Abstract
Political Sociology 1, written by Ilo Trajkovski, as the title implies, is the first of two books on political sociology. It therefore introduces the reader to the basic terms, concepts and theories in political sociology. The book itself consists of two parts divided into nine chapters. The first part of the textbook, entitled ‘Political Sociology as Cognitive Discipline’, consists of four chapters, while the second part of the book is entitled ‘Basic Concepts of Political Sociology’ and comprises five chapters.
The first chapter, ‘Determining political sociology as a science’, is devoted to two very important topics. The first topic is a discussion of what political sociology is, an attempt to differentiate it as a scientific discipline from other cognitive disciplines that have as their subject matter politics, such as political practice, journalism and political philosophy. The book points out the different treatment of politics in journalism and political sociology, with reference to the evolution of the treatment of politics in journalism itself. This chapter also deals with the question of the relations between political sociology and political philosophy. Specific features of political sociology in relation to political philosophy are its empirical and methodological approach (p. 14). The second theme within this chapter is the place of political sociology in the science system. Here the author attempts to address the question: is political sociology a sub-discipline of sociology or of political science? It therefore gives us an overview of the determination of political sociology through both sociological and political science perspectives. This chapter concludes with defining political sociology in an interdisciplinary context.
The second chapter of the book is entitled ‘Political sociology and related sciences’. Here the author Trajkovski examines the relations of political sociology with political economy, political anthropology and political psychology. The relation of political sociology to political economy is perceived through the intertwining of the research subjects of these two scientific disciplines, namely political and economic systems such as democracy and market economy. As for the relations between political sociology and political anthropology, the author points to the difference in the subjects of these two scientific disciplines, the political organization of the traditional and modern societies. Here the author emphasizes the process of the evolution of society, and through the division of labour and the increasing complexity of society points to the separation and the institutionalization of political action in modern society. Concerning the relationship between political sociology and political psychology, the author points out that, despite the differences in the subject matter of the two scientific sub-disciplines, there is some degree of complementarity and that knowledge of political psychology can greatly help explain phenomena in political sociology.
The third chapter is entitled ‘The subject and development of political sociology’. Here the author advocates an interdisciplinary determination of the subject of political sociology, which he considers a hybrid scientific discipline (p. 53). In this chapter, serious attention is paid to the emergence and development of political sociology in terms of presenting the intellectual foundations and social assumptions that contributed to that process. According to the author, the creation of political sociology merged into three significant intellectual currents: the first was the strengthening of the positions of empirical sociology within general sociology, the second was the emergence of political science, and the third was behaviouralism. In addition, political sociology has also satisfied the need for comparative analysis of the political and social conditions in individual countries, which was felt especially after the Second World War.
The fourth chapter, ‘Theoretical and methodological determinations of political sociology’, concludes the first part of the book. This section deals with the meta-theoretical approach to political sociology, pointing out the most important theoretical and research traditions related to Marxist, elitist and pluralistic theories of politics. Each of these theories treats several key categories such as class, elite and interest groups, dealing with the issues of how political power is distributed in a society and who governs the central political organization, i.e. the state. This chapter concludes with a presentation of contemporary theoretical challenges to political sociology.
The second part of the book Political Sociology 1 begins with the fifth chapter – ‘Sociogenesis of the term politics: Political community, political state, political system’. There are two reasons why this part of the book would be probably the most read and cited. On the one hand, the conceptual analysis that prevails in this section of the book is one of the things the author does best. The second is that the basic notions of politics in most books are taken for granted and their sociogenesis is not considered, as Trajkovski does here. Otherwise, in this chapter the author etymologically and theoretically observes the terms politics, political community, state and political system. The most important of these is the determination of the term politics, which begins with the question of the origin of the word politic and then moves to a comparative analysis of the meaning of the word politic in individual languages. The next stage in Trajkovski’s conceptual analysis is the determination of the politic in separate theoretical concepts, identifying the differences between them and dealing with the sources of those differences.
The sixth chapter is entitled ‘Politics as social action and as a social process’. This chapter starts from a behavioural understanding of politics, to further focus on the political actor, political consciousness as a prerequisite for political action, analysis of the subject, goals, means, and the mode of political action. Generally speaking, the characteristic of the whole book is the great importance attached to behaviouralism in political sociology. It stems from the designation of politics as the specific social action of people as politicians and citizens (p. 153).
Chapter 7, entitled ‘Power, authority and governance’, identifies the place of the term power in the social sciences, the constitutive elements, theories and forms of power, the institutionalization and legitimization of political authority, the sources of legitimization, and governance as a management organization for a society. While giving his own overview of the determination of power, in analysing the subject the author is obviously influenced by Foucault and his understanding of power (p. 171). In identifying forms of power, the author points out that it can be: coercion, influence, manipulation, force, authority. The author follows the widely accepted view in political sociology that the key for transition of power to authority is the question of its institutionalization and legitimization, or its social acceptability. In this sense the author pays great attention to the sources and forms of legitimacy.
The eighth chapter, ‘State’, is divided into three themes: the definition of the term state, theories of state and the state-building process. The first topic begins with a presentation of the common sense of the state, and then proceeds with the etymology of the word state, ending with the definition of the state and its characteristics. The second theme presents the conflictualist, integrative and pluralist theory of the state. The third topic, besides discussing the ways of state bounding, covers the organization of state power and the functions of the state in modern society.
In the last, ninth chapter of this book, entitled ‘Nationalism, nation-state, nation’, readers are presented with two dominant theories of the nation: primordialist and constructivist. This chapter also highlights the social dimensions of nation-building through political modernization, the timing of the emergence and operation of national movements, the interplay of ethnic communities and the state in the formation of nations, and finally the relations between social classes and nationalism. The author concludes by examining the issue of nations, nationalism and the nation-state in the Republic of Macedonia.
The book Political Sociology 1 covers the most important topics of political sociology from its inception until today. The topics are covered in a systematic way, using relevant literature. The content of the book is well-composed and has a logical flow, ranging from basic to more complex concepts and themes. The good side of the book is that concrete examples are cited in order to explain the abstract categories discussed in it. The book uses a vocabulary that is easily understood by the audience it addresses.
Each author has a specific style. In sociology it is reflected in the techniques for researching and displaying the knowledge to readers. These are specifics in which authors differ from each other and are recognizable to the readership. In the case of Professor Trajkovski, such specifics are the conceptual analysis and the combination of a thorough theoretical discussion with the contextualization and localization of globally relevant topics, supplemented by precisely used empirical data. In this sense, this book does not deviate from Trajkovski’s recognizable style of research and writing. Each of the chapters begins with a conceptual analysis, then moves on to a theoretical discussion, illustrated by empirical insights and comparisons between individual local contexts.