The Presence of Parsons and the Absence of Marx in Stein Rokkan's Contribution to Political Sociology.

The introductory chapter by Rokkan and Lipset in Party Systems and Voter Alignments (1967) and the further development of Rokkan's work in Citizens, Elections, Parties (1970) provide points of departure for a discussion of the impact of Parsonian AGIL theory on Rokkan's political sociology. The AGIL theory would seem to have provided initial inspiration for Rokkan's own thinking rather than premises for strict hypothetico-deductive reasoning closely related to the Parsonian theoretical framework. The present paper, however, attempts to deductively explore certain hidden implications of the AGIL dynamic, thus arriving at notions of structural contradictions similar to those found among some structural Marxists. These notions are then related back to Rokkan's theory of sequential historical junctures and conflicts, the conclusion being that his theory can and must be further developed to take account of the internal contradictions emerging in mature capitalism not only according to Marxists but also according to the hidden implications of AGIL theory explicated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]