Question

9. As societies become more complex, differentiated, populous, and technologically advanced, their political organizations become more centralized, less egalitarian and democratic, and eventually more separate from society. Justify if you agree or disagree this statement with a help of a sociological perspective.

Answer 1

I totally agree to the statement you have quoted – “As societies become more complex, differentiated, populous, and technologically advanced, their political organizations become more centralized, less egalitarian and democratic, and eventually more separate from society”.

Complexity, Differentiation, populous and technological advancement constitutes to the development factors of the society. Once the society becomes developed enough, people need less individual attention, as they are more vigilant and sound enough to take care of themselves without political organizations’ intervention. This gives political organizations flexibility to divert their attention to development of the society as a whole, such as improving the infrastructure, technical proficiency etc.

From sociological perspective, in a developed society, political organizations are concerned with how social trends, dynamics and structures of domination affect political processes, as well as identifying how various social forces bring change in political policies. In political sociology, there are 3 major theoretical frameworks:

a. Pluralism :- which sees politics primarily as a contest among competing interest groups.
                         In a developed society, different political parties might emerge. This eventually results in a competition among them. So they will be concentrating more on getting the power rather than serving the people.

b. Elite or Managerial theory :- It explains the constraints from organizational structures, semi-autonomous state managers etc., that arise from the state as a unique power concentrating organization.
Here also we see that once the society is developed political organizations are less people-centric, but more concentrated on the constraints on the road to development.

c. Social Class theory analysis :- which emphasizes the political power of capitalist elites.
Here the focus is on who rules and how they rule; which demonstrates a clear attention on power rather than the people.