ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter on sociology and the discipline of politics argued that contemporary practitioners of that discipline should give greater emphasis to social parameters in their explanation of political behaviour, and that such explanation, even where it does take account of factors of this kind, is frequently deficient in theoretical acumen. It was suggested, moreover, that these gaps in the fabric of political studies might only be overcome by an induction into that fund of knowledge provided by the wider culture of sociology. A first step in this induction process may be taken by examining the relevance of the most elementary components of society to the study of politics.
