Political Systems and Social control Flashcards

1
Q

Conflict Theory

A

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

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2
Q

Functions of politcal systems

A
  • Maintenance of internal order
  • Management of affaris with other societies
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3
Q

Dimenssions of politcal systems

A
  • 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)
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4
Q

Types of poltical Organziations

A
  • Decentralized
  • Centralized
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5
Q

Characteristics of Decentralized Political Organization

A
  • Generally found in small, foraging societies
  • leaders have no real authority
  • Decisions usually democratic
  • Provides great flexibility and stablity
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6
Q

Two types of Decentralized political organizations

A
  • Bands
  • Tribes
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7
Q

What are bands

A
  • Small autonomous group, with the least pcomplicated forms of political organzation
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8
Q

Characterstics of bands

A
  • 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
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9
Q

Achieved status (Leadership)

A

The status (leadership) an individual acquires during the course of his or her life

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10
Q

Ascribed status (leadership)

A

The status (leadership) a person has by virtue of birth

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11
Q

Characteristics of Tribes

A
  • 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
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12
Q

Pan-Tribal Mechanisms

A

Means to integrate all of the local segments of the tribe into a larger whole

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13
Q

Types of Centralized politcal organizations

A
  • Chiefdoms
  • states
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14
Q

What is is Chiedoms

A
  • 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)
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15
Q

Characteristics of Tribes

A
  • 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
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16
Q

Characteristics of Chiefdoms

A
  • Chief’s power seen in many ways
  • Economically
  • Sanctioned to use force
  • Religiously
  • Traditionally, chiefdoms highly unstable
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17
Q

Visual organizations of chiefdoms

A
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18
Q

State

A
  • A hierarchical form of political organization that governs many communites within relatively large geographic area
  • Most formal of politcal organizations
19
Q

Characteristics of states

A
  • 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
20
Q

Authority of state rests on two important foundations

A
  • State holds exclusive right to use force and coercion
  • State maintains authority by means of ideology
21
Q

Social norm

A

Expected forms of behavior

22
Q

Social control

A
  • Internalized controls
  • Externalized controls
23
Q

Internalized control

A

Beliefs that are so much a part of the people that each person becomes peronally responsible for his or her own actions

24
Q

Externalized control

A
  • Societal designed customs which will encourage conformity to social norms
25
Q

Externalized controls are called ______

A

Sanctions

26
Q

Sanctions:

A

Externalized social controls designed to encourage conformity to social norms

27
Q

Forms of Sanctions

A
  • Postive
  • Negative
  • Informal
  • Formal
28
Q

Positve Sanctions

A

Incentives to conform such as awards, medals, titles, recognitions from society

29
Q

Negative Sanctions

A

Threats of punitive actions to force conformity

30
Q

Three forms of negative sanctions

A
  • Imprisonment
  • Corporal punishment
  • Ostracism
31
Q

Informal sanctions

A

Societal snactions that do not involve legal statutes

32
Q

Formal sanctions

A

Highly organized, structured sanctions that are backed by legal statutes

33
Q

Laws

A

A social norm, the neglect or infraction of, is met, in threat or fact, by application of physical force

34
Q

Functions of law

A
  • 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
35
Q

Social stratification

A

The division of a society into two or more groups that do not share equally in basic resources that support life, influence, and prestige

36
Q

Forms of Social Stratification

A
  • Gender stratification
  • Social class
  • Caste
37
Q

Gender stratification

A

Men and women are regarded as unequal, with the males outranking females

38
Q

Social class

A

Categories of individuals who enjoy equal or nearly equal access to resources and prestige

39
Q

Caste

A

Special form of social class in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life

40
Q

Race

A

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

41
Q

Ethnic group

A

A group of people sharing many of the same cultural features

42
Q

Mobilty

A

The ability to change one’s social class

43
Q

Functional theories of stratification

A

A theory of social stratification holding that social stratification exists because it contributes to the overall well-being of a society.

44
Q

Conflict Theory of social stratification

A

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.