Books in the Political Sociology series

"Lobbying and political interest groups occupy an ambivalent place in advanced democracies. This insightful book injects a new sociological understanding of politics and policy. As the book convincingly reveals, a sociological understanding of lobbying and interest groups illustrates the edges and boundaries of representative democracy itself"--

Why do powerful states like the U.S. , U.K.

War is a paradox. On the one hand, it destroys bodies and destroys communities. On the other hand, it is responsible for some of the strongest human bonds and has been the genesis of many of our most fundamental institutions.

Despite many predictions made over the last two hundred years that nation-states and nationalism are transient phenomena that will eventually fade away, the historical record and contemporary events show otherwise.

States over the past 500 years have become the dominant institutions on Earth, exercising vast and varied authority over the economic well-being, health, welfare, and very lives of their citizens.

* Provides a concise political and sociological introduction to social policy. * Helps readers to grasp the nature of social programs and the political struggles surrounding them. * Takes a broad comparative and historical viewpoint of social policy in the developed world.

In this timely book, Cedric de Leon examines the ways in which social scientists and other observers have imagined the relationship between parties and society. He introduces and critiques the full range of approaches, using enlivening comparative examples from across the globe.

Since the late eighteenth century, politics, protest, and the state have evolved together, each shaping the other in significant ways. This title shows how the modern national state developed in tandem with social movement mobilization, arguing that to understand the state fully, you cannot ignore the role of political protest.

Many of us may have participated in grassroots groups, changing the world in small and big ways, from building playgrounds and feeding the homeless, to protesting wars and ending legal segregation.

Despite global shifts in world power, racial conflict remains one of the major problems of contemporary social life. This concise and engaging book demonstrates the interplay between identity, power and conflict in the creation, persistence and transformation of patterns of race and ethnic relations across the globe.