Sociology Test 2

Capitalism

An economic system where property and goods are privately owned, and market competition determines prices and production. Investments are determined by private decisions

Feudalism

The economic and social system in Europe before the rise of capitalism.

Technological revolutions

Significant advancements, such as the agricultural revolution and the steam engine, that contributed to the development of capitalism.

Primitive accumulation (Marx)

The process through which land and labor were appropriated by force for the development of early capitalism.

Enclosures: The transformation of public land into private land, displacing citizens, such as farmers, and pushing them to cities. What is this?

A form of primitive accumulation of land

Atlantic slave trade

A form of primitive accumulation involving forced labour

Adam Smith

A Scottish economist who argued that individual self-interest in capitalism leads to societal welfare, known for the concept of the "invisible hand."

Smith’s theory of capitalism

If we let people purse their own interests, individuals end up improving the welfare of all society. Individual pursuit of own interests are driving force of commerce development. Believes economy is regulated by the invisible hand

Adam Smith’s thought of Division of labor

Believes it is positive for capitalism and human development because it leads to innovation; the more specialized one’s work, the more likely one is to create new forms of conducting this work.

Monetization

the quantification of a products values is positive because it leads to more efficient trades

What does Marx think about value?

Everything starts with a commodity and has two forms of value (use value and exchange value). He believes that the capitalist appropriates the surplus value from the worker.

Surplus value

The profit generated when workers are paid less than the value of what they produce.

The coat having an extra $20 tacked onto it for profit.

Commodity fetishism (the spell of the commodity)

Hides the truth of capitalist exploitation

The exchange-value appears innate to the commodity, its quantification hides the fact that behind each commodity, there is a relationship of exploitation. In capitalism, (unequal) relationships between people appear as (equal) relationships between things.

Monopoly capitalism

A stage of capitalism characterized by the exclusive control of markets by large corporations.

Gilded Age

A period marked by significant capital accumulation and income inequality in the U.S.

Fordism

Golden age of capitalism, mass production, mass consumption, higher wages (workers should be able to buy what they make), stronger unions, and state intervention in the economy through welfare policies and social safe nets.

Neoliberalism (David Harvey)

Proposes the human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong property rights, free markets, and free trade.

The role of the state is to create and secure an institutional framework to such practices, not food, housing, or health. Started individualism. No state intervention in society; if markets do not exist then they must be created (no hand outs, the end of rights)

Welfare state

A system where the state is responsible for the well-being of its citizens, providing essential services outside the market.

The New Deal

A series of initiatives by President Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression aimed at economic recovery and worker protection. Consisted of initiatives to intervene in the economic and protect workers

Industrialization Thesis

The idea that social welfare benefits arise to address needs created by industrialization. State intervenes to care for who are unneeded in the labor market. The surplus of wealth after industrialization allowed states to intervene to make sure people had basic necessities. This makes the welfare state the natural result of a healthy industrialized society

This is a Functional thesis

Neo-Marxist Thesis

The view that the welfare state mediates class conflict by providing basic necessities to prevent revolution.

Wealth is in the hands of a small group of people, so the general population feels an impulse to confiscate that wealth through revolting. Form of Conflict theory

T.H Marshall types of rights

Civil rights (freedom from state interference), political rights (participation in politics), and social rights (protection from the market).

essence of capitalist exploitation

Workers are paid for their labor power, but the value of what they produce exceeds the wage they receive. The workers produce more value than they receive in wages, and the capitalist claims the surplus.

Use Value

qualitative use of object

why you use something

Exchange value

quantitative value a commodity has in relations to other commodities when exchanged in the market

It is similar to the price, with the profit.

Social rights

Guarantee a citizen’s protection by the state, including “protection from the free market in the areas of housing, employment, health, and education”

freedom from the market

this is the role of welfare state

Civil Rights

Guarantee a citizen’s personal freedom from state interference, including freedom of speech and the right to travel freely.

Political rights

Guarantee a citizen’s right to participate in politics, including the right to vote and the right to hold office.

