YMAY Chapter 14 - 16

Question 1

capitalism

Answer 1

an economic system in which property and goods are primarily privately owned; investments are determined by private decisions; and prices, production, and the distribution of goods are determined primarily by competition in an unfettered marketplace.

Question 2

feudalism

Answer 2

a pre-capitalistic economic system characterized by the presence of lord, vassals, serfs, and fiefs.

Question 3

agricultural revolution

Answer 3

the period around 1700 marked by the introduction of new farming technologies that increased food output in farm production

Question 4

corporation

Answer 4

a legal entity unto itself that has legal personhood distinct from that of its members - namely, its owners and shareholders.

Question 5

Adam Smith

Answer 5

great advocate of capitalism, positive perspectives on using money over bartering.

Question 6

Goerg Simmel

Answer 6

talks about the benefits of different types of wage labor. The includes salary, civil service salary and honorarium. He says these forms of payment are increasingly depersonalized thus you have a distinct sphere of public economy and private socialization.

Question 7

alienation

Answer 7

a condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers; according to Marx, the basic state of being in a capitalist society.

Question 8

Marx

Answer 8

believes that capitalism will undermine it’s own existence. He argues that efficiency will increase continually with an overproduction of goods, competition will become stiff, and wages will be driven so low that people won’t be able to afford the goods.

Question 9

socialism

Answer 9

an economic system in which most or all of the needs of the population are met through non-market methods of distribution.

Question 10

communism

Answer 10

a political ideology of classless society in which the means of production are shared through state ownership and in which rewards are tied not to productivity but to need.

Question 11

family wage

Answer 11

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

Question 12

service sector

Answer 12

the section of the economy that involves providing intangible services.

Question 13

globalization

Answer 13

this period of globalization is different than the past because of new markets, new means of exchange, new transnational players such as WTO. Globalization highlights the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.

Question 14

corporations as individuals

Answer 14

they have sociopathic (or maybe just rational - self interested) personalities, they have all the rights and responsibilities of an individual.

Question 15

monopoly

Answer 15

the form of business that occurs when one seller of a good or service dominates the market to the exclusion of others, potentially leading to zero competition.

Question 16

oligopoly

Answer 16

the economic condition that exists when a handful of firms effectively control a particular market.

Question 17

productivity enhancing

Answer 17

economic activities that increase the total economic value available to society

Question 18

rent seeking

Answer 18

economic activities that aim to move value from one person or company to another without increasing value.

Question 19

offshoring

Answer 19

a business decision to move all or part of a company’s operations abroad to minimize costs.

Question 20

union

Answer 20

an organization of workers designed to facilitate collective bargaining with an employer.

Question 21

union busting

Answer 21

a company’s assault on its workers’ union with the hope of dissolving it.

Question 22

As we saw at the beginning of the chapter, robots are taking over jobs that used to be held by people. How might this trend impact the growth in income inequality?

Answer 22

Working class will have less job options which means lower income and then the upper class who are using these robots instead of people benefit financially. Making the income gap that much worse

Question 23

How are guest worker programs (temporary work visas for migrants) and offshoring labor potentially related? In your own words, provide two arguments for and against guest worker programs in the United States.

Answer 23

offshoring-a business decision to move all or part of a companies operations abroad to minimize costs. This relates to the guest worker program bc it offers migrants the opportunity to work

• opportunity to work/sustain family
• owners save money
• not fair wages
• temporary job/no stability

Question 24

How do Arlie Hochschild’s findings in The Time Bind differ from our understanding of the substitution effect? How do Jacobs and Gerson build on Hochschild’s work?

Answer 24

His findings were that peoples lives center around work resulting with the family to suffer and found that workers ended up taking on more hours/work place became second home, preferred going to work. This differs from the substitution effect because instead of avoiding their families they should be staying at work longer for financial benefits.
Jacob and Gerson found that people do not take advantage of family-friendly policies bc they are afraid of losing their jobs and don’t want to send the wrong message to their employers by taking time off

Question 25

How has the internet and mobile phone technlogy changed our relationship between home and work?

