Lesson 8 Keywords

Question 1

a condition of lawlessness or political disorder caused by the absence or collapse of governmental authority

Answer 1

anarchy

Question 2

power that people consider as legitimate, as rightly exercised over them; also called legitimate power

Answer 2

authority

Question 3

an economic system characterized by the private ownership of the means of production, the pursuit of profit, and market competition

Answer 3

capitalism

Question 4

separation of powers among the three branches of U.S. government - legislative, executive, and judicial - so that each is able to nullify the actions of the others, thus preventing the domination of any single branch

Answer 4

checks and balances

Question 5

the concept that birth (and residence) in a country impart basic rights

Answer 5

citizenship

Question 6

power that people do not accept as rightly exercised over them; also called illegitimate power

Answer 6

coercion

Question 7

Thorstein Veblen’s term for a change from the Protestant ethic to an eagerness to show off wealth by the elaborate consumption of goods

Answer 7

conspicuous consumption

Question 8

the view that as both capitalist and socialist economic systems adopt features of the other, a hybrid (or mixed) economic system will emerge

Answer 8

convergence theory

Question 9

the domination of the economic system by large corporations

Answer 9

corporate capitalism

Question 10

a system of government in which authority derives from the people; the term comes from two Greek words that translate literally as “power to the people”

Answer 10

democracy

Question 11

a hybrid economic system in which capitalism is mixed with state ownership

Answer 11

democratic socialism

Question 12

a form of government in which power is seized by an individual

Answer 12

dictatorship

Question 13

unrestrained manufacture and trade (literally, hands off capitalism)

Answer 13

laissez-faire capitalism

Question 14

a form of government headed by a king or a queen

Answer 14

monarchy

Question 15

companies that operate across many national boundaries; also called transnational corporations

Answer 15

multinational corporations

Question 16

a form of government in which a small group of individuals holds power; the rule of the many by the few

Answer 16

oligarchy

Question 17

diffusion of power among many interest groups, preventing any single group from gaining control of the government

Answer 17

pluralism

Question 18

the ability to have your will done, even over the resistance of others

Answer 18

power

Question 19

C. Wright Mills’s term for the top leaders of U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation’s major decisions

Answer 19

power elite

Question 20

a form of democracy in which voters elect representatives to govern and make decisions on their behalf

Answer 20

representative democracy

Question 21

an economic system characterized by the public ownership of the means of production, central planning, and the distribution of goods without a profit motive

Answer 21

socialism

Question 22

the use of violence to produce fear to attain political objectives

Answer 22

terrorism

Question 23

a form of government that exerts almost total control over the people

Answer 23

totalitarianism

Question 24

to Durkheim, one of the three essential elements of religion; a moral community of believers

Answer 24

church

Question 25

a unified picture of the world

Answer 25

cosmology

Question 26

a group that uses diplomas and degrees to determine who is eligible for jobs, even though the diploma or degree may be irrelevant to the actual work

Answer 26

credential society

Question 27

a new religion with few followers, whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion

Answer 27

cult

Question 28

in reference to education, the ways by which schools transmit culture, especially its core values

Answer 28

cultural transmission

Question 29

brand names within a major religion

Answer 29

denominations

Question 30

a high school graduate who has difficulty with basic reading and math

Answer 30

functional illiteracy

Question 31

a process by which education opens and closes doors of opportunity; another term for the social placement function of education

Answer 31

gatekeeping

Question 32

the unwritten goals of schools, such as teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms

Answer 32

hidden curriculum

Question 33

unintended beneficial consequences of people’s actions that help to keep a social system in equilibrium

Answer 33

latent functions

Question 34

helping people become part of the mainstream of society

Answer 34

mainstreaming

Question 35

the intended consequences of people’s actions, designed to help some part of a social system

Answer 35

manifest functions

Question 36

to Emile Durkheim, beliefs and practices that separate the profane from the sacred and unite its adherents into a moral community

Answer 36

religion

Question 37

a group larger than a cult whose members still feel hostility from and toward society

Answer 37

sect

Question 38

the replacement of a religion’s “other-worldly” concerns with concerns about “this world”

Answer 38

secularization of religion

Question 39

a false assumption that something is going to happen and then comes true simply because it was predicted

Answer 39

self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 40

a function of education; funneling people into a society’s various positions

Answer 40

social placement

Question 41

promoting students to the next grade even though they have not mastered the basic materials

Answer 41

social promotion

Question 42

Weber’s term for the desire to accumulate capital as a duty - not to spend it, but as an end in itself - and to constantly reinvest it

Answer 42

spirit of capitalism

Question 43

an economic system in which individuals own the means of production but the state regulates many economic activities for the welfare of the population

Answer 43

welfare (or state) capitalism