Definition of state according to Weber

“A state is a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a given territory.” A state has the monopoly of violence over its citizens.

What does Weber think about authority?

He believes that state authority and social obedience are sustained in modern capitalism, and growing rationalization and bureaucracy affect humans in modern capitalism

Charismatic Authority

Legitimacy rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader.

The “superhuman” aura of a person inspires loyalty and obedience in others. Cult leaders

Traditional Authority

Legitimacy rests on the appeal of traditions.

An authority dominates “by virtue of age-old rules and power.”

Legitimation through the logic of “this is how it has always been. Like the King.

Legal-Rational Authority

Legitimacy is based on impersonal rules that apply to everyone.

Organized and administered by bureaucracy

. . . is routinized: it follows standard procedures, regardless of the person who is enforcing the rule (e.g., the individual police officers) or the one being the subject of the enforcement (e.g., a person in the street) and is rationalized: it is subjected to ever-expanding modes of organization that seek efficiency

Attached to pre-determined roles, not individuals

Characteristics of bureaucracy

Impersonality: Rules follow objective criteria based on efficiency and merit, not personal relationships and feelings.

Hierarchical structure: Rules are enforced by a clear chain of command, in which a person at each level has specific attributions and restricted power.

Diffused responsibility: A bureaucracy’s legitimacy comes from the fact that the bureaucrat “does not make the rules.

A part of Legal-rational authority

What does the family have to do with capitalism and the state according to Engels?

The family is not a natural development. The family is a social institution related to the modes of production (economy)

Monogamy

The practice of having a sexual relationship with only one partner, enforced for women to establish patrilineal inheritance.

Patriarchal family

A family structure where men hold the majority of power and authority, often organized around monogamous, patrilineal units.

The second shift

The unpaid reproductive and household work that women do at home on top of their paid work in the job market.

Family wage

A wage paid to male workers sufficient to support a dependent wife and children.

solidified myths about women’s dependence on men and their inability / unwillingness to work

Matrilineal societies

Societies where descent and inheritance are transmitted through mothers.

In times are reproduction was not understood

Patrilineal societies

Societies where descent and inheritance are transmitted through fathers.

Capitalist sexual division of labor

The division of roles whereby men work for wages in production while women engage in unpaid reproductive labor.

Collective ownership

Resources such as land, food, and tools were collectively owned and shared in early human communities.

Private property

The surplus of resources led to the notion of private property, marking the beginning of class divisions and social inequalities.

Economic shift after the Industrial Revolution

Families transitioned from subsistence-based lifestyles to working for wages in urban areas, separating the public and private spheres.

Working-class women's roles post-Industrial Revolution

Working-class women worked in both production and reproduction, but their work was often devalued and paid lower wages.

Feminist movement's impact post-1970s

A combination of economic and cultural developments led to women's increasing entrance in the job market, affecting family structures.

Earning gap

The persistent disparity where women, on average, earn less than men, contributing to women's financial dependence and risk of domestic violence.

Communal family structure in early societies

Families were organized around communal living with fluid sexuality and shared child-rearing responsibilities.

Social Security Act (1935)

• Retirement Benefits: Financial assistance to retired workers and 65 or older

• Unemployment Insurance: Temporary financial assistance to workers who lost their job

• Aid to Dependent Children (ADC): Financial assistance to families with children when the breadwinner was absent, unemployed, or deceased

•Grants to States for Public Health Services: Public grants for states to establish public health programs, including maternal and child health services

division between the public and private spheres

the public domain was associated with work, politics, and formal institutions; and the private domain was associated with family life, home, and personal relationship

men belong to the public sphere and women to the private sphere

When Smith says “invisible hand” it means

the economy is regulated like a well-oiled machine. If everyone does their own thing, the economy will regulate itself.

Neoliberalism led to changes in

Global economy (no state interventions, free global trade, collapse of local industry, deindustrialization in the north, multinational corporations and privatizations in the south), work (weakened labor unions, fewer labor rights, less secure and formal work, rise of informal contracts (freelancers)), community (weakened social security, less public goods, privatization of education, security and healthcare)