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