States in the Social World

The Power Elite

• Composed of:
  • Corporate rich
  • Executive branch
  • Military leaders
  • Interest group leaders
  • Legislators
  • Local opinion leaders
  • Unorganized, exploited masses
  • Social upper class
• C. Wright Mills (1956) and G. William Domhoff (2006) are key theorists.

The Pluralist Model

• Many competing groups within the community access government.
  • No single group can dominate decision-making.
  • Increased opportunities for citizen participation.

Michael Mann

• Political Sociologist, Professor Emeritus at UCLA.
• Renowned for the series "The Sources of Social Power":
  1. Volume I: A History of Power to A.D. 1760
  2. Volume II: The Rise of Classes and Nation States, 1760-1914
  3. Volume III: Global Empires and Revolution, 1890-1945
  4. Volume IV: Globalizations, 1945-2011
• The series traces social power from prehistoric societies to globalization.

Main Arguments of Mann

• There is no total and unitary "society" around which power is organized.
• Social evolution theories are flawed; power does not evolve in a linear way.
• The State represents only one dimension of power.
• Four dimensions of power: Ideological, Economic, Military, and Political (IEMP).

The IEMP Model of Social Power

• Ideological Power:
  • Pertains to meanings, norms, and rituals.
• Economic Power:
  • Relates to the control of economic resources.
• Military Power:
  • Defined as the organization of concentrated and lethal violence.
• Political Power:
  • Concerns the state and its institutions.

Questions by Political Sociologists

• What are states?
• What types of states have there been in history?
• What regime types exist today?
• What creates transitions between different regime types?
• What makes states strong or weak?
• How do states operate in relation to each other?

Definition of the State

• A set of institutions designed to maintain order and protect its population from external threats.
• Nation-states aim to instill belonging and solidarity among citizens (John Campbell and John A. Hall).

Functions of the State

1. Preserving order (Hobbes).
2. Providing security against other states (Hobbes).
3. Providing a sense of belonging (Campbell and Hall).

Transition from Empires to Nation-States

• Empire: Dominated by a single center, direct/indirect rule, limited state power, focused on territorial conquest.
• Nation-State: Citizens share national solidarity; focuses on economic growth, cultural uniformity, and non-interventionist norms.

Features of Strong and Weak States

• Features by Campbell and Hall (2015):
  1. Capacity to extract resources (taxation) and maintain control (infrastructural power).
  2. Shared national sentiment among the population.

Despotic Power vs. Infrastructural Power

• Despotic Power: Ability of the state to act without institutionalized negotiation.
• Infrastructural Power: Capacity to penetrate civil society and implement political decisions.

Regime Types

o Monarchy: Headed by a royal family member.

• Constitutional Monarchy: Monarch acts according to the constitution.
• Oligarchy: A few individuals rule.
• Democracy: Government by the people.
  • Representative Democracy: Selected individuals represent the people.
  • Liberal Democracy: Protects civil, political, and economic liberties.
  • Social Democracy: Abundant civil liberties with limited economic liberties.
• Communism: State controls all social institutions, limited freedoms.
• Fascism: Limited political/civil liberties but economic freedom allowed.
• Dictatorships: One person has total power.
• Authoritarian Regimes: Lack of political pluralism.
• Theocracies: Religious justification for rule.
• Sultanistic Regimes: Based on personal power.
• Totalitarian Regimes: Extensive government control over society.

Barrington Moore's Social Origins

• The state’s classification as a democracy or dictatorship is path-dependent.
• Pathway to democracy typically involves a bourgeois revolution.

Pathways to Democratization

• Economic development, nationalism, legal culture, state bureaucracy are essential for democratization.

Despotic Transitions and Autocratic Persistence

• Democracies can perish through elected leaders, not only military coups (Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018).