Sociology Final: 13, 15, 16

Economy

The system of production and exchange that provides for the material needs of individuals living in a given society. Economic institutions are of key importance in all social orders.

Power

The ability of individuals or the members of a given group to achieve aims or further interests they hold.

Authority

A governments legitimate use of power

Influence

The ability to affect others’ behavior without coercion or other forms of direct control

Describe three main characteristics of the state?

1. Sovereignty

2. Citizenship

3. Nationalism

What is a welfare state? Can the U.S. be classified as a welfare state, why or why not?

A welfare state is a system in which government organizations provide material benefits to those who are unable to support themselves. The U.S. can be classified as a welfare state because the government provides programs like social security, Medicare, etc. However, compared to many EU countries, the U.S. benefits are more limited.

State

A political apparatus ruling over a given territory whose authority is backed by law, and the ability to use force.

Nation-States

Particular types of states, characteristics of the modern world, in which governments have sovereignty.

Sovereignty

The undisputed political rule of a state over a given territory.

Citizens

Members of a political community having both rights and duties associated with that membership.

Nationalism

A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community.

Nationalism

A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community.

Local Nationalism

The belief that communities that share a cultural identity should have political autonomy.

Civil Liberties

Legal rights held by all citizens in a given national community.

Political Rights

The rights of political participation, such as the right to vote and run for office.

Social Rights

Rights of social and welfare provision held by all citizens in a national community.

Welfare State

A political system that provides a wide range of welfare benefits for its citizens.

Why is it problematic for contemporary states to have participatory democracy?

Logistics and a need for expertise in governance.

What are two explanations for low voter turnout in the U.S.

Voter registration isn’t automatic, and laws that. have inhibited voter turnout.

Describe the role interest groups play in U.S. politics.

Lobbying officials and donations to elections.

Compare and contrast pluralist theories of modern democracy and the power elite model.

Pluralist theories argue that power in a democracy is spread among many competing interest groups that influence government policy, creating a balance of power. In contrats that power elite model argues that a small group of wealthy and powerful political, business, and military leaders dominate society and make decisions largely on their own interests.

Democracy

A political system that allows citizens to participate in political decision-making or to elect representatives.

Participatory Democracy

A system of democracy in which all members of a group or community participate collectively in making major decisions.

Representative Democracy

A form of democracy in which all citizens elect representatives to a governing body who then vote on laws and policies.

Liberal Democracies

Counties in which voters can choose between two or more political parties and in which the majority of the adult population has the right to vote.

Constitutional Monarchy

Kings or queens who are largely figureheads. Real power rests in the hands of political leaders.

Communism

A social system based on everyone owning the means of production and sharing in the wealth it produces.

Populism

The belief that politics should reflect the needs and interests of ordinary people rather than those of elite individuals or groups.

Authoritarianism

A political system in which the governing bodies or leaders use force to maintain control.

Interest group

A group organized to pursue specific interests in the political arena, operating primarily by lobbying the members of legislative bodies.

Lobbying

The act of persuading elected officials.

Democratic Elitism

A theory of the limits of democracy, which holds that in large-scale societies, true direct mass participation is impossible.

Pluralist Theories of modern democracy

Theories that emphasize the role of diverse and potentially competing interest groups, none of which dominate the political process.

Power elite

A small network of individuals who, according to C.Wright Mills, hold concentrated power in modern societies.

Why is it important for sociologists to study economic institutions?

Because economic forces influence all segments of society.

Define the informal economy, and provide an example of the work that takes place with it.

Economic transition carried on outside the sphere of formal paid employment. Such as a babysitter being paid “off the books”.

Using the concept of division of labor, describe the key difference in the nature of work in traditional and modern societies.

Traditional societies had a simple division of labor. Most people were farmers and/or a master of one craft, carrying it out from start to finish, making communities more self-sufficient. In modern societies, the division of labor is highly specialized and global, with thousands of occupations and workers depending on one another to produce goods and services.

Why have unions in the U.S declined since the 1980s?

Outsourcing of jobs and failure of the NLRB to protect workers.

Work

The activity by which people produce from the natural world and so ensure their survival.

Occupation

Any form of paid employment.

Technology

The application of knowledge of the martial world to production, including the creation of material instruments used in human interaction with nature.

Informal Technology

Economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of formal paid employment.

Division of labor

The specialization of work tasks within a production system.

Economic Interdependence

In the division of labor, individuals rely on others to produce many or most of the goods they need to sustain their lives.

Alienation

The sense that our own abilities as humasn being are taken over by other entities.

What are the main features of capitalism?

• Private ownership over the means of production

• Profit as incentive

• Competition that drives a search for markets in which to sell goods

• The competitive need to lower the cost of production; resulting in the globalization of supply chains, specifically in low-wage countries

• The adoption of technologies that cut labor costs

• Investment of profits aimed at business expansion

Compare the contrast between the different types of capitalism.

• Family Capitalism: was dominated by wealthy families or enterprises, such as the Rockefeller family.

• Managerial Capitalism: Emerges when corporations become publicly traded, shifting from families to executives.

• Welfare Capitalism: Corporations providing benefits, partly to discourage unionization.

• Institutional Capitalism: developed as corporations and financial institutions began owning shares in one another, creating interconnected corporate power through interlocking.

• Global Capitalism: Is the modern stage of capitalism in which transnational corporations operate across many countries seeking global markets, cheaper labor, and higher profits rather than focusing on one nation.

Oligopoly

A situation in which a small number of firms dominate a given industry.

Monopoly

A situation where a single firm dominates a given industry

Family capitalism

Capitalistic enterprises owned and administered by entrepreneurial families.

Managerial Capitalism

Capitalistic enterprises managed by a managerial executive rather than by owners or families.

Welfare Capitalism

Practice by which large corporation protect their employees from the fluctuations of the economy.

Institutional Capitalism

Consolidated network of businesses’ leadership in which corporations hold stock in one another, resulting in increased concentration of corporate power.

Interlocking Directorates

Linkages among corporations created by individuals who sit on two or more corporate boards.

Global Capitalism

Characterized by global markets, production, and finance. Capitalist concerns are global rather than national. Supported by transnational systems of governance such as the WTO.

Why does automation lead to worker alienation?

Machines often replace tasks, making workers feel less connected to what they produce, and reducing their control over the workplace.

What are some of the changes that occurred in the occupational structure in the 20th century?

Shifted from farming and blue-collar to service and white-collar jobs.

How did Keynes explain unemployment, and what was his solution?

Keynes argued that unemployment is due to consumers lacking purchasing power. His solution was for governments to stimulate the economy through public spending and tax cuts.

Automation

Production processes monitored and controlled by machines with only minimal supervision.

Knowledge Economy

A society no longer based primarily on the production of material goods, but on the production of knowledge.

What are two characteristics of ancient cities?

• Surrounded by walls

• A center that could consist of a religious center, royal palace, government buildings, etc.

• The elite live in the center, while the less privileged live near the walls.

• Segregated communities.

What is urbanization? How is it related to globalization?

Urbanization is the movement of a population into towns and cities, away from the land. It is related to globalization because global economic growth and industrial development create jobs that attract people to urban areas.

How does urban ecology use analogies to physical science to explain life in modern cities?

Urban ecology compares cities’ ecosystems, arguing that neighborhoods develop through competition, invasion, and succession, similar to how plants and animals adapt to their environments.

What is the urban interaction problem?

The challenge of living among large numbers of strangers while respecting social boundaries and maintaining order.

According to Jane Jacobs, the more people there are on the streets, the more likely street life will be orderly, agree?

Yes, because there are more “eyes and ears”, discouraging crime and disorder.

Conurbation

A cluster of towns or cities forming an unbroken urban environment.

Megalopolis

The “city of all cities” in ancient Greece—the term is used to refer to very large conurbations.

Urbanization

The movement of the population into towns and cities and away from the land.

