Framework for a Political Sociology

Paul G. Thomas is a political science professor at the University of
Manitoba and the co-author of Canadian Public Administration:
Problematical Perspectives.

This book represents an impressive scholarly effort which draws upon a vast literature from several social science disciplines and synthesizes the materials in a creative and original manner. The main concepts are drawn from sociology and the author uses each chapter to clarify a series of concepts and to build an overall analytical framework. The discussion is theoretical, and at a fairly high level of abstraction. The first three chapters develop a series of interrelated concepts: control, interests, conditioning, culture, mobilization and ideology. The notion of collectivity is then introduced, followed by chapters on regulation (control on behalf of the collectivity) and classes whose interests permeate various forms of collective action. A further chapter relates the various concepts to one another and raises a series of theoretical propositions. A final chapter applies the framework to the case of feminism.

This is an ambitious book. It is not an easy read because it employs a great deal of the jargon which is popular in modern sociology. The audience for the book is clearly Professor Belanger’s academic colleagues who will find it a challenge to deal with his refinements of their intellectual landscape.