Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society

by Cedric de Leon (Editor), Manali Desai (Editor), Cihan Tugal (Editor)

Overview

Do political parties merely represent divisions in society? Until now, scholars and other observers have generally agreed that they do. But Building Blocs argues the reverse: that some political parties in fact shape divisions as they struggle to remake the social order. Drawing on the contributors' expertise in Indonesia, India, the United States, Canada, Egypt, and Turkey, this volume demonstrates further that the success and failure of parties to politicize social differences has dramatic consequences for democratic change, economic development, and other large-scale transformations.

This politicization of divisions, or "political articulation," is neither the product of a single charismatic leader nor the machinations of state power, but is instead a constant call and response between parties and would-be constituents. When articulation becomes inconsistent, as it has in Indonesia, partisan calls grow faint and the resulting vacuum creates the possibility for other forms of political expression. However, when political parties exercise their power of interpellation efficiently, they are able to silence certain interests such as those of secular constituents in Turkey. Building Blocs exposes political parties as the most influential agencies that structure social cleavages and invites further critical investigation of the related consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804794923
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	05/27/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Cihan Tuğal is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of California, Berkeley, and author of Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism (SUP, 2009). Manali Desai is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Cambridge and author of State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860–1990. Cedric de Leon is Associate Professor of Sociology at Providence College and author of Party and Society: Reconstructing a Sociology of Democratic Party Politics (2014) and Origins of the Right to Work: Anti-Labor Democracy in Nineteenth Century Chicago (forthcoming).

Table of Contents

Tables, Maps, and Figures vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction Political Articulation: The Structured Creativity of Parties Cedric de Leon Manali Desai Cihan Tugal 1

1 The Political Origins of Working Class Formation in the United States: Chicago, 1844-1886 Cedric de Leon 37

2 Continuity or Change? Rethinking Left Party Formation in Canada Barry Eidlin 61

3 Religious Politics, Hegemony, and the Market Economy: Parties in the Making of Turkey's Liberal-Conservative Bloc and Egypt's Diffuse Islamization Cihan Tugal 87

4 Democratic Disarticulation and Its Dangers: Cleavage Formation and Promiscuous Power-Sharing in Indonesian Party Politics Dan Slater 123

5 Weak Party Articulation and Development in India, 1991-2014 Manali Desai 151

Coda: Hegemony and Democracy in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks Dylan Riley 175

Notes 189

References 199

Contributors 225

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

"Building Blocs breaks new ground in our understanding of political parties. The original studies assembled in this volume demonstrate that parties are not only an important part of the political landscape but are also—more provocatively—vital sources for its transformation. This is a must read for students of politics."

Universityof Michigan - Howard Kimeldorf

"This brief but important edited volume introduces a new perspective in the study of political parties . . . The innovative and refreshing approach makes this book highly recommended for students of political parties in both established and developing democracies."—H. Shambayati, CHOICE

"This is the rare edited volume that presents itself as a manifesto for a new school of thought. The combination of an agenda-setting statement with empirical case studies allows the book to make an effective and forceful case for the political articulation approach."—Isaac William Martin, Professor of Sociology, University of California - San Diego

"Building Blocs is a powerful counter to sociological arguments that present politics as a reflection of social ties and identities. Parties, in this analysis, actively articulate identities, cleavages, and interests that sustain and are sustained by the governments they make. Ranging across continents and centuries, addressing cases of both successful and failed articulation, the chapters underscore the importance of parties in structuring the relationships between states and civil society. With this tightly-integrated volume, de Leon, Desai and Tuğal establish a compelling agenda for political sociology."—Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago

"Building Blocs breaks new ground in our understanding of political parties. The original studies assembled in this volume demonstrate that parties are not only an important part of the political landscape but are also—more provocatively—vital sources for its transformation. This is a must read for students of politics."—Howard Kimeldorf, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

"Building Blocs offers a thought-provoking and creative sociological rethinking of the role of political parties not just in politics but in society. The volume will be a useful addition for scholars of parties, identity, and mobilization and is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses on these issues. Moreover, the framework presented will help to spur and structure a continuing neo-Gramscian agenda in the social sciences, of exploring the nature of hegemony and the interplay of civil and political society in a comparative perspective."—Meredith L. Weiss, American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher

"Building Blocs is a powerful counter to sociological arguments that present politics as a reflection of social ties and identities. Parties, in this analysis, actively articulate identities, cleavages, and interests that sustain and are sustained by the governments they make. Ranging across continents and centuries, addressing cases of both successful and failed articulation, the chapters underscore the importance of parties in structuring the relationships between states and civil society. With this tightly-integrated volume, de Leon, Desai and Tuğal establish a compelling agenda for political sociology."

Universityof Chicago - Elisabeth S. Clemens

"Building Blocs offers a thought-provoking and creative sociological rethinking of the role of political parties not just in politics but in society. The volume will be a useful addition for scholars of parties, identity, and mobilization and is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses on these issues. Moreover, the framework presented will help to spur and structure a continuing neo-Gramscian agenda in the social sciences, of exploring the nature of hegemony and the interplay of civil and political society in a comparative perspective."

American Journal of Sociology - Meredith L. Weiss

"This brief but important edited volume introduces a new perspective in the study of political parties . . . The innovative and refreshing approach makes this book highly recommended for students of political parties in both established and developing democracies."

CHOICE - H. Shambayati

"This is the rare edited volume that presents itself as a manifesto for a new school of thought. The combination of an agenda-setting statement with empirical case studies allows the book to make an effective and forceful case for the political articulation approach."

Universityof California - San Diego - Isaac William Martin