Week 7: POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

The goal of this chapter was to provide a description of various ways in which political participation is conceptualized in political sociology. Each of the theoretical frameworks approaches the study of political participation with differing assumptions about the role participation plays in affecting the distribution of power in society. The various typologies, both classical and contemporary, suggest that we continue to find social spaces for forms of political participation as expressions of interest, roles related to social positions, and the interests in changing the nature of power. What follows is a detailed study of current fields of analysis in political sociology related to very specific forms of political participation:
• voting and electoral politics
• social and political movements
• terrorism
These particular areas constitute the focal points of political sociology where researchers have been most active in understanding how these particular forms of political participation affect power in society.