Chapter 14:Politics and Economy in

Global Perspective
 Objectives (slide 1 of 3)
14.1 Political Systems, Power, and Authority
• Distinguish political sociology from political science.
• Describe the major types of authority.
14.2 Governments Around the Globe
• Identify the four basic types of government and
characteristics of each.
• Discuss some of the ways in which political authority is
transferred.
14.3 The US Political System
• Compare and contrast the US political system with other
democracies.
 Objectives (slide 2 of 3)
14.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Power and Political Systems
• Illustrate the functionalist and conflict perspectives on political
power.
14.5 War and Peace
• Explain the causes, types, and costs of wars, as well as the ways
warfare is evolving.
• Discuss the changing demographic composition of the US armed
forces.
• Discuss ways the United States has tried to deter attack as well as
seek diplomatic resolutions.
14.6 Economy and Economic Systems in Transition
• Identify and describe historically different economies and the
nature of work within each.
 Objectives (slide 3 of 3)
14.7 Global Economic Systems
• Compare and contrast the key characteristics, common
differences, and historical trends of capitalism and
socialism.
14.8 Theoretical Perspectives on Economy and Work
• Illustrate the functional, conflict, and symbolic interactionist
perspectives as they apply to the economy and work.
14.9 Postindustrial US Economy and Work
• Describe the changes in economics and work demographics
in the postindustrial era in the United States.
 Political Systems, Power, and Authority
(slide 1 of 2)
• State: The political entity having a
monopoly over the use of force in a specific
geographic territory
• Government: The formal organization that
acts on behalf of the state to regulate
interactions with other states and among
citizens of the state
• Power: The ability to realize one’s goals and
interests, even in the face of resistance
 Political Systems, Power, and Authority
(slide 2 of 2)
• Coercion: Occurs when one person or
group forces its will on another, based on
the threat of physical force or violence
• Influence: The exercise of power through
the process of persuasion
• Authority: Power that has been
institutionalized and is recognized as
legitimate by the people over whom it is
exercised
 Types of Authority
• Traditional authority: Power conferred by
custom and accepted practice
• Legal-rational authority: Power derived
from written rules and regulations of
political systems
• Charismatic authority: Power made
legitimate by a leader’s exceptional
personal characteristics and emotional
appeal to his or her followers
 Monarchy
• Monarchy: A government ruled by a family in which the
right to rule is passed from one generation to the next by
inheritance
• City-states: Small centers of power restricted to cities in
which a monarch ruled the city surrounding a castle
• Nation-states: Political entities extending throughout a
relatively large geographic region
• Absolute monarchs: Claim a monopoly on power in a
country based on divine right
• Constitutional monarchies: Members of royalty serve as
symbolic rulers while elected officials actually govern those
countries
 Democracy
• Democracy: A form of government in which the people governed
have the opportunity to select those who govern and, in some
cases, to participate directly in governance themselves
• Direct democracy: A democracy in which all members come
together to make decisions
• Representative democracy: A democracy in which representatives
of the people are elected to govern on their behalf
• Parliamentary systems: Representative democracies in which
candidates for the national legislature (parliament) represent
political parties
• Democratic republics: Examples of representative democracy;
much like parliamentary systems except that they have popularly
elected chief executives
 Authoritarianism
• Authoritarian governments: Concentrate
power in the hands of a strong leader, who
often rules for life and may exercise absolute
power
• Dictatorship: Rule by a single person
• Oligarchies: Authoritarian governments ruled
by a select few
• Military junta: A group of military leaders who
have seized power from the prior government
 Totalitarianism
• Totalitarian government: An
authoritarian government having
complete control over all aspects of
people’s lives—even aspects having little
or nothing to do with politics
Revolutions, Coups d’Etat, and Transfers
of Authority
• Coup d’état: The abrupt replacement of one
government with another illegally, often relying upon
coercive force or the threat of violence
• Political revolution: The replacement of one political
system with another through violent means
• Nonviolent resistance: Political actions relying on
nonviolent acts to protest particular policies or
regimes
• Elections: Formal decision processes in which
individuals are permitted to vote for their favorite
option
 The US Political System
• The US two-party system, winner-take-all
elections, wedge issues, and efforts to get
voters to the polls are just some of the
many key factors influencing the outcome
of elections.
• Political parties: Organizations whose
major purpose is to gain legitimate
control of the government
 Elections
• Winner-take-all elections: Those in which
the party receiving the most votes in each
district wins the whole district
• Proportional representation: A system in
which seats in a legislature are divided
among parties in proportion to the
number of popular votes received by
each party
 Voter Participation
• Voting rates in the United States are lower now
than they have been during many other periods in
history. During the period between 1874 and 1892,
an average of 79% of all eligible citizens voted in US
presidential elections, although many groups
denied voting rights at that time were
impoverished (i.e. blacks and immigrants). The
voting rate dropped dramatically after 1900,
reaching a rate of 43% in 1920. Between 1945 and
2010, voting rates have ranged between 50% and
65%.
 Candidate Preference
• Gender gap: A tendency for women and
men to have different political
preferences on many issues
 Opinion Polls, Wedge Issues, and
Campaign Strategy
• Wedge issues: Issues about which people
have strong opinions and the position of
their party receives greater public
support than the other party
Lobbyists and Special-Interest Groups