Ecological Approach

A perspective on urban analysis emphasizing the “natural” distribution of city neighborhoods into areas having contrasting characteristics.

Urban ecology

An approach to the study of urban life based on an analogy with the adjustments of plants and organisms to the physical environment. According to ecological theorists, the various neighborhoods and zones within cities are formed as a result of natural processes of adjustment by the population as they compete for resources.

Urbanism

A term used by Louis Wirth to denote distinctive characteristics of urban social life, such as its impersonal or alienating nature.

Created Environment

Infrastructure established by humans to serve their own needs, including roads, railways, factories, offices, homes, and other buildings.

Describe at least two problems facing rural America today

Population decline and poverty, specifically among children.

Why did so many Americans move to suburban areas in the 50’s and 60’s?

FHA assisted in buying a house for less than it would have cost to rent in the city. And the Federal-Aid Highway Act enabled people to move to low-tax suburbs.

What are two unintended consequences of suburbanization? How do they deepen socioeconomic and racial inequalities?

Urban decay and residential segregation.

Gentrification

A process of urban renewal in which older, deteriorated housing is refurbished by affluent people moving into the area.

Urban renewal

The process of renovating deteriorating neighborhoods by using public funds to renew old buildings and construct new ones, often through large-scale demolition of slum housing.

Discuss the effects of globalization on cities

Globalization has made cities more interconnected and dependent on one another. Unlike premodern cities, which were relatively isolated, modern cities are connected through global economic and information networks.

What are the four main characteristics of global cities, according to Saskia Sassen?

1. Command posts of the global economy

2. Centers for financial and business services

3. Sites of production and innovation

4. Markets for financial and services products

Global City

A city, such as London, New York, or Tokyo, that has become an organizing center of the new global economy.

Informal Economy

Economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of formal paid employment.

Explain Malthus’s position

Believed that the population growth would outpace the food supply growth.

Describe the four stages of demographic transition.

1. Preindustrial—high birth rate—high death rate—little growth

2. Transitional—high birth rate—falling death rate—rapid growth

3. Industrial—falling birth rates—low death rate—growth slows

4. Postindustrial—low birthrate—low/stable death rate—little growth or decline

How does the theory of demographic transition conflict with Malithu’s ideas?

Malithu believed that more prosperity would lead to population growth and create food shortages. Demographic transition theory holds that economic development leads to fewer children, causing population growth to slow or even decline.

Demography

The study of the size, distribution, and composition of the population.

Crude Birthrate

A statistical measure representing the number of births within a given year, normally calculated as the number of births per 1,000 members. Although the crude birthrate is a useful index, it is only a general measure because it does not specify the number of births in relation to the age distribution.

Age-specific birthrates

Statistical measures representing the number of births within a given population per year in relation to the age distribution.

Fertility

The average number of live-born children produced by women of childbearing age in a particular society.

Crude death rates

A statistical measure representing the number of deaths that occur annually in a given population per year, normally calculated as the number of deaths per 1,000 members. Crude death rates give a general indication of mortality levels of a community or society but are limited in their usefulness because they do not take into account the age distribution.

Mortality

The number of deaths in a population.

Infant mortality rate

The number of infants who die during the first year of life, per 1,000 live births.

Life expectancy

The number of years the average person can expect to live.

Life span

The maximum length of life assigned for a member of a given species.

Rates of population growth or decline

A measure of population change calculated by subtracting the yearly number of deaths per 1,000 from the number of births per 1,000.

Exponential growth

A geometric rather than linear rate of increase.

Doubling time

The time it takes for a population to double.

Malthusianism

A doctrine about population dynamics developed by Thomas Malthus, according to which population increases against “natural limits” represented by famine and war.

Demographic transition

A three-or four-stage process in which one type of population stability (high death rates offset high birth rates) is eventually replaced by another type of population stability (birth rates and death rates decline).

Dependency ratio

The ratio of economically dependent members to economically productive members of the population.

Anthropocene

A term used to denote the current geological epoch, in which many geologically significant conditions and processes are profoundly altered by human activities.