Answer 25

There is not as much of a physical demand to come to work because most of it now a days can be done through technology at home. People can spend more time with their families but it could also be mixing up home and work where there isn't a big distinction between the two.

Question 26

What is capitalism? How were the "enclosure movement" and "monetization" related to the advent of capitalism?

Answer 26

Capitalism: economic system in which property and goods are primarily privately owned, decisions based off private individuals. The enclosure movement led to the eviction of people working on that once public land, they had no choice but to migrate in search of work. These changes eventually led to the rise of cities and the wage system. Monetization is the establishment of legal currency which led to corporations which led to capitalism

Question 27

How does Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, suggest that capitalism helps to keep societies together? How do monopolies deviate from Smith's ideal view of capitalism?

Answer 27

He believed that individual self interest in an environment where others act the same, will lead to competition and as long as the basic laws and contracts are honored, then it works out. Everyone works together. Monopolies would deviate from capitalism because no one would be competing and working together, one person would have all the power

Question 28

Describe the concept of "alienation" as described by Karl Marx and illustrate two of its forms with examples. How does Weber's negative view of capitalism differ from Marx's?

Answer 28

alienation: condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation and then confront them as alien powers. A shoe worker only knows the skill they are specialized for, this alienate them from other opportunities. Weber thinks that technology and ideas create social change-iron cage -confined to bureaucracy

Question 29

How did the $5 per day wage at Ford Motor Company shine a light on judgments about families and the role of women in society?

Answer 29

Fords wage policy was created so men could work and make money and the women would be provided for and could work in the home. This made women dependent on men which "put them in their place"

Question 30

politics

Answer 30

power relations among people or other social actors

Question 31

authority

Answer 31

the justifiable right to exercise power

Question 32

charismatic authority

Answer 32

authority that rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader.

Question 33

traditional authority

Answer 33

authority that rests on appeals to the past or traditions.

Question 34

Legal rational authority

Answer 34

authority based on legal, impersonal rules; the rules rule

Question 35

routinization

Answer 35

the clear, rule-governed procedures used repeatedly for decision making.

Question 36

rationalization

Answer 36

an ever expanding process of ordering or organizing

Question 37

bureaucracy

Answer 37

a legal rational organization or mode of administration that governs with reference to formal rules and roles and emphasizes meritocracy.

Question 38

specialization

Answer 38

the process of breaking up work into specific, delimited tasks

Question 39

Taylorism

Answer 39

the methods of labor management in troduced by FW Taylor to streamline the processes of mass production in which each worker repeatedly performs one specific task.

Question 40

meritocracy

Answer 40

a society that assigns social status, power, and economic rewards on achievement, not ascribed, personal attributes or favoritism.

Question 41

Milgram experiment

Answer 41

devised by Sanley Milgram in 1961 to see how far ordinary people would go to obey a scientific authority figure.

Question 42

power

Answer 42

the ability to carry out one's own will despite resistance.

Question 43

domination

Answer 43

the probability that a command with specific content will be obeyed by a given group of people.

Question 44

state

Answer 44

as defined by Max Weber, "a human community that (successful) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

Question 45

coercion

Answer 45

the use of force to get others to do what you want.

Question 46

paradox of authority

Answer 46

although the state's authority derives from the implicit threat of physical force, restoring to physical coercion strips the state of all legitimate authority.

Question 47

international state system

Answer 47

a system in which each state is recognized as territoriality sovereign by fellow states.

Question 48

welfare state

Answer 48

a system in which the state is responsible for the well-being of its citizens.

Question 49

citizenship rights

Answer 49

the rights guaranteed to each law abiding citizen in a nation state

Question 50

civil rights

Answer 50

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's personal freedom from interference, including freedom of speech and the right to travel freely.

Question 51

political rights

Answer 51

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's ability to participate in politics, including the right to vote and the right to hold an elected office.

Question 52

social rights

Answer 52

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's protection by the state.

Question 53

soft power

Answer 53

power attained through the use of cultural attractiveness rather than the threat of coercive action (hard power).

Question 54

democracy

Answer 54

a system of government wherein power theoretically lies with the people; citizens are allowed to vote in elections, speak freely, and participate as legal equals in social life.

