New Theories of Political Sociology: Power, Social Psychology, and Macro-Bargaining

Political sociology has not been a major force in developing new theories of sociology. In the New Handbook of Political Sociology (2020), John Levi Martin asks political sociologists to go beyond the traditional "Good Old Fashion Action Theory" (GOFAT) theory of interests, whether class or status groups interests, to develop new theories of how people vote, protest, demonstrate or otherwise express their political preferences. Also, the current pandemic and reactions to offshoring have produced a retreat from globalization, which dominated discourse for the last 20 years or so. Finally, after a burst of democratization after the fall of communism, we are now facing the rise of non-democratic regimes along with the promulgation of state led capitalism via China and Xi Jinping. I will be looking for papers that try to come up with new and comprehensive theories of power that can reach both the social psychological and the macro-group bargaining levels. Especially useful may be theories that synthesize perspectives including those of Michael Mann, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Randall Collins, Erving Goffman, John Dewey, John Stephens, Evelyne Huber, Davita Glassberg, Bob Jessop, Julian Go, and many others.