ABSTRACT
This book explains the relationship between the basic social variables of class, caste, ethnicity and race and how they intersect and interpenetrate the key political variables of power, authority, sovereignty and representation. Political sociology, the general rubric under which such studies are categorized, should not be confused with political socialization, which is the examination of how people become socialized into political behavior. Political sociology as a quasi-formal enterprise begins in the eighteenth century. At that historical point, the dialogue between society and state was begun in earnest. The early nineteenth century brought forth hedonistic Bentham and his calculus, where utility principles were the ultimate measurement. There was good measure and good reason to feel that way. It was not only the coming of the French Revolution but also the life of letters, the rise of a leisure class that was nonparasitical, intellective, independent of the sources of production, but at the same time not indolent.
