The Last Half-Century: Societal Change and Politics in AmericaThe Last Half-Century represents the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship by Morris Janowitz. In this comprehensive and systematic analysis of the major trends in American society during the past fifty years, he probes the weakening of popular party affiliations and the increased inability of elected representatives to rule. Centering his work on the crucial concept of social control, Janowitz orders and assesses a vast amount of empirical research to clarify the failure of basic social institutions to resolve our chronic conflicts. For Janowitz, social control denotes a society's capacity to regulate itself within a moral framework that transcends simple self-interest. He poses urgent questions: Why has social control been so drastically weakened in our advanced industrial society? And what strategies can we use to strengthen it again? The expanation rests in part on the changes in social structure which make it more and more complicated for citizens to calculate their political self-interest. At the same time, complex economic and defense problems also strain an already overburdened legislative system, making effective, responsive political rule increasingly difficult. Janowitz concludes by assessing the response of the social sciences to the pressing problem of social control and asserts that new forms of citizen participation in the government must be found. |
Contents
Sociological Objectives | xiii |
The Idea of Social Control | 23 |
The Logic of Systemic Analysis | 49 |
Political Participation Emergence of Weak Regimes | 81 |
Social Stratification Occupation and Welfare | 119 |
Military Participation and Total War | 160 |
Bureaucratic Institutions The Hierarchical Dimension | 217 |
Residential Community The Geographical Dimension | 260 |
Societal Socialization Legitimate Coercion | 360 |
The Management of Interpersonal Relations | 395 |
Experiments in Community Participation | 439 |
Political Elites and Social Control | 487 |
Epilogue | 542 |
Author Index | 555 |
| 570 | |
Societal Socialization Mass Persuasion | 316 |
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advanced industrial society attitudes basic basis behavior Chicago Press citizen community organization conflict consequences contribution culture dealing decisions decline Democratic disarticulation economic Edward Shils effective social control efforts election electoral emergence emphasized empirical especially ethnic expenditures extensive federal force formulation goals groups growth increased influence intellectual interpersonal involved issues labor leaders legitimacy limited long-term macrosociology mass media Max Weber ment military mobilization Morris Janowitz nation-state nomic norms occupational operate particular patterns period perspective political elites political participation popular population professional programs reflect relations relevance residential result sector social change social control social organization social stratification social structure sociologists sociology stagflation strategy survey systemic analysis television theory tion tional trade union trends United University of Chicago University Press urban Vietnam violence voluntary associations voting W. I. Thomas welfare workers World World War II York