• Interest groups: Voluntary associations of

citizens who attempt to influence public policy
• Lobbyist: Someone who represents an interest
group and meets with public officials to try to
influence their decisions by providing
information supporting the interest group’s goals
• Political action committees (PACs): Interest
groups that are formed to campaign for or
against political candidates, legislation, and
ballot initiatives
 Global Comparisons with Other
Democratic Systems
• Government gridlock: An inability to
resolve important issues when neither
party has sufficient votes to determine
government policy
 Functionalist Perspectives: Pluralist
(Government by the People) Model
• Pluralist models: Argues that many
groups within a community or country
have access to government officials and
compete with one another in an effort to
influence policy decisions
• Veto groups: Interest groups that have
the capacity to prevent the exercise of
power by others
Conflict Perspectives: Elite (Government
by the Few) Model
• Power rests with the “power elite” both
inside and outside government.
• No one can be truly powerful unless he or
she has access to major institutions.
 Causes of War
• War: Organized conflict between nations
• Five circumstances that increase the
likelihood of war:
1. A perceived threat
2. Moral objectives
3. Political objectives
4. Social problems
5. Absence of alternatives
 Types of War
• Asymmetric warfare: War between opponents with significantly
different military power and, consequently, significantly different
tactics
• Terrorism: The systematic threat or use of violence to achieve a
political end; one form of asymmetric warfare
• Cyberwarfare: A form of information warfare using digital
software and hardware to conduct sabotage and espionage
• Drone warfare: The use of remotely controlled airplanes to
conduct surveillance and to kill suspected militants with laser-
guided rockets and other armaments
• Military-industrial complex: The conjunction of interests of the
combination of the federal government, the military, and the
defense industry
 Costs of War
• Military-industrial complex: The
conjunction of interests of the
combination of the federal government,
the military, and the defense industry
Gender, Race, and Class in the Military

• The military is primarily made up of men.

