Social Structure vs Individual Agency

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how political science should be explained. The writer examines whether this assessment should be in terms of social structure or in terms of individual agency. The writer concludes that since the two are interrelated, both aspects should be studied together, though they will vary in relative importance over time.

From the Paper:

"Social-cognitive theory offers a perspective in which the individual is a self-organizing proactive self-reflection and self-regulating entity. It proposes that belief in self-efficacy is the most focal and pervasive aspect of human agency and that unless people believe they can achieve the desired effect and prevent undesired ones from happening, they will have little incentive to act. The interdependence of human functioning by placing a premium on the exchange of collective agency through shared beliefs in the power to produce the effect by collective action is central."

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