1. Week 2

2. Contemporary political sociology takes into account the
relation between the society and the state. At first, political
sociology was concerned with the social trends and their
affects. Karl Marx and Max Weber have been seen to be the
first ones to understand state power. Hegemony is a control
of power states on weaker ones. For example US control on
Syria, Libya, Pakistan,etc.
(Stand Up For America, 2010)

3. According to Marxists perspectives, three different views of the state
are there, the first one being:
 Instrumental Model which is one of the best models and is used to
characterize the executive of the state as a committee who fulfils the
requirements of the bourgeoisie while,
 the Arbiter model is different. Here he said that the state can work
autonomously through direct control of the capitalists, Marx said
that this is an untypical model.
 The Functional approach talks about coordination between the social
organization and the division of labor was taken into account. The
functionalist model sustains Marx’s notion that the state will always
have struggle between classes (Marx, 1973).
(The Chabad Sociologist, 2013)

4. Max Weber’s view is similar when it comes to class divisions but
he discusses social stratification more generally. Weber
identified three types of legitimate dominance in the society.
These are:
 Traditional :where leaders get to exercise power through some
type of inheritance for example the next King could be the son of
the previous king.
 Charismatic :was where leaders have the ability to capture the
attention of the people and to attract them towards them. For
example Hitler.
 Rational-legal leaders are essentially the chosen ones. These are
chosen by the people because of the skills and competencies they
posses. Weber did not believe in traditional or charismatic, he
believed if western societies adopted this leadership style than
they can become superior to all the other cultures prevailing
((Weber, Rheinstein and Shils, 1954).
(Crossman, 2014)

5.  Hackgate was a controversy involving different newspapers
which were published by News international. The
employees of the newspapers were said to be engaged in
bribing the police and also hacking phones for illegal work
.After investigations the phones of the schoolgirls who
were murdered were also accessed and this resulted in a
public protest causing the closure of the newspaper.
Cameron made the head of enquiry look into the matter of
phone hacking and bribery. These investigations lead to a
lot of high profile people resigning from their posts.

6.  One of the most basic criticisms of Marx was that any
one single definition of the state cannot be achieved
because the Marxists approach is open to many
interpretations.
(The Chabad Sociologist, 2013)

7.  Marx, K. (1973). Karl Marx, Frederick Engels on literature and art: a
selection of writings.
 Weber, M., Rheinstein, M. and Shils, E. (1954). Max Weber on law in
economy and society. Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA, 84.
 Crossman, A. (2014). How Max Weber Contributed to Sociology.
[online] About.com Sociology. Available at:
http://sociology.about.com/od/Profiles/p/Max-Weber.htm [Accessed
23 May. 2014].
 Stand Up For America, (2010). Challenging Our Own Premises -
Individual Liberty. [online] Available at:
http://standupforamerica.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/challenging-our-
own-premises-individual-liberty/ [Accessed 23 May. 2014].
 The Chabad Sociologist, (2013). This Week's Spotlight: Karl Marx.
[online] Available at:
http://chabadsociologist.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/this-weeks-
spotlight-jewish-sociologist-karl-marx/ [Accessed 23 May. 2014].