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Increasing and Decreasing Inequalities of Power: A Processual View. A Response to Cas Wouters, and a Proposal for Clarification
Zunehmende und abnehmende Machtungleichheiten: eine prozesssoziologische Perspektive; eine Antwort auf Cas Wouters und ein Vorschlag zur Verdeutlichung
[journal article]
Abstract Responding to an essay by Cas Wouters in this journal, this article aims to clarify historical trends of increasing and decreasing power inequalities. It criticizes Wouters's rejection of the notion of "functional de-democratisation," his claim that "functional democratisation" was a dominant trend ... view more
Responding to an essay by Cas Wouters in this journal, this article aims to clarify historical trends of increasing and decreasing power inequalities. It criticizes Wouters's rejection of the notion of "functional de-democratisation," his claim that "functional democratisation" was a dominant trend in the whole of human history, and his idea that this process results from long-term trends of differentiation and integration. This paper specifies when and under which conditions processes of functional democratisation did occur, and when and under which conditions developments in the direction of growing power inequality were dominant. Explanations for trends in these different directions are advanced. The paper's final section argues that for the past 40 years processes of both functional democratisation and functional de-democratisation can be discerned, which take place on different integration levels and along different axes.... view less
Keywords
Elias, N.; democratization; integration; political power; historical development; social inequality; inequality; interdependence
Classification
Macrosociology, Analysis of Whole Societies
Social History, Historical Social Research
Free Keywords
Power balances; functional democratisation; functional de-democratisation
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 347-374
Journal
Historical Social Research, 45 (2020) 4
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed