POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
Summer 2000
First Session
Faculty: Jorge Gilbert
Academic Credits: 8
Special Expenses: $10 (printed materials)
Part -Time Options: Yes (with faculty signature)
Independent of many definitions of politics, the objective behind all political practices is the struggle for power among different social groups in society. The ultimate goal is to gain control of the society, and direct it towards the interests of particular groups within it, in accordance with each group’s bias and persuasion on the issues of class, ethnicity, religion, and others. The history of society was, and is, the continuing struggle for power. However, modern societies carry on these struggles through conquests of the State apparatus.

This program will examine various definitions and interpretations of the State’s role, from the implications about its nature in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince (1513) to the present case involving the neoliberal State model. Studies about the nature of power, and subsquently of the political systems it necessitates, also will be analyzed. From another vantage, this program will examine the formation, evolution and characteristics of the State, in the context of a brief historical analysis of politics. This program will conclude with a discussion of political systems, and explanation of their political roles in society.

Credits to be granted in Political Sociology, Political Economy, History, Public Adminstration, Policy, and Management (depending on student's final project).