Sociology of, By and for Sovereign People: Towards a Truly Global Sociology

A truly global sociology can be created as an overcoming of the civil society paradigm. The bourgeois, rich citizens, conquered the globe with their enterprises of ‘one share, one vote’ principle, guarded by their absolutist and nation states, and colonized the most parts of the world. On the other hand, these citizens were forced to open the door by the American and French Revolutions, and to concede repeatedly by the universal suffrage movements of workers, ethnic minorities and women, to enlarge democratic societies of ‘one person, one vote’ principle. The paradigm has been formed and reinforced in this process. The colonized peoples, resisting this forced paradigm, have transformed it to open perspectives toward truly democratic societies, though being troubled by dictatorships caused by development and the military. Most peoples have now the sovereignty, although being subalterns who have been largely out of sight. If we see things from their standpoint, the people’s will has not been rightly reflected on the governments even in advanced societies because of their imperfect election and party systems, while the world economy has been controlled by their corporate and globalized enterprises. The advanced societies have not been sufficiently democratized, so that most of the citizens still remain actually substantially as subalterns. Rejecting any academic imperialism and not being afraid of multi-versalism, we must create a sociology to democratize all national societies and the international society. For this, we need not only a political sociology to promote the right reflection of the people’s will on the government, but also an economic sociology to facilitate people’s non-profit enterprises and organizations such as co-operatives, trade unions and others. A cultural sociology, integrating these political and economic ones meaningfully, will sublate the old paradigm onto a new highly qualified democratic society paradigm.