ABSTRACT
Sociology seeks to explain the experience and life chances of the individual in terms of the wider historical and institutional context. This chapter highlights classic and contemporary sociological approaches to understanding democracy and democratization. Given the central concerns of the sociologist towards democratization, it is inevitable that key practical issues that have concerned sociologists include questions of social stratification, progress and development. Sociologists in the consensus tradition accord somewhat more attention to the evolution of social structures, and the role they play in moulding social behaviour, in building a broad consensus. To most sociologists, the democratization of the West helped provide and at the same time reflected an unprecedented improvement in the human condition, an improvement that should be emulated worldwide. The focus on the rediscovery of civic virtues and the revival of local democracy has been taken even further by a diverse collection of writers from theoretical traditions ranging from neo-enlightenmentism to post-modernism.
