Sociology Test 2 Part One

Capitalism

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

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

Enclosures

The transformation of public land into private land, displacing citizens, such as farmers, and pushing them to cities.

Atlantic slave trade

A form of primitive accumulation involving the exploitation of labor for capitalist development.

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

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class that owns the means of production.

Proletariat

The working class that sells their labor for wages.

Marx’s theory of value

Everything starts with a commodity, and has two forms of value, use value and exchange value

Marx argues that the capitalist appropriates the surplus value form 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 perception that commodities have intrinsic value, obscuring the labor and relationships behind their production.

What we see (use-vale and exchange-value) vs what we do not see (exploitation of surplus value)

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

A stage of capitalism characterized by mass production and consumption, advocates for higher wages for Workes to but what they produce, strong unions and collective bargain, and state intervention in the economy through welfare policies and social safe nets.

Neoliberalism

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

if markets do not exist then they must be created

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.

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).

capitalist exploitation

workers are paid for their labor power, but the value of what they produce exceeds the wage they receive.

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.