READER IN POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

The editor sorts out three major approaches to political sociology: behaviorists emphasize individual psychology; evolutionists examine internal changes and transformations of a given system; correlators investigate group characteristics, set up typologies of governments, and try to correlate the former with the latter. In his brief introductions to each section, Lindenfeld outlines the articles, instead of classifying the contributors. More catholic than many of its kind, the reader does exclude hyper-abstract ""grand theorists"" and mere statistical miners. Prominent contemporaries are here (Mills, Marcuse, Goodman, Fanon, Barrington Moore; Lipset, Bell, Kornhauser, Brinton, Michels), and some excellent lesser-knowns, as well as de Tocqueville and Marx. The topics (social bases of political systems; social class and power in the West; politics and social change; the contemporary relevance of ideology) cover a range of important subtopics and delineate some central controversies (""power elites,"" violent vs. nonviolent revolution, the ""military-industrial complex""). A demanding, rewarding book for both vocational and avocational students.