ABSTRACT
The classic question of political sociology is concerned with the relations between the evolution of the social structure and the political formula. The ideal static model of the relationship between social structure and political stability is outlined, atleast in the socialist republics. The concept of social structure is used in abstract fashion to identify patterns of inequality. However, the social structure misleads if three concepts derived from the sociology of bourgeois society: autonomy of the economic sphere, horizontal stratification and superposition of units. The Algerian politico-economic formula is summarised by two characteristics: combination of rationalities and constitution of an autonomous national society. In many respects the politico-economic formula in Syria is embedded in an external regional context and an internal social context that is very different from that of Algeria. The workers movement is represented as forming part of the state, legal society or hadara, thus reinforcing the position of the left bureaucracy.
