November 2013
QUESTIONS FOR COMPS IN POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, DAY ONE
ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS OF YOUR CHOICE.
1. Discuss the major paradigms in the study of social movements and the critiques of
these paradigms. When do social movements matter? Are there social and political
conditions that will make social movements more or less consequential and why? How
do you imagine the future in the study of social movements? Please note that this
question has several parts.
2. What are the major conceptions/theories of power in political sociology? And, in what
ways are they useful to explain the obedience of people?
3. Tilly has famously quipped that the public sphere is a morally admirable idea but one
that is empirically useless. Is he right? What role if any should the notion of the public
sphere and the related concept of civil society play in political sociology?
4. Some political sociologists focus on state legitimacy and others on state autonomy.
Which concept do you find most useful to understand the functioning of the state and
why? Please bring in empirical cases to illustrate your point.
5. How do various political theorists conceptualize culture? What role, if any, do they
think culture should play in the analysis of political phenomena, such as the exercise of
power, the nature and operation of the nation-state, the structure of civil society, or social
movement dynamics?
6. What are the major contributions of the following theorists (please choose three
theorists from the list provided below):
a. Barrington Moore
b. Charles Tilly
c. Michael Mann
d. Theda Skocpol
e. Jurgen Habermas
f.
Michel Foucault
g. Benedict Anderson