Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 182

A third element in fundamental social change is political organization. In most types of society, the existence of distinct political agencies such as chiefs, lords, kings and governments is highly significant in shaping society’s course of development. Political systems are not, as Marx argued, merely the direct expression of underlying economic organization; different types of political order may exist in societies with very similar economic systems. For instance, some industrial capitalist societies have had authoritarian political systems (Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid), while others are based on democratic participation (the USA, Britain or Sweden).

The political and military struggle between nations has driven social change in modern times. Political change in traditional civilizations was confined to small groups of elites, such as members of aristocratic families who replaced each other as rulers, but, for the majority, life went on virtually unchanged. This is not true of modern political systems, in which the activities of political leaders and government officials constantly affect the lives of the population. Both externally and internally, political decision-making promotes and directs social change far more effectively. Governments play a major role in stimulating, and sometimes retarding, economic growth, and in all industrial societies there is a high level of state intervention in the economy. Even in apparently ‘free-market’ economies, trade unions help to regulate market forces and governments set the legislative framework within which companies operate.

Marx studied political economy in the nineteenth century. Although its meaning has changed since then, political economy generally refers to the study of all the ways in which political institutions and economic systems influence one another. It is often important, for the purposes of analysis, to separate the economic, the political and the socio-cultural aspects of social change, but we should remember that phenomena in the social world are complex amalgams of these different spheres. Nowhere is this more significant than when trying to grasp the multifaceted process of globalization, which is transforming social life and challenging the longstanding autonomy of individual nation-states.