This survey course studies the relationship between society and politics through an analysis of the intersection of economic development, social relations, and the political sphere. Examines how class, race, ethnicity, and gender interact with political culture, ideology, and the state. The course also looks at diverse forms of political behavior, a key aspect of politics.

Political Sociology: This course introduces students to theories and concepts of political sociology through utilizing them to make sense of major developments in our contemporary world. Part I of the course explores scholarship on the relationship between State and Economy. We begin with Marxist approaches that help us understand our current economic crisis by contextualizing it within a larger history of capitalist crises from the Great Depression to the Great Recession. We then proceed to examine two major state projects in the contemporary era of neoliberal capitalism: mass incarceration and mass deportation. In Part II, we shift our focus to scholars that forefront State Violence. We begin by utilizing Weberian approaches that emphasize the state’s monopoly of legitimate violence to examine the US’ “War on Terror,” followed by scholarship that historically traces the development of state power through war, borders and money. We conclude in Part III with Feminist Revisions of the approaches we studied in the first two parts of course, providing us with radically different perspectives on states, capitalism, violence, and particularly the current pandemic and crisis of social reproduction.

All Sociology upper division course seats are reserved for declared Sociology majors ONLY. In phase II (7/18/22), we will open up seating to accommodate most majors.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills