Political Economy (Sociology)

Introduction
Arguably, political economy—the intersection of economics and politics—is the foundation of the modern social sciences and the focus of founding sociological theorists, most notably Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. Arguably, with his extended concern for the division of labor, even Emile Durkheim was profoundly concerned with political economy. Although this is not the case for economics and political science, the meaning of political economy has been fairly consistent in sociology. That is, the sociological examination of political economy has retained a focus on the intersection between the political and the economic. Theoretical emphases have shifted in the course of lively and extended debates over the state, markets, social class, culture, citizens, and globalization. Nevertheless, the central focus of political economy has persisted, as has its importance to sociological theory.
Issues of Definition
In one sense, the meaning of political economy is straightforward; it refers to the intersection of the political and the economic. Clark 1998 examines change and continuity in the meaning of the term. The classical contributors to economics routinely used the term, including David Ricardo and Adam Smith. Over the course of the 20th century, the meaning of the term has become muddied. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the social science disciplines became institutionalized (often by sharpening the contrast among them), the term political economy became less ubiquitous and it came to mean different things across social science disciplines. In economics, the consolidation of neoclassical theory resulted in a focus on the rational action of individuals and a sharp conceptual divide between the political and the economic. Whereas maverick economists such as Pareto 1971 and Schumpeter 2008 (originally published in 1950) did refer to political economy (with meaning similar to the classical theorists), the neoclassical framework conceived of public policy interfering with a “natural” and pre-existing economy. When the term was used, it referred to policy advice that economists offered to government officials based on an analysis of the economy. Although the path has meandered, the meaning of political economy in sociology is largely consistent with the classical heritage. Sociologists interested in these topics draw on classical theorists and use the term political economy to refer to this intersection. See also Smelser and Swedberg 2005.
Clark, Barry Stewart. 1998. Political economy: A comparative approach. 2d ed. Westport, CT: Praeger.
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With consideration of competing and complementary meanings and uses of the term, Clark provides an extended examination of the manner in which political economy has been defined and used. This examination considers both the origin of the term and changing meaning over time in both social science and historical disciplines.
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Pareto, Vilfredo. 1971. The manual of political economy. Edited by Ann S. Schwier and Alfred N. Page. Translated by Ann S. Schwier. New York: Kelley.
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Pareto expands on several of his notable economic theories, including his theory of equilibrium, by distinguishing between the stable and unstable sector. He also explicates what is known as the “Pareto Principle,” which uses econometric pyramids to account for economic stratification.
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Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. 2008. Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. New York: HarperCollins.
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Schumpeter considers the future of capitalism, socialism, and democracy. He predicts the collapse of capitalism, with socialism its likely replacement. This leaves Schumpeter pessimistic about the prospects for democracy because he believes it to derive from capitalism. Originally published in 1950.
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Smelser, Neil, and Richard Swedberg. 2005. Introducing economic sociology. In The handbook of economic sociology. 2d ed. Edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg, 3–25. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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In the course of defining economic sociology and discussing its revival, Smelser and Swedberg examine the divergence and convergence between economics and sociology. This overview includes a discussion of disciplinary institutionalization over time and history of prominent conceptual frameworks and research programs.
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Introductory Works
The works listed here are foundational in two senses. First, these works defined the sociological understanding of political economy. Second, these works are foundational to the discipline of sociology more generally. To clarify, the works included here are only a small subset of sociology’s founding works; they are important works that emphasized political economy. Writing in the middle decades of the 19th century, Karl Marx (Marx 2007 and Marx 1992) challenged the then-dominant understanding of political economy. Specifically, classical economists (e.g., Adam Smith and David Ricardo) envisioned a largely cooperative political economy. In concert with Marx and Engels, Max Weber questions the “naturalness” of markets and methodological individualism. Weber’s examination (in Weber 1978) of political economy focused on the transition to capitalism in Europe and emphasized a process of rationalization across the state and social institutions. Weber’s approach (in Weber 1988) is also distinctive for the emphasis placed on cultural dynamics, especially religion, in the transition to capitalism and to the process of rationalization more generally. Even more so than Weber’s work, Pareto 1971 (cited under Issues of Definition), written by a trained engineer, can be seen as a direct rejection of Marx as he sought to incorporate mechanical-like laws to explain how society comes to maintain a state of equilibrium. While widely respected, neither Alexis de Tocqueville nor Karl Polanyi is considered a founding theorist for the discipline of sociology. However, both authored influential works that have influenced generations of sociologists concerned with political economy. Writing in the first half of the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville preceded Marx and Weber and dealt directly with classical political economy. Tocqueville 1990 provides a sweeping examination of democracy in the United States, offering insights into a broad range of sociological phenomena. Swedberg 2006 reinterprets Tocqueville’s work, highlighting the intersection between the political and the economic. Living and working in the mid-20th century, Karl Polanyi (Polanyi 2001, originally published in 1957) was informed by and responded to Marxist and Weberian analyses of political economy.
Marx, Karl. 1992. Capital. Vol. 1, A critique of political economy. Edited by Ernest Mandel. Translated by Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin.
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In an analysis of England’s capitalist society, Marx crystallizes many key concepts, such as commodity fetishism, to explain the effects of the commodification and exploitation of labor by the capitalist class. Marx predicts the overthrow of capitalism to be brought on by an exploited proletariat.
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Marx, Karl. 2007. A contribution to the critique of political economy. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger.
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Written in 1859, Marx provides an extended criticism of classical economics by criticizing the definition and use of the term political economy. This work provides one of the earliest expositions of the Marxist approach to analysis, including exploitation, social class, and class struggle. Originally published in 1970. Text available online.
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Polanyi, Karl. 2001. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon.
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Polanyi provides a historical critique of the liberal philosophy that markets are self-regulating and free from the constraints of institutional structures. Protectionist action has always been an unhesitant response to market failure. He claims the current era of laissez-faire capitalism is an intentional economy in which genuine commodities are subordinated by fictitious ones. Originally published in 1957.
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Swedberg, Richard. 2006. Tocqueville as economic sociologist? Tocqueville Review 27.1: 131–167.
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Swedberg makes the case for Tocqueville’s potential to contribute to modern theorizing in economic sociology and research. Tocqueville was interested in economic life and the impact of political regimes on class relations and economic activity (and vice versa), rather than making narrow contrasts between democratic and aristocratic societies.
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Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1990. Democracy in America. 2 vols. Translated by Henry Reeve. New York: Vintage.
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Tocqueville presents a sweeping contrast between aristocratic and democratic societies. His overarching concern was to examine the implications and texture of democratic society. The relationship between the polity and economy are important, including the concentration of wealth, social mobility, and economic efficiency.
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Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. 2 vols. Edited by G. Roth and C. Wittich. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Economy and Society contains many quintessential parts to Weberian sociology. It includes Weber’s ideal types of historical authority with a particular focus on the forms of legitimation of domination. He provides context for the rational-legal form of bureaucratic domination that sprung from instrumental capitalistic societies.
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Weber, Max. 1988. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Gloucester, MA: Smith.
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Weber’s seminal work seeks to explain why Western societies adapted a materialistic form of capitalism. Weber turns his focus to the cultural roots of Western society and the roles Protestantism, in general, and Calvinism, in particular, had in developing an ascetic lifestyle amenable toward capitalistic enterprise.
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The State
In the sociological approach to political economy, the state has been the focal point of extended debate, within and among theoretical schools. The state is the pivotal institution that establishes the parameters of governance, including economic governance. The sociological approach draws attention to the social and political institutions in which economic institutions are embedded and that mold political and economic action. At the same time, the state is embedded in and extracts resources from the society over which it claims dominion. Neither Marx nor Engels authored a sustained theoretical examination of the state. Owing to its specific historical focus, Marx 2006 makes the case that the state has a specific class character, and for this reason must be destroyed and rebuilt for revolutionary transition. Gramsci 1971 provides a valuable extension to Marxist thinking, including serious consideration of democracy and the prolonged struggle for hegemony. Max Weber analyzed the state from a number of angles in a variety of works, including Economy and Society (Weber 1978, cited under Introductory Works). Weber 1981 harnesses these insights to explain the emergence of capitalism in Europe. During the 1950s and 1960s, with functionalism the dominant paradigm, the political economy of the state received little attention in sociological literature. With the revival of critical readings of Marx and Weber, the state received renewed attention. By documenting the consequences of bourgeois revolutions for democracy and dictatorship in the 20th century, Moore 1993 (originally published in 1966) demonstrated the salience of Marxist views of the state and politics. Anderson’s sweeping work (in Anderson 1974) defends a Marxist view of the state. Highlighting Weberian themes, Tilly 1975 provides a wide-ranging collection of essays that examine the rise and consolidation of the state in Europe. Drawing on the Frankfurt School, Habermas 1975 makes the case that legitimation crises are inevitable because the state faces contradictory demands (and these contradictory demands are destined to grow over time).
Anderson, Perry. 1974. Lineages of the absolutist state. London: New Left Books.
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Anderson provides a comparative historical analysis of why industrial development differed in absolutist states in the West to the exceptional case of Italy and absolutist states of the East. His point of distinction centers on lineages of class dynamics and the formation of a bourgeoisie class and bourgeoisie revolution.
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Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the prison notebooks. Edited by Q. Hoare and G. Nowell-Smith. New York: International Publishers.
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In a collection of notes written during his incarceration in fascist Italy, Gramsci advances the notion of hegemony to explain bourgeoisie domination of working classes. Hegemonic domination occurs as individuals become absorbed into the traditional political parties and cultural institutions of civil society. The potential of organic intellectuals to challenge these traditions is discussed.
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Habermas, Jürgen. 1975. Legitimation crisis. Translated by T. McCarthy. Boston: Beacon.
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Habermas looks at how normative structures have evolved from early liberal capitalism to modern capitalism, resulting in increasingly unmanageable legitimation crises. He claims that as the state legitimacy is undermined as a result.
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Marx, Karl. 2006. The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
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Originally published in 1852, this examination of mid-19th-century France brings Marx’s view of politics to the forefront. In particular, Marx emphasizes the class character of ruling regimes, of those contending for power, and of the state. As such, he argues that revolutionary transitions require the destruction and remaking of the state. Text available online.
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Moore, Barrington. 1993. Social origins of dictatorship and democracy: Lord and peasant in the making of the modern world. Boston: Beacon.
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Moore’s historical comparative work identifies which factors led nations to become either democracies or dictatorships around the time of World War II. While presenting a multifaceted explanation, Moore emphasizes the pivotal importance of deposing the landed aristocracy for democracy to emerge. Originally published in 1966.
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Tilly, Charles, ed. 1975. The formation of national states in Western Europe. Studies in Political Development 8. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Essays included in this volume examine fiscal, administrative, geopolitical, and military developments that contributed to the rise and consolidation of the state in Europe. While the rise of the states was intertwined with the rise of capitalism, contributors place emphasis on the state’s distinctive administrative and institutional development.
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Weber, Max. 1981. General economic history. Social Science Classics. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
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Originally published in 1927, Weber provides a multicausal account of the rise and consolidation of capitalism. Universal citizenship and a professionalized bureaucratic state that enforces laws are among the important factors that supported and molded the consolidation of capitalism in Europe.
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The State Debate
With Marxist and Weberian views dominating the debate, the state received sustained attention beginning in the late 1960s. Several important contributions focused attention on the economic, political, and to a lesser extent, military elites who commanded the state. Mills 2000 (originally published in 1956) draws on a Weberian framework. Domhoff 2010 (originally published in 1967) examines the dominance of economic elites in the United States. Lachmann 2000 draws broadly on Marxist and Weberian traditions to examine the emergence of capitalism in Europe; he examines elites and social classes and their interactions. For the most part, Marxists did not assert that the capitalist class directly controls the state. Instead, Block 1977, O’Connor 1973, and Poulantzas 1973 focused on structural mechanisms that ensured that capitalism ultimately determined the structures and the policies pursued by the state. Contributors to this debate who drew on the Weberian legacy rejected claims that members of the dominant class directly controlled the state; they also rejected claims that structural mechanisms ensured economic determinism in the last instance. Evans, et al. 1985 assembled an influential collection of essays that made a case for focusing on the state and for avoiding reductionist analyses when doing so. In his sweeping history of social power, Mann 1986 highlighted the state’s direct influence in networks of political and military power and its prominence in networks of economic and ideological power.
Block, Fred. 1977. The ruling class does not rule: Notes on the Marxist theory of the state. Socialist Revolution 33:6–28.
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Block provides a structuralism critique of Marxist instrumentalism and the notion that there is a conscientious ruling class. Instead, he argues that capitalism prevails as the result of state managers who follow a capitalist logic to effectively retain their ruling status.
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Domhoff, G. William. 2010. Who rules America? Challenges to corporate and class dominance. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
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Domhoff takes cues from the works of earlier elite theorists Hunter and Mills to advance a theory of class domination in America. He focuses on a select group of individuals from the upper class that are interconnected, wealthy, and carry significant political clout from these connections and resources. Originally published in 1967.
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Evans, Peter, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, eds. 1985. Bringing the state back in. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511628283Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This edited volume features several works that argue for and employ a state-centered approach. Topics covered include the role of the state in social distribution and economic development, war and international relations, and the shaping of social and class conflict.
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Lachmann, Richard. 2000. Capitalists in spite of themselves: Elite conflict and economic transitions in early modern Europe. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Lachmann describes how the emergence of capitalism was neither inevitable nor uniform, but rather contingent on the development of various polities and economies. He places emphasis on conflict among feudal elites—landlords, clerics, kings, and officeholders—to determine whether feudalism would perpetuate or capitalist transformations would occur.
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Mann, Michael. 1986. The sources of social power. Vol. 1, A history of power from the beginning to A.D. 1760. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Mann examines a historical account of power from Neolithic times through medieval Europe. He asserts that societies have been constituted by overlapping and intersecting sociospatial networks of power. These structures derive from interrelations of ideological, economical, military, and political power.
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Mills, C. Wright. 2000. The power elite. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Mills champions a Weberian notion of power in explaining how certain elites are able to transcend and dominate ordinary lives though their positions in different institutional hierarchies. He identifies and links together the economic order, the political order, and the military order as three powerful modern institutions. Originally published in 1956.
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O’Connor, James. 1973. The fiscal crisis of the state. New York: St. Martin’s.
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O’Connor explains how the sum of demands placed on the state creates a fiscal burden. Specifically, the monopoly sector’s demand for provisions to ensure profitability and the completive sector’s demands for low taxes and low wages strain the fiscal capacity of the state.
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Poulantzas, Nicos. 1973. Political power and social classes. London: New Left Books.
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Rejecting instrumentalist explanation, Poulantzas contends that the state is able to sustain capitalistic order by mediating between the conflicting economic interests of different social classes. This may call for concessions on the part of the ruling class, but they retain their dominance.
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War, Militarism, and Geopolitics
The state asserts a monopoly over the legitimate means of violence, and it claims dominion over society within the territory it controls. At the same time, the state exists in a geopolitical context, one in which military competition and war determine which states survive and which perish. Hooks and Rice 2005 provides an overview of sociological accounts that weave together a concern for the domestic and the geopolitical. In so doing, this literature induced a reconceptualization of important issues. In forceful fashion, Tilly 1990 and Mann 1988 make the case that the state was built on a foundation of war making, with the state administrative reach and extractive capacities closely tied to military efforts. The sociological understanding of revolution was transformed on the basis of these insights. Instead of attempting to understand social revolution in terms of domestic strife, both Skocpol 1979 and Goldstone 1991 emphasize fiscal strain induced by war and geopolitical demands. While a great deal of sociological research into states and war making focused on the rise of states in early modern Europe, this framework has been applied to contemporary issues as well. Hooks 1990 argues that the rise of the Pentagon during and after World War II can be best understood as an episode in state building. Collins 1995 capitalized on sociological insights into the state to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union and to consider 20th-century politics more generally. Centeno 1997 contributes to this literature by offering a reminder that the European experience may not apply to other regions of the world. For this reason, studies of state making and war making must be concerned with the theory’s scope conditions and with the historical and political context.
Centeno, Miguel. 1997. Blood and debt: War and taxation in nineteenth‐century Latin America. American Journal of Sociology 102.6: 1565–1605.
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Based on empirical and historical research into Latin American states, Centeno challenges Tilly’s assertion that wars make states. Whereas, war making is linked to the rise and consolidation of states in early modern Europe, this does not appear to be the case in Latin America. Owing to widespread challenges to political authority in Latin America, wars did not contribute to institutional development and consolidation.
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Collins, Randall. 1995. Prediction in macrosociology: The case of the Soviet collapse. American Journal of Sociology 100.6: 1552–1593.
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As one of the few social scientists to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union, Collins promotes a sociological approach to political economy that considers both geopolitical and the domestic political processes. He employs these theories of states to uncover their strategic liability in the later 20th century.
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Goldstone, Jack. 1991. Revolution and rebellion in the early modern world. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Building on the well-established relationship between war and state making, Goldstone incorporates a concern with demographic and other domestic pressures. Thus, Goldstone’s explanation of state breakdown couples a concern with the geopolitical and the traditional (domestic) issues of concern to social scientists.
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Hooks, Gregory. 1990. The rise of the Pentagon and U.S. state building: The defense program as industrial policy. American Journal of Sociology 96.2: 358–404.
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With a focus on the United States, Hooks examines how war and the pursuit of geopolitical objectives continue to influence state building in the 20th century. In particular, he discusses how the United States pursued a distinctive agenda relative to powerful economic actors during World War II and the Cold War eras.
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Hooks, Gregory, and James Rice. 2005. War, militarism, and states: The insights and blind spots of political sociology. In The handbook of political sociology: States, civil societies, and globalization. Edited by T. Janoski, A. Hicks, R. Alford, and M. Schwartz, 566–586. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Hooks and Rice provide an overview of the resurgence of sociological research into war and war making that has led scholars to reassess core concepts of political economy. In spite of this headway, the authors believe there are blind spots in which the impact of war and war making warrants more consideration.
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Mann, Michael. 1988. States, war, and capitalism: Studies in political sociology. New York: Basil Blackwell.
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Mann challenges approaches to political economy that overlook war and war making. He notes contemporary nation-states contain both military and political networks within them.
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Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and social revolutions: A comparative analysis of France, Russia, and China. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Skocpol’s innovative investigation of the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions examines the geopolitical and domestic pressures on states—and their interplay. In each instance, a spectacular geopolitical failure set in motion a decisive set of challenges to states whose level of vulnerability depended on their extractive capacities and class structure.
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Tilly, Charles. 1990. Coercion, capital, and European states, A.D. 990–1990. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
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Tilly offers a bellicist account of European state formation. As states that used commercial activity to finance militarization fared best, a model of capital-coercion was converged on by the more powerful states.
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Welfare State
As Hicks and Esping-Andersen 2005 points out, the discipline of sociology and the welfare state emerged and became institutionalized at the same time and in the same nation-states. Understanding the welfare state has been a prominent concern among sociologists, especially those focused on political economy. Sociological accounts, such as Esping-Andersen 1990, emphasize the manner and degree to which the welfare state decommodifies labor power, and for this reason, may contribute to a profound transformation of capitalism. Political power and the balance of class power loom large in prominent research traditions, as discussed in Huber and Stephens 2001 and Korpi 1989, respectively. Even as Michael Mann emphasized the state’s monopoly of violence and the centrality of coercion (Mann 1988, cited under War, Militarism, and Geopolitics), Mann 1993 also examined the growing intensity of the state’s governance, including the institutionalization of far-reaching welfare state provisions. In one sense, the welfare state is focused on “citizens”—a term that appears to be neutral with regard to race, ethnicity, and gender. But welfare states are decidedly not neutral. Instead, welfare states were gendered when they were founded, as Skocpol 1992 relates, and they continued to be gendered conceptions in the way their protection, or lack thereof, shield citizens and families from market forces, which O’Connor, et al. 1999 discusses. Race and ethnicity are also implicated in welfare states. In fact, as Quadagno 1994 discusses, racial politics have been pernicious.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Esping-Andersen clusters welfare states into three regimes: liberal, conservative, and social democratic. He contrasts these regimes according to their orientation toward the market and the family. Liberal regimes emphasize market solutions. Conservative regimes aim to preserve status and the family. Social democratic regimes emphasize universalism and decommodification.
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Hicks, Alexander, and Gøsta Esping-Andersen. 2005. Comparative and historical studies of public policy and the welfare state. In The handbook of political sociology: States, civil societies, and globalization. Edited by T. Janoski, A. Hicks, R. Alford, and M. Schwartz, 509–525. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Hicks and Esping-Andersen examine contributions historical comparative researchers have made to understanding welfare states. In particular, they survey different causal logics behind welfare state development. The authors find arguments to be convincing that working class movements have been critical players in shaping welfare states.
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Huber, Evelyne, and John D. Stephens. 2001. Development and crisis of the welfare state: Parties and policies in global markets. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Huber and Stephens examine welfare state growth and entrenchment in nine industrialized nations from post-World War II through the 1990s. They argue that partisan politics ultimately determine both income and gender equality in welfare states and that neoliberalism is relevant only to the extent it resides within parties.
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Korpi, Walter. 1989. Power, politics, and state autonomy in the development of social citizenship: Social rights during sickness in eighteen OECD countries since 1930. American Sociological Review 54.3: 309–328.
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Korpi employs data from eighteen Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to test several theoretical explanations of the development of welfare states and social rights. Consistent with the power resources approach, Korpi finds that the ability of labor unions and left of center parties to wield power results in social welfare policies that buffer workers from market forces.
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Mann, Michael. 1993. The sources of social power. Vol. 2, The rise of classes and nation states, 1760–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Mann claims that economic power (industrial capitalism) and military power intertwined to serve as the primary bases for social power. The role of military power was significant in state formation. State roles shifted from “game wardens” to “gardeners” that brought about social welfare and educational systems.
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O’Connor, Julia, Ann Shola Orloff, and Sheila Shaver. 1999. States, markets, families: Gender, liberalism and social policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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O’Connor, et al. compare the liberal-market welfare regimes of the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Their interest lies in how welfare policies are gendered in how they address labor markets, social provisions, and reproduction. Whereas the welfare state literature often emphasizes a contrast between social democratic and liberal nations, this book is unique for offering a detailed and nuanced comparison among liberal democracies.
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Quadagno, Jill. 1994. The color of welfare: How racism undermined the war on poverty. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Quadagno explains how welfare reform in the United States has been a historical source of social conflict. Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” was an attempt to reconcile that conflict. However, she claims issues of race were injected into the debate that alienated working and middle class whites to welfare reforms.
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Skocpol, Theda. 1992. Protecting soldiers and mothers: The political origins of social policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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Skocpol looks at the maternalist nature of Civil War pensions and entitlements. She asserts these policies were institutional precedents of the American welfare state prior to the Social Security Act. They show that women’s political clout came through their roles as spouses and mothers.
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The Cultural Turn
Across the social sciences, including sociology, rationalist and materialist approaches to social theory were challenged—beginning in the 1970s and gaining momentum in succeeding decades. Political economy had implied a materialist and rationalist approach to the social sciences. For this reason, the “cultural turn” was impactful in both theoretical and empirical studies of political economy. Foucault 1977 examines prisons (an institution built and managed by the state) in some detail, but he does not offer a theory of the state per se. Foucault is, nonetheless, an important contributor to the political economy of the state. He is important because he decenters the materiality of states and social classes, placing greater emphasis on knowledge (and contention over truth) and political discourse. In a research program marked by its breadth and influence, Bourdieu challenged rationalist and materialist interpretations of Marx and Weber. He established the importance of mental structures and their relationship to external constraints and processes. The power to name and to define is profoundly important. As Bourdieu 1989 explains, the state not only wields this power, but this power is also routinized and taken for granted by social actors. Scholars working from the world society perspective, e.g., Meyer, et al. 1997, criticize overly rationalist and materialist interpretation of Marx and Weber. World society scholars argue that such interpretations result in an overemphasis on states and rulers as strategic actor. Instead, social actors conform to the expectations of world society in a scripted fashion. Building on and reacting to these critiques, scholars are addressing topics that were pushed aside in materialist conceptions of the state (e.g., Gorski’s study of religion in Gorski 2003). Fruitful engagement with novel methodological approaches and disciplines are the hallmark of efforts to weave a concern for both the material and symbolic aspects of the state. Notable examples include Roger V. Gould’s mobilization of network analyses (in Gould 1995) and William Sewell Jr.’s synthesis of sociology, history, and anthropology (in Sewell 2005). The breadth of critiques and efforts to move forward are reflected in the edited volumes compiled in Adams, et al. 2005 and Steinmetz 1999.
Adams, Julia, Elisabeth Clemens, and Ann Shola Orloff, eds. 2005. Remaking modernity: Politics, history, and sociology. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
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This volume identifies a third wave of historical comparative sociology. The editors note works of the third wave are diverse. They attempt to theorize on themes of agency, gender, race, nation, and culture rather than just structural elements.
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Bourdieu, Pierre. 1989. Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory 7.1: 14–25.
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Bourdieu describes his theory to be one of structuralist constructivism as it focuses on the ability of symbolic systems to constrain behavior and shape the everyday habitus of individuals. States wield legitimate symbolic violence over fields of classification (i.e., class struggle) and common sense understanding over a given area.
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Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Penguin.
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Foucault argues that the rise of prisons has been a cultural, rather than material, phenomenon. Modern prisons are reflective of the modern techniques of discipline and control that have evolved from torture. Prisons are part of a more comprehensive domination that is present in a larger network of societal institutions.
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Gorski, Philip. 2003. The disciplinary revolution: Calvinism and the rise of the state in early modern Europe. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226304861.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Gorski claims that Calvinism instilled a culture of discipline that was vital to state formation in early modern Europe. This culture of discipline facilitated the ability of states to extract fiscal resources from their populations that allowed them to build infrastructure and military strength.
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Gould, Roger V. 1995. Insurgent identities: Class, community, and protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Gould contrasts the June 1848 revolt in Paris to the Paris Commune to demonstrate social uprisings are not necessarily class based. He offers network data that connect participants to class affiliations in the June revolt and urban residents in the Commune.
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Meyer, John W., John Boli, George M. Thomas, and Francisco O. Ramirez. 1997. World society and the nation-state. American Journal of Sociology 103.1: 144–181.
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Meyer, et al. refute macrorealist claims of the state being a product of worldwide systems of economic and political power. They offer a counter explanation of how the state is a worldwide institution constructed by world culture. As such, it seeks to follow a global model of rational actorhood.
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Sewell, William, Jr. 2005. Logics of history: Social theory and social transformation. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226749198.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In a set of essays, Sewell makes an argument for improved social understandings that involve temporal, structural, and cultural insights of societies. He believes such understandings would be possible if historians understood the structure of social science theories and if social scientists would apply temporality to their theories.
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Steinmetz, George, ed. 1999. State/culture: State-formation after the cultural turn. Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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Steinmetz’s volume contains a diverse selection of works that examines state formation using insights from the cultural turn. The volume includes essays that look at state/culture theoretical approaches, formation of early modern European states, the transition to modernity by non-European states, and the modern Western state and post-Soviet periphery.
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The Political Economy of Markets and Social Class
In the latter decades of the 20th century, the interplay between sociology and economics was revived and redefined. This was propelled by the dynamism of rational choice theory, extending methodological individualism and utilitarian thought across the social sciences (see, e.g., Kiser and Hechter 1998). More striking was the extension of sociological concerns to consider the core institution of economics: the market. In a critical examination of Polanyi’s classic statement (see Introductory Works), Block 2003 examines the origins of Polanyi’s concern for embedded markets and fictitious commodities; he also identifies logical tensions in Polanyi’s theoretical framework. As Block explains, when examined through Polanyi’s framework, it is clear that markets are socially constructed, historically contingent, and inevitably politicized. The essays assembled in Smelser and Swedberg 2005 provide an overview of the breadth, richness, and vitality of current research into the social context of markets. Lareau and Conley 2008 assembles contributions by a number of prominent contributors. Wright 1997 reviews, updates, and defends a Marxist approach. Grusky and Sørensen 1998 reviews recent debates and evidence to assess the salience of class analysis.
Block, Fred. 2003. Karl Polanyi and the writing of The Great Transformation. Theory and Society 32.3: 275–306.
DOI: 10.1023/A:1024420102334Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Highlights the importance and the uniqueness of Polanyi’s conception of embeddedness. Both neoclassical economics and Marxism assume that the economy is analytically autonomous and operates according to a distinct logic. By insisting that market economies were embedded in a broader political and social context, Polanyi challenges this assumption. Block not only documents the importance of Polanyi’s contribution, but he also explores the logical inconsistencies and theoretical underdevelopment in Polanyi’s work.
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Grusky, David, and Jesper Sørensen. 1998. Can class analysis be salvaged? American Journal of Sociology 103.5: 1187–1234.
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Grusky and Sørensen review challenges to class analysis that call into question the centrality of social class in the identity and life chances of social actors. They acknowledge that sweeping assertions about the centrality of social class cannot be sustained. Nonetheless, social class remains important, especially when focused on fine-grained occupations (as opposed to broad class categories).
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Kiser, Edgar, and Michael Hechter. 1998. The debate on historical sociology: Rational choice theory and its critics. American Journal of Sociology 104.3: 785–816.
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Kiser and Hechter review theorizing about political economy and find it deficient, as it lacks in unity and explanatory power. Too often, theorizing is piecemeal and driven by specific concerns and issues. They advocate for a general theory built on the foundations of rational choice theory.
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Lareau, Annette, and Dalton Conley, eds. 2008. Social class: How does it work? New York: Russell Sage.
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Lareau and Conley have assembled essays from prominent social scientists who have theorized and conducted research into social class. This collection is valuable for the breadth of theoretical approaches considered. The essays included in this collection skillfully synthesize and provide an overview of the extant research as well as summarizing contemporary challenges.
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Smelser, Neil, and Richard Swedberg, eds. 2005. The handbook of economic sociology. 2d ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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This collection of essays provides an overview of the rejuvenated economic sociology. The ongoing dialogue and debate with economics is generating novel research into the historical context in which markets emerge. Moreover, this research sparks reconsideration of the founding works of sociology, especially those centered on economic structures and actors.
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Wright, Erik. 1997. Class counts: Comparative studies in class analysis. Studies in Marxism and Social Theory. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Wright focuses on relationships. But he is not focused on individuals; he is focused on positions—locations and places occupied as a result of the manner in which production is organized. Individual consciousness is related to position within the class structure. Wright’s analyses are based on Marxist framework that he defends and updates.
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Markets Embedded in a Political Context
Sociology has emphasized that markets are embedded in a larger social and historical context, with the political context emphasized (see reviews in Lie 1997 and Fligstein and Dauter 2007). Ó Riain 2000 reviews the interplay between states and markets over time and across regions of the globe. Just as markets are not inevitable, Sabel and Zeitlin 1985 offers a reminder that mass production was also contingent—a development that was as much political as it was economic. Carruthers 1999 examines the rich interplay between political and economic dynamics in the emergence of financial markets. Drawing on institutionalist insights, Dobbin 1994 examines national variation in industrial policy. Evans 1995 harnesses insights gleaned from the political economy of markets and states to examine post–World War II industrial transformation in prominent nations of the Global South. Finally, the edited volume Hollingsworth, et al. 1994 places significant emphasis on the social and political context that allows capitalism to develop and be sustained.
