Political Systems and Social control Flashcards
Conflict Theory
A theory of social stratification that aruges that society is always changing and in conflict because individuals in the upper stratum use their wealth, power, and prestige to exploit those below them
Functions of politcal systems
- Maintenance of internal order
- Management of affaris with other societies
Dimenssions of politcal systems
- Extent to which political institutions are disticnt from other aspects of the social structure
- extent to which authority is concentrated into specific politcal roles
- Level of political integration(size of the territiorial group that comes under the control of the politcal structure)
Types of poltical Organziations
- Decentralized
- Centralized
Characteristics of Decentralized Political Organization
- Generally found in small, foraging societies
- leaders have no real authority
- Decisions usually democratic
- Provides great flexibility and stablity
Two types of Decentralized political organizations
- Bands
- Tribes
What are bands
- Small autonomous group, with the least pcomplicated forms of political organzation
Characterstics of bands
- Generally small in size
- Usually nomadic and hunters and gathers
- Usually little sense of personal ownership
- high value on sharing, cooperations and reciprocity
- Little role specialization
- Egalitarian
- Few differences in status and wealth
- Political decisions are frequently embedded in wider social sturucture
- Least amount of politcal integration
- Leadership roles tend to be informal
Achieved status (Leadership)
The status (leadership) an individual acquires during the course of his or her life
Ascribed status (leadership)
The status (leadership) a person has by virtue of birth
Characteristics of Tribes
- Generlaly gropus of bands occupying a specific region, which speaks a common language, share a common culture, and are intergrated via descent groups
- usally found in herding or farming groups
- Means of temporarily uniting for common defense, labor, religious functions, etc
- Leadership, again, is informal
- Most often found among food producers
- tend to have populations that are larger, denser, and more sedentary
- Through different from bands, some similarities
Pan-Tribal Mechanisms
Means to integrate all of the local segments of the tribe into a larger whole
Types of Centralized politcal organizations
- Chiefdoms
- states
What is is Chiedoms
- Ranked society in which every member has a position in a hierarchy
- Individuals status is usually determined by their descent group (more closely related to the chief, greater status)
- Power ultimately in the hands of single individual (Chief)
Characteristics of Tribes
- Integrate a number of local communities in more formal and permanent way
- Chief-ships generally hereditary
- Chiefs, as politcal officials, tend to be permanent and with centralized power
Characteristics of Chiefdoms
- Chief’s power seen in many ways
- Economically
- Sanctioned to use force
- Religiously
- Traditionally, chiefdoms highly unstable
Visual organizations of chiefdoms
State
- A hierarchical form of political organization that governs many communites within relatively large geographic area
- Most formal of politcal organizations
Characteristics of states
- Has the power to collect taxes
- Can recruit labor for public projects or armies
- Monoply on the use of force
- Large Bureaucracies with permaanent instiutions that serve legistlative, administrative, and judicial functions
- Organize power on supra-kinship basis
- Tend to be unstable
Authority of state rests on two important foundations
- State holds exclusive right to use force and coercion
- State maintains authority by means of ideology
Social norm
Expected forms of behavior
Social control
- Internalized controls
- Externalized controls
Internalized control
Beliefs that are so much a part of the people that each person becomes peronally responsible for his or her own actions
Externalized control
- Societal designed customs which will encourage conformity to social norms
Externalized controls are called ______
Sanctions
Sanctions:
Externalized social controls designed to encourage conformity to social norms
Forms of Sanctions
- Postive
- Negative
- Informal
- Formal
Positve Sanctions
Incentives to conform such as awards, medals, titles, recognitions from society
Negative Sanctions
Threats of punitive actions to force conformity
Three forms of negative sanctions
- Imprisonment
- Corporal punishment
- Ostracism
Informal sanctions
Societal snactions that do not involve legal statutes
Formal sanctions
Highly organized, structured sanctions that are backed by legal statutes
Laws
A social norm, the neglect or infraction of, is met, in threat or fact, by application of physical force
Functions of law
- Defines relationships among members of a society
- Determines proper behavior under specified circumstances
- Allocates the authority to employ coercion in the enforcement of sanctions
- Redefines social relations and ensures social flexibility
Social stratification
The division of a society into two or more groups that do not share equally in basic resources that support life, influence, and prestige
Forms of Social Stratification
- Gender stratification
- Social class
- Caste
Gender stratification
Men and women are regarded as unequal, with the males outranking females
Social class
Categories of individuals who enjoy equal or nearly equal access to resources and prestige
Caste
Special form of social class in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life
Race
A subgroup of the human population whose members share a greater number of physical trais with one another than they do with those of other subgroups
Ethnic group
A group of people sharing many of the same cultural features
Mobilty
The ability to change one’s social class
Functional theories of stratification
A theory of social stratification holding that social stratification exists because it contributes to the overall well-being of a society.
Conflict Theory of social stratification
A theory of social stratification that argues that society is alwasy changing and in conflict because individuals in the upper stratum use their wealth, power, and prestige to exploit those below them.
