What Is the Purpose of Empirical Sociology?

The theory of the French middle-strata professions advanced by Dominique Monjardet & Georges Benguigui is critiqued (L'Utopie gestionnaire. Les Couches moyennes entre l'Etat et les rapports de classe [The Managerial Utopia: The Middle Strata between the State and Class Relations], see SA 31:3/N1220). The need for adequate empirical verification of such theories is emphasized, particularly in the context of reformulating Marxist class categories. Four cases where polling & questionnaire techniques provided or might provide invaluable information on social movement formation are examined: (1) a study of lower-level bosses & engineers; (2) the 1977 mobilization of the Groupes Initiative et Responsabilite (Initiative & Responsibility Groups of the principal engineers' union); (3) investigations on corporatism & alternative union strategies among cadres; & (4) electoral studies on the political behavior & opportunism of middle-strata professionals. L. Whittemore.