Carruthers, Bruce. 1999. City of capital: Politics and markets in the English financial revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Carruthers’s focus is on the emergence of a stock market in early modern England where geopolitics, capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution were central. Carruthers offers a reminder that competitive markets do not exist in a separate apolitical realm; they are created and sustained by social actors pursuing multiple goals.
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Dobbin, Frank. 1994. Forging industrial policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the railway age. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139174183Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Deploying a neo-institutional framework, Dobbin challenges rationalist approaches that explain policy choices as reflections of economic interests and efficiencies. Instead, he makes the case that the cultural context results in political actors sharing common understandings of politics and economics; this shared cultural framework shapes industrial policy.
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Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded autonomy: States and industrial transformation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Evans debunks the widespread belief that state intervention is doomed to failure. With a focus on Brazil, India, and Korea, he presents detailed examination of the interplay among state agencies, local entrepreneurs, and transnational corporations. While there is no guarantee of success, Evans provides evidence that states can and do contribute to successful development efforts.
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Fligstein, Neil, and Luke Dauter. 2007. The sociology of markets. Annual Review of Sociology 33:105–128.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131736Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Fligstein and Dauter provide an overview of the maturation of sociological research into markets and the increasingly intense dialogue between the discipline of economics and sociology. Rational action theories and their limits are considered. Scholars are urged to build bridges among theoretical camps by delineating scope conditions and seeking overlap and complementarities.
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Hollingsworth, John, Philippe Schmitter, and Wolfgang Streeck, eds. 1994. Governing capitalist economies: Performance and control of economic sectors. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This edited volume assumes that capitalism is more than an economic system; it is a social order. There is significant focus on the interrelations between social institutions and economic performance and comparison between capitalist economies. The editors call for research to focus on the role of governance and institutions’ arrangements in the emergence and endurance of capitalism.
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Lie, John. 1997. Sociology of markets. Annual Review of Sociology 23:341–360.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.23.1.341Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Lie reviews the initial revival of sociological research into markets. Drawing on a variety of disciplines and subdisciplines, sociological research into markets challenged economic essentialism. Specific to political economy, Lie emphasizes economic planning and globalization. In both cases, the interplay between political and economic institutions is central.
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Ó Riain, Seán. 2000. States and markets in an era of globalization. Annual Review of Sociology 26:187–213.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.187Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ó Riain is concerned with the mutual influence of states and markets, and how globalization transforms these relationships by weakening the ability of national policies to control trade and capital flows. Even if neoliberal policy reflects the failure of older institutions and policies, he believes alternative state–society alliances are possible.
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Sabel, Charles, and Jonathon Zeitlin. 1985. Historical alternatives to mass production: Politics, markets and technology in nineteenth-century industrialization. Past and Present 108:133–176.
DOI: 10.1093/past/108.1.133Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
After reexamining the European industrialization experience, Sabel and Zeitlin contend that alternative paths of economic development and efficiency besides mass manufacturing and specialized production were feasible. They provide an anchor for research emphasizing the importance of contingency, highlighting the interplay of multiple social institutions and logics.
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The Political Economy of Social Class
Marx and Engels 1998 believed that class antagonisms would eventually lead to the demise of capitalism and the class system. Because these predictions failed to occur, there has been sustained debate as to whether or not Marxism, as a scientific program, can be sustained. Burawoy 1990 argues that this is possible, but that Marxist theory must be adapted to changing manifestations of capitalism. Thompson 1966 emphasized the role of culture and relationship among class members to explain relative passivity of the English underclass during the Industrial Revolution. The extent to which classes are actually communities capable of action was Max Weber’s central challenge to Marxist theory (see Weber 1978, cited under Introductory Works). Weber maintained that statuses, and particularly political parties, were the communal forms by which individuals were able to exercise power. Both Karl Marx and Max Weber went to great lengths to distinguish the class system from previous economic orders, mostly the estate system. Veblen 2007 (originally published in 1899) offers a different perspective by claiming that the “leisure class” of industrial society was part of a linear evolution of dominant ownership groups dating back to prehistoric eras. Prominent sociologists of the 20th century have continued to grapple with the notion of class amidst what appears to be continuously changing and increasingly complex class structures. Dahrendorf 1959 retains the existence of class conflict as being a fundamental part of society. However, the author claims that classes are now much more complex. Giddens 1973 also argues for a more complex class theory in his theory of “structuration” to explain how markets act as structures to which classes vary in access. Bourdieu 1984 linked stratification to the tastes of social actors; an individual’s aesthetic tastes reflect the social hierarchy. Social actors present their tastes as weapons, establishing their place in society. Clark and Lipset 1991 argues that a variety of changes in society continue to render class less and less relevant.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
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Rather than being individualistic choices, Bourdieu views “tastes” as reflective of how social actors present aesthetic dispositions to highlight their status and distinguish themselves from lower groups. As tastes become internalized, they reflect a symbolic hierarchy and act as a “social weapon” defining and marking off the “high” from the “low” and “legitimate from legitimate.”
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Burawoy, Michael. 1990. Marxism as science: Historical challenges and theoretical growth. American Sociological Review 55.6: 775–793.
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Burawoy examines the potential for Marxism to be considered a science in spite of breakdowns of past Marxist scientific programs. He claims Marxist scholars must adapt their theories to explain modern manifestations of worldwide capitalism for Marxism to be successful as a scientific program.
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Clark, Terry Nichols, and Seymour Martin Lipset. 1991. Are social classes dying? International Sociology 6.4: 397–410.
DOI: 10.1177/026858091006004002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Clark and Lipset argue that prior understandings of social class and stratification based on Marx, Weber, and other scholars have become outmoded. They offer declines in class stratification and economic determinism along with changes in political organization, the family, and social mobility as evidence that a new “fragmentation of stratification” exists.
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Dahrendorf, Ralf. 1959. Class and conflict in industrial society. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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Dahrendorf examines Marxist notions of class to test their applicability in modern society. He retains Marx’s emphasis on class conflict. However, Dahrendorf argues that modern class systems are a much more complex set of associations than Marx’s two-tier system.
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Giddens, Anthony. 1973. The class structure of the advanced societies. Hutchinson University Library: Sociology. London: Hutchinson.
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Giddens develops the concept of “structuration” to explain class in modern society. Structuration focuses on the market as a structure of power and the market capacities of different groups (classes). Giddens shows how market and class structures vary by state system.
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Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. 1998. The communist manifesto. New York: Penguin.
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Marx and Engels believe the history of society has always consisted of class struggles. Industrialized capitalism revolutionized the means of production and created a class of bourgeoisie capitalists and another of proletariat workers. The exploitation of having to sell their labor will eventually lead the proletariat to rise up in revolution. Originally published in 1964.
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Thompson, Edward P. 1966. The making of the English working class. New York: Vintage.
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Thompson is critical of claims that members of the English working class were passive victims of the Industrial Revolution. He examines the culture of the working class and how workers exercised agency within that culture. He places a particular emphasis on the relationships among members of the working class, as opposed to simply their economic status. Originally published in 1964.
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Veblen, Thorstein. 2007. The theory of the leisure class: An economic study in the evolution of institutions. New York: Oxford.
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Veblen describes how the relationship of ownership groups has evolved from primitive societies into the industrial society “leisure class.” He critiques the leisure class’ behaviors of “conspicuous consumption” in which it devotes significant time to nonproductive activities and the acquisition of extravagant material goods. Originally published in 1899.
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Class Politics
Several scholars assess the importance of social classes as collective political interest groups. Korpi and Shalev 1979 argues that the institutionalization of class conflict has changed and no longer exists at the political level, but rather is solved at the industrial level through different bargaining mechanisms. Hechter 2004 also looks at changes in political and social institutions to argue that political identities no longer center on class, but have shifted to status identities that are culturally defined. Baldwin 1990 shifts away from explanations of welfare state politics that have empathized class alone. He claims that class can matter in mobilizing against some risks. However, he emphasizes how coalitions among classes based on common risks impacted welfare state regimes. Przeworski 1985 examines the possibility of class-based politics through social movements and acknowledges that organizing the working class is difficult. Electoral politics and class have also been widely explored. Manza, et al. 1995 assesses a vast amount of research on class voting behaviors and concludes that there is no proof that class de-alignment has actually occurred. Rubinson 1986 gives insight to the roles that institutions may play in shaping class politics. He compares the United States and British education systems to see why Britain’s class alliances are stronger. He links this to differing types of mobility that are shaped to the educational systems. In Britain, education is more stratified, and as such, the formation of class identity is much stronger.
