Professions in Civil Society and the State: Invariant Foundations and Consequences

Professions are central to any political sociology of major associations, organizations and venues in civil society underpinning democracy; they are not a subset of livelihoods in a mundane sociology of work and occupations. Professions in Civil Society and the State is at once elegant and startling in its directness and the sheer scope of its implications for future comparative research and theory. Not since Talcott Parsons during the early 1970s has any sociologist (or political scientist) pursued this line of inquiry. Sciulli’s theoretical approach differs fundamentally from Parsons’ and rests on a breadth of historical and cross-national support that always eluded him. The sociology of professions has come full circle, leaving behind Parsons, his critics, and two generations of received wisdom.