• Women are excluded from one third of all
Army jobs and experience more
harassment.
• An all-volunteer force shifts the burden of
warfare onto disadvantaged minorities
and lower social classes.
 Maintaining the Peace
Deterrence and Defense Diplomacy and Resolution
• Deterrence: Preventing
war from occurring
 Economy and Economic Systems in
Transition
Economy: Consists of the organizations and processes
that produce and distribute goods and services.
Agricultural Economies
Hunting and Gathering Economies
• Economies in which
• Cultures in which agricultural production was
people hunted game efficient, leading to a food
and relied on readily surplus, permitting a much
available vegetation and more complex division of
water for subsistence labor and making it possible
to settle permanently in one
place
 Industrial Economies
• Industrial Revolution: A dramatic change in the nature of
production in which manufacturing became a central
economic activity
• Industrial societies have six important characteristics:
1.They rely on manufacturing and mass production.
2.New machines increase productivity.
3.New forms of energy replace human muscle power.
4.Work becomes centralized in factories.
5.Independent craftsmen are replaced by wage laborers.
6.Narrow specialization contributes one step in the
production process.
 Information Economies and
Postindustrial Societies
• Information revolution: A change that began
during the last half of the 20th century in which
service jobs become more common than jobs in
manufacturing or agriculture
• Information economy: An economy based on
the product of skilled professionals, which is the
information or knowledge they provide
• Postindustrial societies: Dominated by
information, services, and high technology more
than the production of goods
 Economic Sectors
• Economic sectors: Large segments of the economy
representing fundamentally different kinds of
production
– Primary sector: Agricultural production; the major resources
are raw materials and the technology employed is labor
intensive
– Secondary sector: Manufacturing; its activity is the
production of goods, the key resource is energy, and the
technology employed is capital-intensive machine production
– Tertiary sector: The service sector, including the
entertainment industry, the food industry, the professions,
etc.
 Capitalism
• Capitalism: An economy based on private
ownership of wealth, competition, profit,
and noninterference by the government
• Market economy: An economy in which
consumers are the key decision makers,
the market drives the economy, and
transactions are based on profit motive
and competition
 Types of Capitalism
• Competitive capitalism: The capitalism of Marx’s day in which no single
capitalist or small group of capitalists could dominate a market
• Monopoly capitalism: Occurs when one or only a few capitalists control a
sector of the economy
• State capitalism: Capitalism in which capitalistic enterprises exist side by
side with state-owned production enterprises and the state regulates and
manages the economy
• Corporate capitalism: Capitalism dominated by public corporations owned
by many stockholders
• Managerial capitalism: Occurs when managers, through both their day-to-
day involvement in the corporation and their ownership of large blocks of
stock as part of their compensation, dominate the corporation
• Institutional capitalism: Capitalism in which large shares of corporations
are owned by institutional investors such as pension, insurance, or trust
funds
 Socialism
• Socialist economies: Economic systems in
which the means of production are
collectively owned and the economy is
regulated by the government
• Communism: As envisioned by Karl Marx,
an extreme form of socialist economic
and political system in which all members
of the society are equal
 Functionalist Perspective
• Multinational corporations (or
transnational corporations): Commercial
organizations whose operations span
international boundaries, typically both
producing and selling goods and services
in multiple countries
 Conflict Perspective
• Export jobs to low-wage countries: To
move production from high-wage
countries to low-wage countries, resulting
in a net loss of jobs in high-wage countries
and a net increase of jobs in low-wage
countries
• Outsource: To discontinue production and
contract with another company to supply
those goods or services
Trade Restraints and Deep Integration

• Shallow integration: Occurs when most

products are produced in a single country
and then sold in that country and abroad
• Deep integration: Most large
corporations are multinationals that both
produce and sell their products and
services around the world
 Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways in which people find

