Master 2024/2025

Political Power: Theoretical Discourse and Research Models

Type: Elective course (Complex Social Analysis)

Area of studies: Sociology

Delivered by: School of Sociology

Where: Faculty of Social Sciences

When: 1 year, 3 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Valery Georgievich Ledyaev

Master’s programme: Complex Social Analysis

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 32

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course aims to give students basic knowledge of political power and the way it is studied in contemporary political science and sociology. The course is intended to build up a critical awareness of the different approaches to the study of power, and the difficulties in explaining political events through an examination of various forms and manifestations of political power. The course will help students to form their analytical skills, abilities to define and operationalise social concepts, prepare research programs and instruments for the empirical study of power and political influence. The course consists of three main parts: 1) conceptual analysis of power and its forms (meth-odology and principles for conceptualizing political concepts; basic problems in defining power; logic of the conceptual analysis of power; basic views on power; forms, bases and uses of power; indicators of political power); 2) main theories of political power (Marxist and neo-Marxist explanations of the distribution of power in modern societies; classical and modern pluralism; corporatism; classical and modern elitism; the basis of the convergence and remaining differences); 3) research models and main outcomes of empirical studies of political power in regions and local communities (early community power studies in US in 1930-1940; classical community power studies (F. Hunter, R. Dahl); positional, reputational, decisional and network approaches in the study of power; contemporary models of com-munity power (“growth machines” and “political regimes”); power structure and regimes in Russian cities and regions).