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Political Sociology Jörn Lamla Political Sociology Jörn Lamla Abstract: By focusing on the differencebetween politics and the political as well as on current trends towards post-democracy,this paper attemptsanassessment of German- languagecontributions to contemporary political sociology. Even though the subject is still searchingfor its native disciplinary territory and its disciplinary boundaries, scholars in German-speaking countries have onlyrecentlybegun to engagewith new approachesthat have arisen from science and technology studies (STS) or other fields that have pursuedinnovative research and theories of the political.This argument is underpinned in some detail by comparingthreecontributions from German-speaking sociologists to the debate on post-democracy.Given the far-reaching events and transformations in recent history thathaveput politics in flux and exerted strain on democracy,political sociologyhas appeared to be rather hesitant to veer from its established ways of thinking and explore new territory. Keywords: Politics, the political, democratic experimentalism, post-democracy,social movements 1Introduction Much workremains to be done in defining the boundaries of political sociology. In Germany, for instance, political subjectmatter is addressed in two disciplines: soci- ologyand political science. Both have sections for political sociologyintheirpro- fessional organizations that claim to define its scope while pursuing different but overlapping research. Another point of contention arisesfrom the much-debated re- lationship between science and politics, which is crucial for political sociologyasa discipline.Positioningpolitical sociologybetween science and politics has been an issue throughout its history in German-languagesociology. Starting with Max Weber’s scientificclaim concerning value judgements(Werturteilsfreiheitspostulat)and the later dispute between the Frankfurt School of critical theory and the proponents of scientificpositivism and continuinguptocurrent debates on public sociology, the battle around facts and values in so-called evidence-based politics or the ongoing professional segmentation of sociologyand its imminent separation into different methodological schools have had aparticularbearingonpolitical sociology. However, the work that has been done on determiningthe boundaries of political sociologyhas so far failed to yield sustainable solutions for these wider problems of the field’sself- conception. Theprofessional community of political sociologists is still much too disparate to form acoherent and guiding voice thatwould help to overcome these disciplinary crises. OpenAccess. ©2021 Jörn Lamla, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110627275-020 288 Jörn Lamla The heterogeneity of sociological voices is impressively demonstrated by are- centlypublished symposium in the journal Soziologie that addresses these identity and boundary questions of political sociology(Brichzin et al., 2019). Thesesinthis vein extend from the inevitability of political value judgements in sociological work and the need to reflect on them to aplea for scientific self-restriction and aconcen- tration on evidence-based empirical research. Somecontributions speak of an in- creased relevance of political sociologyatatime whendemocracy is in crisis, whereas others see sociologyitself as beingincrisis because it has not been able to getagrasp on the ambiguous political changes drivenbydigitization, de- and re-nationalization, or climate change. However,the conclusionsregularlyexhibit the same pattern of argumentation, which ultimatelyresultsinthe simple promotion of one’sown favored approach as asolution to the problem, be it critical theory,social systems theory, political ethnography, actor–network theory,orthe sociologyofknowledge.Thus, the impression one gains when readingthis collection is an absenceofany real debate. However,without anyclear focus and mutualpoint of reference, the search for boundaries becomes endless. Identifyinganeed for clarification is at most astarting point but does not provide anydirection for amuch-needed discussion. One attempt to overcome this state of professional weakness and diffuseness— indicating acertain awarenessofthe problem in both disciplines—is the widespread publication of introductions and textbooks on political sociologyinrecent decades (Bottomore, 1981;Frevel, 1995;Böhnisch, 2006;Kißler,2007; Rattinger,2009;Kaina and Römmele, 2012; Holzer,2015;Pickel, 2020). There is no lack of propositions as to how to define the field of political sociology. However,the topics found in the tables of contents differ significantlydepending on the authors’ affiliations with sociologyor political science. The political scientists focus more on established political and democratic institutions likeparties, elections, associations, movements, or citizen- ship. These institutions depend to some degreeon, and thereforevary accordingto, social and culturalconditions such as value commitments,social status, knowledge, means of communication, and socialization, which thereforehavetobetaken into account.The sociologists,bycontrast,are more inclined to look for the political in society through the lens of conceptssuch as power relations,societal or functional differentiation, or historicaldynamics like gender strugglesorpost-colonialism. An- other notable observation is the revival of the classics in the current German literature on political sociology, for example, the publication of an earlymanuscriptonpolitical sociologybyNiklas Luhmann (2010), written in the 1960s, which starts with one of the aforementioned boundary issues―namely,the boundary between sociologyand po- litical science―and argues for achangeinperspective towards systems theory.Onthe other hand, writingsand lectures by Theodor W. Adorno (2019a;b)are frequentlycited in order to understand current shifts towards populism and right-wingradicalism in the political landscape. Thus, political sociologyseems to perpetuate disciplinary cleavagesinstead of overcoming themand providingnew ways of thinking and re- searchingthe political. Andthe scope of work in political sociologyseems broad Political Sociology 289 enough for everyone to find their own definition of what political sociology is actually about. Away out of this unsatisfying situation in political sociologymay be achievedby focusing on two issues, which are—in my view—specific to a sociological wayofap- proachingthe matter of politics. Oneissue concerns democracy,but not as an established set of institutions. Rather,political sociologyshould studythe way democracy comes into being, how it is performed and renewed under societal con- ditionsofstrain and crisis. Thus, astarting point for apolitical sociologycould be the ever-changingcommon issuesofasociety to which that society must react politically by improving—or better still, improvising—democracy in one direction or the other (e.g., by tendingtowards more inclusion or exclusion). The second issue is closely related to the first: political sociologymust focus much more on researching the po- litical thanonresearching politics. Politics—its routines, institutions, and conditions— is or should be mainlythe remit of political scientists. The task of sociology, by con- trast,might be sought in the realm of the political whereweencounter,and can in- vestigate, thosestruggles,practices,and discourses thatlie outside the conventional understanding of politics and the state and which challengethe boundaries of this understanding.Thus, the political is the matterofpolitics in flux and thereforeputs democracy under strain. Regarding this proposed sociologyofthe political, German scholars are not leading the debate. However,German-languagepolitical sociology has made some significant contributions thatIwould like to discuss in the following sections. After ashort consideration of the historical context thathas influenced aturn towards a “subpolitical” (Beck, 1993: 154–171) perspective,followed by an examina- tion of other political boundary issues in the next section (2), the article will focus mainlyontwo strands of discussion: the diagnosis of post-democracy(3) and today’s theoretical innovations in researching the political (4). 2Politics in Flux, Democracy Under Strain Twodecades ago, the Green Party assumedresponsibility in the German federal government for the first time.With that,ahistoric transformation of the political landscape in Germanycame to an end, one that had commenced with the strengthening of new social movements in the 1970s.Yetpolitical sociologists disagree about the direction of this transformation. Some have highlighted the assimilation of the Greens into the institutions of liberal democracy, whereas others have pointed to the “greening” of the entire political landscape in recent decades. Herewemust consider the influenceoftwo major theoretical schools in Germany. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s(2000) theory of social systems, some of these scholars have highlighted the reproduction of an internal logic of the political system, which necessarilyaffects and shapes Green politics. Othershaveargued in line with JürgenHabermas’s(1992) idea of acivil society,which translatesand amplifies conflicts from the citizens’ lifeworlds.Inthis intellectual context,questions arose as to what extent protest 290 Jörn Lamla movements, subpolitical processes in society (e.g., the struggle for genderequality or the emergence of environmentallyconscious
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