Baldwin, Peter. 1990. The politics of social solidarity: Class bases of the European welfare state, 1875–1975. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511586378Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Baldwin offers a historical comparison of five European welfare states with a particular emphasis on how class interests united. Risk may be confined to the interests of a single class. However, he points out that risk can be shared among groups, leading to mobilization by multiple classes.
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Hechter, Michael. 2004. From class to culture. American Journal of Sociology 110.2: 400–445.
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Hechter argues for a solidaristic theory that accounts for a decline in class identity politics to a type of politics in which identities are based on culturally bounded statuses. He attributes this change to a switch from indirect rule to direct that localizes social provisions and adds distinction to minority identities.
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Korpi, Walter, and Michael Shalev. 1979. Strikes, industrial relations and class conflict in capitalist societies. British Journal of Sociology 30.2: 164–187.
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Korpi and Shalev describe “pluralistic industrialism” as the effect of industrial technology on societal development. According to the authors, pluralistic industrialism has changed how class conflict is institutionalized. The working class is transformed, and industrialized conflict is resolved at the industrial level rather than at the political level.
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Manza, Jeff, Michael Hout, and Clem Brooks. 1995. Class voting in capitalist democracies since World War II: Dealignment, realignment, or trendless fluctuation? Annual Review of Sociology 21:137–162.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.so.21.080195.001033Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Manza, et al. review scholarship concerning social class and electoral behavior. They pay particular attention to the debate over the importance of social class in determining voting preferences. After considering the merit of different methodological approaches, they conclude that no major dealignment of class has occurred.
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Przeworski, Adam. 1985. Capitalism and social democracy. Studies in Marxism and Social Theory. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Przeworski describes how socialist movements in capitalist societies face a threefold dilemma that involves decisions on whether to operate through existing political institutions, be inclusive of other classes, and determine the extent of reform they desire. He emphasizes the difficulties of organizing workers as a class, as they tend to prefer compromises rather than radical agendas.
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Rubinson, Richard. 1986. Class formation, politics, and institutions: Schooling in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 92.3: 519–548.
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Rubinson compares educational patterns in the United States and Britain to show how political processes channel class interests into institutional patterns. The United States has a “contest mobility” system of less educational stratification, and Britain has a system of “sponsored mobility” with greater educational stratification. However, the higher levels of stratification create a greater sense of class awareness and unification.
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Citizenship and Social Class
The seminal work Marshall 1992 (originally published in 1950) laid the groundwork for important debates on the significance of citizenship rights. Marshall argued that citizenship rights had progressed in England in three stages, and that with each stage, these rights were more inclusive of different classes. As such, citizenship came to diminish class tensions. Several works have revisited Marshall to examine and critique the tenets of his findings. Mann 1987 notes that multiple types of political regimes have had successful citizenship strategies for managing class conflict, depending on the regimes’ ability to deal with emerging ruling classes. He also touches on the importance of geopolitical durability in allowing regimes to evolve their citizenship strategies. Somers 1993 specifically returns to England to look at changes in institutional structure to explain the evolution of citizenship rights that allowed for greater class participation in political processes. Whereas the Marshallian discussions of citizenship have primarily emphasized social class alone, other scholars have captured how social class intersects with statuses of national identity (Habermas 1992), gender (Orloff 1996), and racial groups (Wilson 1987) in determining policies of political and social rights.
Habermas, Jurgen. 1992. Citizenship and national identity: Some reflections on the future of Europe. Praxis International 12.1: 1–19.
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With a focus on integration and immigrants in Europe, Habermas considers the future of citizenship and national identity. He argues for policies of inclusion, as he believes political acculturation occurs within constitutional frameworks. Habermas argues against citizenship derived from common ethnic and cultural properties. Instead, he makes the case for citizenship identity emerging from the active exercise of rights and responsibilities.
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Mann, Michael. 1987. Ruling class strategies and citizenship. Sociology 21.3: 339–354.
DOI: 10.1177/0038038587021003003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Revisiting Marshall’s explanation of evolutionally citizenship, Mann compares the effectiveness of different political regimes in institutionalizing and managing class conflict. According to Mann, regime effectiveness depended on the ability to cope with rising bourgeoisie classes. The durability that allowed for the evolution of citizenship depended on geopolitical events, particularly war.
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Marshall, T. H. 1992. Citizenship and social class. London: Pluto.
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Marshall examines the evolution from civil, to political, to social rights that consolidated individuals of all social classes into a single status of citizenship. Civil rights pertaining to personal freedoms and judicial rights were followed by the political rights involving electoral participation. The expansion of citizenship to include social rights includes a range of rights and securities associated with the welfare state. Originally published in 1950.
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Orloff, Ann S. 1996. Gender in the welfare state. Annual Review of Sociology 22:51–78.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.51Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Orloff laments that comparative studies of the welfare state have paid little attention to gender relations. She argues that the institutions of social provision that make up the welfare state are not only based on gendered relations, but they also affect gendered relations.
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Somers, Margaret. 1993. Citizenship and the place of the public sphere: Law, community, and political culture in the transition to democracy. American Sociological Review 58.5: 587–620.
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Somers reexamines the themes of citizenship and social class that were made prominent in the work of Marshall. She finds problems in Marshall’s conceptions of time, space, and agency, which lead her to argue that institutional processes that transformed political infrastructure were responsible for more status-inclusive participation in political spheres.
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Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Wilson examines how different economic and social factors led to the plight of inner city African Americans. Wilson argues that public policy solutions to address poverty must be universal and “color blind” to be politically viable. Such policies would benefit inner city African Americans because they disproportionately make up the “truly disadvantaged.”
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Political Economy beyond the Nation-State
Sociology, as an academic discipline, was institutionalized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, the nation-state as an organizational form (more specifically the nation-states of Europe and North America) was ascendant. To a large extent, theorizing and research into political economy adopted the nation-state as the unit of analysis. This assumption is increasingly called into question. Several research traditions explicitly reject the nation-state as the unit of analysis; others are being adapted in light of globalization trends. Meyer 2010 is a leading contributor to the world society literature. His overview of this literature makes it clear that institutionalist theory places greater emphasis on the broader social and cultural context, diverting attention away from the nation-state and other actors. Wallerstein 2000 assembles influential essays and reveals the development of his thinking over several decades. These essays challenge the centrality of nation-states and defend the importance of a focus on the world system of capitalism. Tilly 1998 defends a relational approach to political economy. In so doing, he examines durable inequality within and among nation-states; he also examines transnational processes that lead to similar patterns of inequality becoming institutionalized across nation-states. Held 1995 offers acute insights into the tensions between liberal democracy and globalization. Individual nation-states do not directly control the flow of resources and people under conditions of globalization.
Held, David. 1995. Democracy and the global order: From the modern state to cosmopolitan governance. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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Held calls into question the viability of liberal democracy under conditions of globalization. Transnational corporations, interest groups, and international nongovernmental organizations impinge on nation-state boundaries and reduce the impact of democratic participation. Held calls for “cosmopolitan democracy” involving transnational governing institutions to restore the centrality of democracy.
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Meyer, John. 2010. World society, institutional theories, and the actor. Annual Review of Sociology 36:1–20.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102506Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Meyer plays a pivotal role in theorizing world society and in pursuing research that documents its importance. The essay provides a sweeping overview of this literature and an extended defense of its rationale.
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Tilly, Charles. 1998. Durable inequality. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Tilly makes the case that inequality results from the establishment of boundaries that separate groups of people and resulting “categorical pairs.” States loom large in the institutionalization and sedimentation of these paired categories. This framework extends beyond the nation-state through emulation and adaptation—processes that lead to patterns of inequality being extended, copied, and adapted.
