Thomas Janoski is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Kentucky after having served for 30 years. He has also taught at the University of California-Berkeley and Duke University. He was the lead editor of The Handbook of Political Sociology (2005) and The New Handbook of Political Sociology (2020). He has multiple books, including The Political Economy of Unemployment (1990), The Ironies of Citizenship (2010), Citizenship and Civil Society (1998), and Rethinking Symbolic Interactionism (2025). While following Max Weber on class, status, and power, he focuses on an optimistic approach, stressing citizen participation and collegiality.

1. Introduction: A Synthetic Approach to Political Sociology, Part I. Bargaining and Cultural Theory, 2. The Theory of Bargaining Alternatives in Political and Cultural Context, Part II. The Actors in Political Bargaining, 3. The State. Retheorizing the Arena of Bargaining over Alternatives, 4. Class-based Interest Groups and Social Movements, 5. Status-based Interest Groups and Social Movements in Bargaining, 6. Political Parties. Direct Bargainers but in Decline, 7. The Media as Full-Fledged Bargainers, Part III. Disruptive Politics, 8. Disruptions in National Politics. Exploitation, Humiliation and Ressentiment, 9. The External Disruptions Impacting Bargaining. Empire, War, and Globalization, 10. Conclusion: Synthesizing a Political Economy and Cultural Theory of Political Sociology, Epilogue