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Political Economic Analysis in Sociology as Dramatic Rhetoric *
Author(s) -
Shornack Lawrence L.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1979.tb00362.x
Subject(s) - ideology , politics , sociology , rhetoric , drama , function (biology) , miller , social science , presidential system , political economy , positive economics , political science , economics , law , art , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , literature , evolutionary biology , biology
The relationship between political economy and social problems advanced by S. M. Miller in his presidential address to the Society for the Study of Social Problems is analyzed. Political economy is judged to qualify as ritual drama as much as science or as ideology because (1) political economy reduces Maclver's distributive and conjunctural phenomena to collective phenomena, (2) it fails to grapple directly with political and economic obstacles to its proposed policies, and (3) it does invest these obstacles with symbolism. The function of ritual drama is suggested and the concept is applied to the work of other sociologists.