LFU:online

This course provides an overview of theories of the state, of democracy, and of power, in past and in contemporary scholarship. It treats the foundations of, and current debates in, normative and analytic political theory and in political sociology.

State, democracy, power – these are classical topics of political science, but also of political sociology. Sociology is particularly interested in the interactions between politics and society, whereby politics is understood as an (autonomous) subsystem of society and not merely as an appendage of the economy (as in Marxism). This lecture deals with political topics from the perspective of a general sociology. The aim is to apply concepts and concepts of general sociology to political phenomena and thus achieve a deeper understanding of social forms and social order. On the basis of topics such as power and domination, conflict or participation, a sociological basic question is negotiated: How is socialization possible in complex societies that are affected by individualization, high mobility, functional differentiation and increasing social inequality?

 Lectures and discussions

Written examination

Georg Simmel (1992): Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp (Orig. 1908)

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