Final Exam (pt 1) Flashcards
Colonialism
Meaning:
Colonialism involves people who settle and live permanently in a new territory
Importance:
- accumulation of capital needed for birth of capitalism (marx)
- Columbus and his arrival to Bahamas
- Israel vs Palestine, settler colonialism (jewish) leading to displacement
Two Row Wampum
Meaning:
The Two Row Wampum is a belt made of white and purple beads, made in two parallel rows. This is what the Haudenosaunee used to counter the papal bulls.
Importance:
- The Two Row Wampum serves as a treaty / agreement between European settlers and the Haudenosaunee.
- It emphasizes sovereignty for the Haudenosaunee, that they would not be overridden by the settlers
- It is grounded in principles of equality and non intervention
- It is still used today in discussions about Indigenous rights.
Indian Act
Meaning:
The Indian Act gave the government control of most aspects of Indigenous life
Significance:
- Indigenous people were physically removed from their land and put into residential schools
- Indigenous people were not allowed to vote in elections
- Forbade Indigenous people from forming political orgs.
- The Indian Act made it an offence to hire a lawyer is said lawyer was going to be used to file a claim against the Canadian Gov.
Residential Schools
Meaning:
Residential were created to assimilate Indigenous people and “Kill the Indian in the child”
Importance:
- Held over 150k children over an entire century
- Children were forbidden from speaking their own language
- Schools poorly maintained, discipline was harsh
- Establishment of residential schools essentially declared Indigenous people to be unfit parents
- Still reflected in society today through disparities in income, education etc.
- Survivors succumb to depression and other mental health issues
TRC Report
Meaning:
The TRC Report (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) created the 94 “Calls to Action”
The goal was to investigate what truly occured in Residential schools
Significance:
- It calls on the government to improve the education of indigenous people
- That all indigenous people deserve the same equal opportunity as regular Canadians
- It wants the government to acknowledge and protect indigenous languages and work towards reconciliation.
- Reconciliation meaning that Canada should restore friendly relations between our nation and Indigenous peoples
Neoliberalism
Meaning:
Neoliberalism believes that free markets are the best, most efficient way of organizing society. That free markets = free people.
Importance:
- Leads to immense inequality in wealth
- In the US, the top 1% owns 40% of the nation’s wealth
- Elon Musk owns upwards of 200 billion (avg worker would have to work 7 mill years)
- inequality is so enormous that poorer Americans don’t register on the chart
- neoliberalism leads to unequal opportunity
- 50% of all wealth can be traced to inheritance
Social democracy
Meaning:
Social democracy aims to promote freedom and equality in the economy through democratic collective action
opposes laissez faire capitalism that often leads to inequality and oppression
Importance:
- reduces inequality
- Social democracy believes in universalism to ensure that welfare is provided to all, and not just specific group
- Sweden has one of the lowest levels of poverty in the world
- Social democracy is contrary to Neoliberalism, as it prioritizes the state rather than the market
Marixsm
Meaning:
Marxism thinks that society is divided into classes: capitalists vs workers (bourgeoisie vs proletariat)
The bourgeoisie = those who own business and wealth
Importance:
- Marx sees workplaces in capitalist society as antagonist places. The boss wants the worker to work as hard as possible for the smallest amount possible, while the worker wants the exact opposite.
- Marxism believes every capitalist business works by exploitation, if a worker were to make 100$, the boss would say he’s 50$ and keep the rest
- Marxism believes this profit is essentially theft, as workers have created the wealth, but bosses are taking it
- structural problem (competition)
Anarchism
Meaning:
Anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations. It is commonly misconceived to be the opposite
Fundamental idea of Anarchism is that relations between people and our institutions should be based on consent, not on coercion and violence
Importance:
- relationships between human beings should not involve hierarchy and domination
- Anarchism is opposed to capitalism, as they see the market as coercive environments where bosses are tyrants and workers are dominate
- Anarchism is also opposed to prisons and police. Instead it should be restorative justice
- If you are babysitting a niece or making a decision with a romantic partner, you are voluntarily coming to an understanding, meaning you are anarchist
Exploitation
Meaning:
Exploitation is the act of treating someone unfairly by using their labor / ideas and giving them little in return
Importance:
- capitalists believe work is a free and fair exchange of labor for money
- most people do not have the freedom to quit due to economic pressure
- socialists believe people have less bargaining power than their bosses
- competition forces bosses to exploit workers
Negative externalities
Meaning:
Negative externalities are costs that take place by people who are neither the buyers nor the sellers of a transaction
Importance:
- It is important as they can be extremely serious world issues. Global warming is caused by externalities
- most important economic decisions (air travel, heating) ignore social costs of pollution
- Factories that emit toxic pollution into rivers do not reflect their true costs in the prices of their products
Worker co-op
Meaning:
Worker cooperatives are run democratically. If you work in a co-op, you get decision making power about how things run
Importance:
- You have more incentive to make the workplace run well, as you are a co-owner
- the more money your job makes, the more you make
- socialists believe all workplaces should be democratized
Reverse Racism
Meaning:
Misconception to prejudice. Reverse racism is ‘racism’ towards white people
Significance
- racism = structural power + prejudice
- it is not actually racism, but rather it is prejudice
- black people do not hold structural power over white
Subconscious Bias
Meaning:
Subconscious bias describes the associations we hold, outside our conscious awareness and control
Importance:
- employers might have pre-determined perceptions of you (hiring)
- Impacts our interactions, leading to unintentional bias and stereotypes
- By becoming aware of our biases, we can promote a more inclusive environment
- perpetuates inequality in different social and institutional settings