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Wallerstein, Immanuel M. 2000. The essential Wallerstein. New York: New Press.
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This collection of essays provides an overview of Wallerstein’s thought over several decades. His earliest works focused on Africa; in later works, he became concerned with global dynamics. His signature contribution is the highly influential world system theoretical framework, a theoretical approach that is widely used to examine contemporary and future developments.
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Development and Underdevelopment
When looking beyond the nation-state, the political economy literature critically examined international development and found it wanting. Cardoso and Faletto 1979, with a focus on Latin America, argued that the economic and political agenda of the most powerful nations and firms left little room for local control of the development process. Following Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto, many scholars, such as Dixon and Boswell 1996, have tested and provided support for the dependency hypothesis. With a focus on the Brazil, Evans 1979 argues that successful development is more likely through coordinated efforts among the state, local entrepreneurs, and foreign capital. McMichael 2008 provides a historical explanation of the shift from state-centered development guided by Keynesian principles to neoliberal development guided by principles of the free market. Harvey 2006 also takes a historic perspective in the neoliberal development agenda, emphasizing geographical unevenness and the exacerbation of inequality among people of the world. Portes 1997 acknowledges the effects of the neoliberal party, but he claims that scholars should give consideration to several factors in trying to determine the national effects of neoliberal policies. Chang 2002 documents that neoliberal policies promoted by developed nations serves to minimize the state in the development process. He characterizes this as hypocritical, given the role that the state played in its own development process. Finally, the recent work of Lange, et al. 2006 offers a fresh perspective on development by historically linking development patterns to patterns of colonial rule.
Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, and Enzo Faletto. 1979. Dependency and development in Latin America. Translated by Marjory M. Urquidi. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Cardoso and Faletto stress the importance of historical relationships and class structures in Latin America’s development following World War II. They identify four stages of development that generated a situation in which Latin America’s development became dependent on the flows of the international capitalist systems that are dominated by multinational corporations.
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Chang, Ha-Joon. 2002. Kicking away the ladder: Development strategy in historical perspective. London: Anthem.
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International financial institutions tend to place neoliberal demands emphasizing laissez-faire economic practices on developing nations in the Global South. Chang decries the hypocrisy of this practice as “kicking away the ladder” since institutional intervention was a critical part to the development of European nations.
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Dixon, William J., and Terry Boswell. 1996. Dependency, disarticulation, and denominator effects: Another look at foreign capital penetration. American Journal of Sociology 102.2: 543–562.
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Capital dependency theorists have long thought that dependence on foreign capital negatively affects national economies. Dixon and Boswell find support for this theory. They claim that a major problem that occurs is when there is not sufficient domestic capital aside from foreign capital because it causes differential productivity.
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Evans, Peter. 1979. Dependent development: The alliance of multinational, state, and local capital in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Evans sees “dependent development” as a typical occurrence among semiperiphery nations in the world economy. Dependent development involves alliances between multinational corporations, local capital, and the state in managing the economy. Although these entities must work in conjunction, they also work toward their own separate interest and ignore public welfare.
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Harvey, David. 2006. Spaces of global capitalism: Towards a theory of uneven geographical development. London: Verso.
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In a collection of essays, Harvey explores the ramifications of the global neoliberal agenda, the historical conditions behind development being an uneven geographical process, and different spatial conceptualizations and their corresponding values. He focuses on how unevenly developed spaces have increased levels of class inequality.
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Lange, Matthew, James Mahoney, and Matthias vom Hau. 2006. Colonialism and development: A comparative analysis of Spanish and British colonies. American Journal of Sociology 111.5: 1412–1462.
DOI: 10.1086/499510Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Lange, et al. provide evidence that European colonialism reversed the path of development in much of the world. But the trajectories varied by precolonial development and the strategies of European colonial powers. Spain colonized regions that were relatively populous and affluent. The postcolonial outcomes were decidedly negative. Many (bit not all) regions colonized by Britain were sparsely populated and underdeveloped. In these instances, colonialism resulted in accelerated development.
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McMichael, Philip. 2008. Development and social change: A global perspective. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Pine Forge.
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McMichael provides a description of the global economic processes that have produced the modern phenomenon of “globalization.” He describes how original Keynesian development projects failed and gave way to modern international development guided by neoliberal principles. The modern global development project has brought inequality and insecurity to the people of the world.
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Portes, Alejandro. 1997. Neoliberalism and the sociology of development: Emerging trends and unanticipated facts. Population and Development Review 23.2: 229–259.
DOI: 10.2307/2137545Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Portes discusses how several sociology of development theories have failed to predict the outcomes related to neoliberal economic reforms. To remedy these shortcomings, he calls for sociologists to consider contingencies, such as demographic patterns, network structures, institutions, and other concepts of economic sociology.
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World Systems
World systems theory, associated with the work of Immanuel Wallerstein (see Wallerstein 1974), has taken a historical approach to explaining social change in the global capitalist system by emphasizing a division of labor between core and peripheral nations. Skocpol 1977 criticizes this approach in a review of Wallerstein. Several scholars have taken Wallenstein’s theory and have expounded or modified certain elements to explain processes occurring in global capitalism. Snyder and Kick 1979 applies network structural analyses that confirm the importance of core/periphery location in the world system. Offering both theoretical and methodological suggestions, Chase-Dunn 1991 emphasizes the hierarchical relationship between states in the core/peripheral structure. Often world systems scholars have focused on stages and cycles of the world system, placing particular interest on a global hegemon. For example, Arrighi 1994 looks at common patterns of accumulation among four global hegemons, maintaining that the current hegemon, the United States, has reached the stage of decline. Frank 1998 argues that scholars have ignored China’s historic role as a global hegemon in the global capitalist system, and that after a period of decline, China is poised to reassume that position.
Arrighi, Giovanni. 1994. The long twentieth century: Money, power, and the origins of our times. London: Verso.
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Arrighi examines historical cycles of accumulation by capitalist global hegemons. Based on patterns from past cycles, he believes the time of the United States, the current hegemon, is coming to an end as it has exited from a stage of accumulation to a stage of speculation and finance.
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Chase-Dunn, Christopher. 1991. Global formation: Structures of the world-economy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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Chase-Dunn claims to assign primacy to the structural patterns of the modern capitalist world system in contrast to stages of capitalism. He explains several aspects of the global economic structure that consists of core and peripheral states. Chase-Dunn concludes with methodological and theoretical suggestions for world systems research programs.
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Frank, Andre Gunder. 1998. Reorient: Global economy in the Asian age. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Frank refutes Eurocentric views in world systems theories by arguing that a global economic system has existed for millenniums and claims that China held a dominant position until the beginning of the 19th century when a labor crisis struck. He claims that the global balance is shifting again toward China.
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Skocpol, Theda. 1977. Wallerstein’s world capitalist system: A theoretical and historical critique. American Journal of Sociology 82.5: 1075–1090.
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Skocpol critically assesses several aspects of Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems theory. Her critiques include failing to explain why some nations change positions in the system, failure to consider state strength, and inability to account for state formation. Skocpol also mentions methodological and historical problems she finds with the theory.
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Snyder, David, and Edward L. Kick. 1979. Structural position in the world system and economic growth, 1955–1970: A multiple-network analysis of transnational interactions. American Journal of Sociology 84.5: 1096–1126.
DOI: 10.1086/226902Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Snyder and Kick express concern that little empirical evidence has been forwarded to advance the tenets of world system/dependency theories. They attempt to empirically test these theories through network analyses of four different international network structures. Their findings indicate structural advantages for some nations over others, as world system/dependency theories would predict.
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Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974. The rise and future demise of the world capitalist system: Concepts for comparative analysis. Comparative Studies in Society and History 16.4: 387–415.
DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500007520Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Wallerstein proposes a historical theory of the global capitalist system that accounts for its continuity and transformations. He claims a single division of labor consisting of a core, semiperiphery, and peripheral nations has prevailed since Westphalia. Wallerstein believes there are contradictions in this system relating to shifts in surplus and the co-optation of oppositional movements.