Question 55

dictatorship

Answer 55

a form of government that restricts the right to political participation to a small group or even to a single individual.

Question 56

game theory

Answer 56

the study of strategic decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and interdependence.

Question 57

collective action problem

Answer 57

the difficulty in organizing large groups because of the tendency of some individuals to freeload or slack off.

Question 58

altruism

Answer 58

an action that benefits a group but does not directly benefit the individual performing the action.

Question 59

iron law of oligarchy

Answer 59

in large and complex organization, like a state, the power structure begins to resemble an oligarchy, a form of government in which power lies with a small group of leaders.

Question 60

political party

Answer 60

an organization that seeks to gain power in a government, generally by backing candidates for office who subscribe (to the extent possible) to the organization's political ideals.

Question 61

interest group

Answer 61

an organization that seeks to gain power in government and influence policy without campaigning for direct election or appointment to office.

Question 62

political participation

Answer 62

any activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action.

Question 63

religion

Answer 63

a system of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things; a set of shared "stores" that guide belief and action.

Question 64

sacred

Answer 64

holy things put to special use for worship and kept separate from the profane; the sacred realm is unknowable and mystical, so it inspires us with feelings of awe and wonder.

Question 65

profane

Answer 65

the things of mundane, everyday life.

Question 66

theism

Answer 66

the worship of a god or gods,

Question 67

ethicalism

Answer 67

the adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life, as in Buddhism and Taoism.

Question 68

animism

Answer 68

the belief that spirits are part of the natural world, as in totemism.

Question 69

denominatoin

Answer 69

a big group of congregations that share the same faith and are governed under one administrative umbrella

Question 70

congregation

Answer 70

a group of people who gather together, especially for worship.

Question 71

pluralism

Answer 71

the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society.

Question 72

sacred canopy

Answer 72

Peter Berger's term to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life - namely, the feeling that life is worth living and that reality is meaningful and ordered, not just random chaos.

Question 73

Evangelicals

Answer 73

members of any denomination distinguished by four main beliefs: the Bible is without error, salvation comes only through belief in Jesus Christ, personal conversation is the only path to salvation (the "born again" experience), and others must also be converted. They proselytize by engaging with wider society.

Question 74

fundamentalists

Answer 74

religious adherents who follow a scripture (such asa the Bible or Qur'an) using a literal interpretation of its meaning.

Question 75

Karl Marx's beliefs

Answer 75

religion was used to keep workers from questioning their oppressed position in everyday life by promising them riches in the after life

Question 76

Max Weber's beliefs

Answer 76

- protestantism was necessary for capitalism because it states that a person fulfilled the duty to God through hard work - making money was not frowned upon, although spending that money on pleasure and personal enjoyments was

Question 77

Durkheim's beliefs

Answer 77

- not our role to make judgement - try to find what people have in common - promotes pluralism = the presence of numerous distinct religious groups in one society

Question 78

pluralism positives

Answer 78

diverse religions can engage one another to build a community

Question 79

pluralism negatives

Answer 79

having too many choices weakens the credibility of any one church

Question 80

micro sociologists beliefs

Answer 80

look at religion in terms of its meaning and uses in peoples everyday lives

Question 81

reflexive spirituality

Answer 81

a contemporary religious movement that encourages followers to look to religion for meaning, wisdom, and profound thought and feeling rather than for absolute truths on how the world works.

Question 82

megachurch

Answer 82

typically Protestant, attracts more than 2,000 visitors per week.

Question 83

supernatural compensators

Answer 83

promises of future rewards, such as salvation or eternity in heaven.

Question 84

sects or sectarian group

Answer 84

high tension organizations that don't fit well within the existing social environment. They are usually most attractive to society's least privileged - outcasts, minorities, or the poor - because they downplay worldly pleasure by stressing otherworldly promises.

Question 85

cult

Answer 85

religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect - church cycle.

Question 86

sect-church cycle

Answer 86

churches are world-affirming and peacefully coexist with society around them. A sect is high tension and doesn't fit so well. Sect's normally splinter off of a church when leaders focus too much on the secular.