the most important theories, types, and causes of violence. Part VI examines a number of pertinent concepts of political sociology in various countries. This includes discussions on the legitimacy of protest in the U.S. and Sweden, the impact of stratification on the German party infrastruc-ture, efficacy and support for the Mexican political system, a genera-tional model of the Soviet elite, and the role of the CIA in Chile.