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World Polity
The world polity framework challenges the materialist and rationalist assumptions that underpin approaches to political economy inspired by Karl Marx and Max Weber. In contrast to conceptions of individuals being purposive and strategic actors, Meyer 1980 draws attention to the manner in which actors are constructed and sustained by a global cultural context. Strang and Meyer 1993 examines the diffusion of policies, highlighting the interface between global culture and local institutional and political dynamics. Boli and Thomas 1997 deploys this framework to emphasize the role that nongovernmental organizations play in defining and diffusing world culture around the globe. Meyer, et al. 1997 (see Cultural Turn) critiques dominant theories of the state and develops an alternative in which social actors—including rulers—enact scripts generated by world society. Soysal 1994 examines these dynamics with a focus on the citizenship struggle of guest workers and long-term residents in western Europe. Frank, et al. 2000 applies these insights to environmental policymaking, highlighting the creation of agencies in a number of polities as environmental concerns became salient in world culture. They acknowledge that the creation of agencies does not necessarily result in environmental protection. Also emphasizing the possible gap between rhetoric and implementation, Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005 examines the global proliferation of human rights treaties, even as human rights abuses continue.
Boli, John, and George M. Thomas. 1997. World culture in the world polity: A century of international non-governmental organization. American Sociological Review 62.2: 171–190.
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Based on an analysis of thousands of international nongovernmental organizations over one hundred years, Boli and Thomas make the case that world culture is defined by principles of universalism, individualism, rational progress, and world citizenship. They argue that scientific, technical, economic, and infrastructural organizations anchor world culture and influence states and intergovernmental organizations.
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Frank, David, Ann Hironaka, and Evan Schofer. 2000. The nation-state and the natural environment over the twentieth century. American Sociological Review 65.1: 96–116.
DOI: 10.2307/2657291Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In a challenge to materialist and rationalist explanations, Frank, Hironaka, and Schofer make the case that expanded efforts to protect the environment are the result of shifts in world culture. As world culture defined environmental protection to be a responsibility of nation-states, those with dense ties to world society faced mounting legitimation pressures to conform.
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Hafner-Burton, Emilie, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui. 2005. Human rights in a globalizing world: The paradox of empty promises. American Journal of Sociology 110.5: 1373–1411.
DOI: 10.1086/428442Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui call attention to the paradox of empty promises in human rights treaties signed by nation-states. Nation-states refusing to sign human rights treaties are failing to conform to world culture. However, significant decoupling occurs among nations that enter into these human rights treaties.
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Meyer, John. 1980. The world polity and the authority of the nation-state. In Studies of the modern world-system. Edited by Albert Bergesen, 109–137. Studies in Social Discontinuity. New York: Academic Press.
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Meyer defines world society as a system that generates values by collectively transferring authority. The creation and consolidation of international organizations of post–World War II laid the foundation for a shift of authority to the global level. Increasingly world culture operates above the nation-state, defining core values and creating pressure for individual nation-states to conform.
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Soysal, Yasemin. 1994. Limits of citizenship: Migrants and postnational membership in Europe. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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In recent decades, human rights have been an important principle in world society. For this reason, immigrants are extended rights that had once been reserved for citizens. Soysal makes the case that a postnational form of membership is emerging based on a universal recognition of personhood (as opposed to a national citizenship).
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Strang, David, and John Meyer. 1993. Institutional conditions for diffusion. Theory and Society 22:487–511.
DOI: 10.1007/BF00993595Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Strang and Meyer build on the world society framework to explain the transmission of ideas and practices from one polity to another. Rather than placing primary emphasis on relationships between and among social actors, they draw attention to institutional conditions operating above the level of nation-states. As ties among societies grow denser, cultural diffusion accelerates.
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Political Economy of Globalization
The term globalization has become commonplace in spite of ongoing definitional and ontological debates. The edited volume Held and McGrew 2000 provides readers multiple perspectives regarding these debates. Guillén 2001 reviews debates over the degree to which globalization is occurring, and if so, the consequences for social institutions and processes. Much of the debate surrounding globalization centers on the centrality of nation-states. Castells 2010 (originally published in 1996) points out that technology has made it possible for exchanges to occur in real time without the constraint of national boundaries. Sassen 1999 explains how migration of people across national borders has transformed cities. Sklair 2001 claims that a transnational class has evolved around the profit objectives of transnational corporations. With these exchanges moving across national boundaries, there has been some question as to whether or not states have retained their power. Mann 1997 acknowledges changes in transnational and international networks, but concludes that these changes have had a mixed effect in both strengthening and weakening the nation-state. Evans 1997 argues that states are actually becoming stronger under the pressure of global capitalism to enforce various property rights. Nevertheless, there remains the power wielded over certain weaker states by international financial institutions that are controlled by affluent nations. As a former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz’s criticism (see Stiglitz 2002) of these prevailing power differentials within international financial institutions has garnered significant attention.
Castells, Manuel. 2010. The rise of network society. Vol. 1, The information age: Economy, society, and culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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Castells argues that the informational technology revolution has created a global network of market and informational exchanges operating in real time and unrestrained by national boundaries. Forming its own culture, this network includes those valuable to its own goals. As such, there is a global polarization between those included and excluded from the global network. Originally published in 1996.
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Evans, Peter. 1997. The eclipse of the state? Reflections on stateness in an era of globalization. World Politics 50.1: 62–87.
DOI: 10.1017/S0043887100014726Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Evans argues against claims that globalization has created an “eclipse of the state.” He claims that states are not becoming marginalized, but rather stricter, harsher institutions that find repressive ways of following a global capitalist logic of property rights and intellectual property.
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Guillén, Mauro. 2001. Is globalization civilizing, destructive or feeble? A critique of five key debates in the social science literature. Annual Review of Sociology 27:235–260.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.235Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Guillén reviews debates and evidence of globalization. This skeptical review offers a reminder that claims of globalization may be overstated and that its impacts may not be as sweeping as proponents claim. He calls for a comparative sociology of globalization that incorporates a concern for local dynamics, agency, and resistance.
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Held, David, and Anthony McGrew, eds. 2000. The global transformations reader: An introduction to the globalization debate. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Held and McGrew offer a compilation of readings that cover key globalization debates. Some of the key debates addressed in the volume are definitional and ontological concerns of globalization discourse, essays on the fate of nation-states, cultural implications of globalization, the degree to which there exists an integrated global economy, global inequality, and global governance.
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Mann, Michael. 1997. Has globalization ended the rise and rise of the nation-state? Review of International Political Economy 4.3: 472–496.
DOI: 10.1080/096922997347715Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Mann skeptically examines the claim that globalization has brought about the decline of the nation-state. He offers an alternative explanation to “globalization” that emphasizes socio-spatial networks. He argues that what is occurring is merely an increase in international and transnational networks and that these networks both strengthen and weaken nation-states.
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Sassen, Saskia. 1999. Globalization and its discontents: Essays on the new mobility of people and money. New York: New Press.
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This volume consists of several essays conveying Sassen’s view that globalization consists of several contradictory processes. One of Sassen’s key concerns is how global cities have become economically polarized as high-wage professionals have created a demand for the low-wage service-sector, often heavily consisting of migrant workers.
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Sklair, Leslie. 2001. The transnational capitalist class. Oxford: Blackwell.
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Sklair advances a global system theory that places an evolving transnational capitalist class as the driving force of economic globalization. This transnational class is inextricably linked to transnational corporations and their global profit-driven agendas. Sklair divides this class into four groups: controllers and owners of corporations, global bureaucrats and politicians, global professionals, and the consumerist elite.
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Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2002. Globalization and its discontents. New York: Norton.
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As former chief economist for the World Bank, Stiglitz sharply critiques prevailing development agendas and globalization projects promoted by international financial institutions. He claims these institutions seek to implement neoliberal principles and that they are undemocratically controlled by wealthy nations. Stiglitz advocates a globalization guided by democracy and debt relief.
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