Module 8: State, Power, and Social Movements

Question 1

politics

Answer 1

ability of people, or groups, to gain access to government and use its power to influence society

Question 2

nation-state

Answer 2

human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence within a given territory - MAX WEBER

Question 3

democratic state

Answer 3

people can directly vote for their representatives and, in some cases, can even vote on specific rules or policies

Question 4

lobbying

Answer 4

democratic societies also permit citizens to contact elected leaders to argue for what they want

Question 5

activists

Answer 5

believe that states aren’t listening to them and that “normal” forms of influence are inadequate or illegitimate

Question 6

social (or protest) movement

Answer 6

groups of people organized for social change and who act in contentious ways

Question 7

revolutionary social movements

Answer 7

challenge the state so effectively that the state collapses

Question 8

states

Answer 8

the “ultimate authority” within some geographical territory

Question 9

taxation

Answer 9

using the force of government to collect funds that are used to pay for services like the police, schools, and healthcare

Question 10

welfare states

Answer 10

a country in which a large part of its budget is spent on social services, such as retirement benefits and healthcare

Question 11

policy

Answer 11

rules of behavior that the state creates, like laws, as well as the services that governments provide for people

Question 12

axis of politics

Answer 12

the way states are made, acquire power, and use power to further their goals by creating and enforcing policy

Question 13

city states

Answer 13

governments that control a single city and the surrounding area

Question 14

representative democracy

Answer 14

people influence the state and its policies by voting for representatives, who then decide which policies to approve

Question 15

direct democracies

Answer 15

people can directly vote on government policies

Question 16

referendum

Answer 16

eligible voters get to say “yes” or “no” on a specific proposed law

Question 17

competitive democracies

Answer 17

where people have a genuine option to vote for alternative candidates

Question 18

aristocracy

Answer 18

kings and queens who inherit their kingdoms

Question 19

formal policies

Answer 19

those written into law

Question 20

political parties

Answer 20

common feature of democratic states

Question 21

informal policy

Answer 21

not written into law, but still common to follow (Republicans vs Democrats)

Question 22

median voter model

Answer 22

says that democratic governments tend to offer policies that reflect the voter who is exactly in the middle (the median) of voter preferences

Question 23

salience

Answer 23

amount that people care about an issue

Question 24

elite theory

Answer 24

some individuals or groups have high social status, and the government listens to these people more than others - for example, a number of researchers have claimed that policies are more likely to be adopted by the state if wealthy, college-educated people support the policy

Question 25

pluralism

Answer 25

policy is determined by a very specific constellation of groups organized around a specific issue

Question 26

electoral college system

Answer 26

system in which presidential votes are tallied at the state level, rather than from a simple national count of all votes

Question 27

suffrage

Answer 27

the right to vote in political elections

Question 28

electorate

Answer 28

the group of people allowed to vote

Question 29

universal suffrage

Answer 29

most adults eligible to vote, including most current prisoners and all former prisoners

Question 30

Reconstruction

Answer 30

the period after the Civil War when the federal government re-integrated the Southern states into the Union

Question 31

poll tax

Answer 31

states charged a fee for voting

Question 32

literacy test

Answer 32

test of reading ability administered to determine who was allowed to vote

Question 33

grandfather clause

Answer 33

laws passed in Southern states restricting voting to only those individuals whose grandfathers could vote

Question 34

black codes

Answer 34

laws that barred African Americans from holding certain jobs

Question 35

Civil Rights Movement

Answer 35

social movement aimed at increasing civil and political rights and protections for African Americans

Question 36

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Answer 36

prohibited states from passing laws that discriminated against Black voters

Question 37

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

Answer 37

the Court held that having separate schools for African American students was inherently damaging and that schools must be desegregated

Question 38

liberal

Answer 38

these voters think governments should collect a lot of taxes so they can support social programs like education, state-subsidized health care, and retirement benefits for older people

Question 39

social conservatives

Answer 39

voters want the state to affirm religious values and what they see as traditional social roles

Question 40

ideologies

Answer 40

systems of ideas

Question 41

liberal states

Answer 41

democratic governments that have less regulated markets and provide lower levels of social services, more permissive in economic affairs

Question 42

corporatist states

Answer 42

various factions—such as business owners and labor leaders—are part of state entities that determine social policy, allowed to actively negotiate policy

Question 43

social democratic states

Answer 43

have relatively high taxes that are used to pay for generous social service

Question 44

feminist movement

Answer 44

tries to improve the status of women and reduce discrimination

Question 45

serfdom

Answer 45

the practice in which peasants were tied to specific estates and served the landowning nobility; this allowed millions of people to become full participants in society

Question 46

biases

Answer 46

tendencies to be prejudiced for or against something

Question 47

positive sociology

Answer 47

attempts to be fact-based and as objective as possible

Question 48

normative analysis

Answer 48

trying to judge what is good or bad

Question 49

institutional politics

Answer 49

the process by which people assert influence in official and sanctioned ways (voting, giving money to a political party, and registering as a lobbyist to contact politicians)

Question 50

contentious politics

Answer 50

groups work outside the system and challenge the very legitimacy of some government policy or social behavior

Question 51

social movements

Answer 51

groups thet want more fundamental change and are willing to be disruptive to get it

Question 52

grassroots

Answer 52

people can set up a chapter of the movement in their town and don’t need permission from the leadership to do it

Question 53

social movement sector

Answer 53

the individuals and organizations that spend their time organizing protests, challenging authority, and changing public opinion

Question 54

social movement outcomes

Answer 54

What is the effect of the movement on the individual who participates?
What factors contribute to movement success or failure?

Question 55

authoritarianism

Answer 55

style of government that relies on obedience to leaders

Question 56

Nationalism

Answer 56

belief that governments should put national interests first by closing borders and waging trade wars, still attracts follower

Question 57

political sociology

Answer 57

tries to understand government and power from the sociological perspective

How do people influence and interact with states?
How do states make laws and policies?

Question 58

Left movements

Answer 58

often ally themselves with lower-status groups (e.g., ethnic minorities or women) and seek social and legal equality

Question 59

Right movements

Answer 59

tend to ally themselves with higher-status groups and push for things to stay as they are