or create meaning from their work and
the social significance of work, including:
– Work and identity
– Alienation and Job Satisfaction
• Alienation from work: The breakdown of the
natural connections people have with their work
and with other people through their work
– Renegotiating the work contract
 Transition from Agricultural Work to
Factory Work to Service Work
• Occupational structure: In the United
States, refers to the number and types of
jobs available; experienced major shifts
during the 20th century
• Blue-collar jobs: Manual labor
occupations often having relatively low
status, such as machinist, assembly-line
worker, truck driver, or auto mechanic
 Labor Unions
• Labor unions: Groups of workers who unite to
engage in collective bargaining with owners
• Strikes: Temporary work stoppages by a group of
workers to seek changes in working conditions
• Work to rule: The slowdown of work by
meticulously following all regulations and doing
only the minimum work legally required
• Lockout: An action in which the company is
locked up and workers are not permitted to work
or draw pay until the conflict is resolved
 Deindustrialization
• Deindustrialization: The systematic withdrawal of
private investment from manufacturing and the
decline of industry through plant shutdowns, layoffs,
and downsizing
• Downsizing: Reducing the size of companies to cut
costs by laying off workers or even selling parts of the
company.
• Telecommuting: Occurs when workers work from
their homes and communicate with their workplace
through communications technologies, such as
Skype, interactive voice, video, and data conferencing
 Dual Labor Market and Workforce
Diversity
• Dual labor market: A relatively advantaged primary
form of employment and a relatively disadvantaged
secondary form of employment
• Primary labor market: Enjoys relatively good working
conditions, reasonably high pay, opportunity for
advancement, and—most important—job security
• Secondary labor market: Employees routinely
experience high turnover, low job security, few or no
benefits, low wages, and little opportunity for
advancement
 Professions
• Profession: A high-status occupation based on abstract
knowledge enjoying considerable autonomy and authority
and, in turn, serving the public good and regulating its
members
• Key features:
1.Abstract knowledge
2.Autonomy
3.Self-regulation
4.Authority
5.Altruism
• Professionalization: A process of defining a type of work as a
profession
 The Rationalization of Work
(slide 1 of 2)
• Rationalization: A process in which traditional methods and standards of
social organization based on tradition, belief, and even magic are replaced
with new methods and standards of social organization based on
objectively calculable scientific criteria
• Scientific management (Taylorism): Applies scientific and engineering
principles to human labor by breaking a complex task into simple
components and using time-and-motion studies to specify every detail of
the job to maximize efficiency
• Mass production: A process of production in which products are
standardized, parts are interchangeable, precision tools fit parts together
precisely, and the production is mechanized to produce a continuous high
volume
• Assembly line: A mode of production in which a complex task is broken
into individual tasks, with each worker performing only one or a few of
the tasks repeatedly
 The Rationalization of Work
(slide 2 of 2)
• Technology: Consists of the knowledge,
tools, and machines used to produce
artifacts or manipulate the environment
• Deskilling: A reduction in expertise,
training, and experience required to
perform a job
 Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy: The primary design
principle of modern formal organizations;
based on a hierarchical structure of
authority, codified rules and regulations,
and principles of fairness and efficiency
 Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, and
Venture Capitalism
• Entrepreneur: A person who takes an innovative idea and,
through financing and business savvy, turns it into a viable
business
• Private equity: Investors contribute funds in exchange for a
share of ownership or equity in a company
• Angel investors: Affluent individuals who provide initial capital
for a business startup, usually in return for a share of ownership
• Venture capital: Companies in business to loan money to high-
risk, high-potential, early-stage growth startup companies
• Crowdfunding: A process whereby entrepreneurs post their idea
and proposal on a website asking people to contribute small
amounts either to purchase a product in advance or to gain
equity in the business
Unemployment and Underemployment
• Unemployment rate: In the United States, the percentage of
unemployed workers in the labor force actively seeking jobs
• Underemployed: People working at part-time jobs or self-employed
and working less than desired because they cannot get a full-time job
• Seasonal unemployment: Unemployment due to seasonal variations,
such as school teachers on summer vacation, or variations in weather,
which often affect agriculture, construction, and tourism jobs
• Cyclical unemployment: Unemployment resulting from lower
production rates during recessions
• Structural unemployment: Unemployment that results when the skill
set of unemployed workers does not match the skills required for
available jobs or when the unemployed are in a different location
than available jobs
Underground and Informal Economies

• Underground economy: All economic

transactions involving income that is not
reported to the government as required
by law
• Informal economy: Unpaid labor, such as
doing housework, repairing one’s own
car, or performing voluntary charity work
Corporations and the Economy
• Corporation: A legal entity separate from
its owners
• Monopoly: Occurs when a single firm
dominates an industry
• Oligopoly: Occurs when a few firms
dominate an industry