SOC313: 2. Theories

Question 1

What’s History Got to Do With It?

Answer 1

Counterfactual History

How does seemingly insignificant historical events contribute to larger historical processes

Question 2

What’s History Got to Do With It?

Answer 2

Goals:
Starting point for analysis for term paper
The past is a good starting point - understanding processes in time that led to the development
Historical Events - Logical and based on evidence
Rarely a simple processes of A-B

Question 3

What’s History Got to Do With It?

Answer 3

We will talk about history a lot
Think about it concretely
Historical sociologists
Weber thought capitalism as a step in evolution
Marx saw futilism as first step and communism as last step

Question 4

Methodenstreit

Answer 4

German for “method dispute”

Disagreement and debate over what role HISTORY should play in explaining social dynamics

Question 5

Methodenstreit

Answer 5

Controversy beginning in the 1880s and lasting for more than a decade
But these debates have persisted for decades right up to the present day

Question 6

Methodenstreit

Answer 6

Debate on what role history should play

How much credit should we give to historic events in creating present structures

Question 7

Counter-Factual History

Answer 7

Historiography that attempts to answer counter-factuals.
Counter-Factuals- “What if?” Questions
How would it change history? How would it affect present structures?

Question 8

What if Germany had won World War II?

Answer 8

Turning Points

Specific events may play a role, but there are other variables that play roles

Question 9

What if Germany had won World War II?

Answer 9

E.g. WWII: What is Hitler died in WWI? If you look at broader picture, WWI would have ended the same way. Germany would still be bankrupt. There would still be many extremist right wing. There would still be the great depression.

Question 10

What if Germany had won World War II?

Answer 10

At the end of the day, someone else would have filled the role, albeit not in the same way. We still have to look at the broader picture, not just at one role.

Question 11

What if the Roman Empire Never Fell?

Answer 11

Instead of watching American Idol we’d be watching gladiators

Question 12

Turning Points

Answer 12

Critical junctures in the course of world history. If relatively MINOR events had unfolded differently during these turning points, the course of world history would have been DRAMATICALLY altered.

Question 13

Turning Points

Answer 13

E.g. Cleopatra: if her nose was a little smaller, would the world be the same?

Question 14

Pseudo-Turning Point

Answer 14

Collins concedes that TURNING POINTS can be influential and PATH DEPENDENT for relatively “small” events or DETAILS of larger historical trends

Question 15

Pseudo-Turning Point

Answer 15

When you look at long term processes e.g. class, stratification, demography, small events are unlikely to affect it
There are small events that can have turning points

Question 16

Bottlenecks

Answer 16

A key historical event which results in the RESTRICTING of possible subsequent outcomes (hence the analogy of the bottleneck), thus making a certain historical trajectory almost INEVITABLE

Question 17

Bottlenecks

Answer 17

Very careful in making an assumption that an event makes present situation inevitable
It can hard to nail down that one event locked it an trajectory because there are other variants

Question 18

Path Dependence

Answer 18

People’s CHOICES in the PRESENT are LIMITED/RESTRICTED by events that have occurred in the PAST.

Question 19

Path Dependence

Answer 19

Because an event in the past set this sequence of events in motion, we are stuck in this bottleneck
Events that locked us in may be something that was seemed insignificant at the time

Question 20

Path Dependence

Answer 20

Sometimes small minor events can lead to major developments
E.g. invention of the steam engine
Steam engine led to the industrial revolution

Question 21

Path Dependence

Answer 21

Bottleneck would argue if we had no steam engine, we would have no industrial evolution and we would be living as agrarians

Question 22

Increasing Returns Theory

Answer 22

A long term outcome becomes LOCKED IN as a result of an early, small, random, or accidental event. This outcome might not be efficient.

Question 23

Increasing Returns Theory

Answer 23

Outcome may not be efficient

When events happen, they become habit as we repeat them

Question 24

Increasing Returns Theory

Answer 24

Had that event been different, that can be repeated and change our present
A lot of the times we do things because of tradition

Question 25

Increasing Returns Theory

Answer 25

E.g. QWERTY
Ergonomics would tell us we could be more efficient with a different layout
Early on when printing press developed, typewriters came with this layout, and it kept getting reproduced

Question 26

Lessons for us?

Answer 26

1. Events are consequential, but not in isolation

History does matter? We shouldn’t assume one event would be inconsequential.

Question 27

Lessons for us?

Answer 27

2. An event is but one of a number of events, patterns, trends, and/or forces that, together, contribute to a present outcome.

Question 28

Lessons for us?

Answer 28

Events are one of a number of events. You have to think of the bigger picture. You have to think about the conditions. Talk about one key event, but also talk about other events* (assignment)

Question 29

Lessons for us?

Answer 29

3. Sometimes events that played a role might be surprising. Don’t limit focus on something that might seem related.
   Consequential events can often seem relatively small, accidental, and unrelated

Question 30

Lessons for us?

Answer 30

4. Present outcomes of past events are never “inevitable”- events don’t produce history, people do
   Path dependence ignores that people make choices. We aren’t locked in despite of events that occur.

Question 31

First KKK

Answer 31

Founded by six CONFEDERATE veterans on December 24th, 1865 during the RECONSTRUCTION of the South
Wanted to control the dramatically changed social situation and restore WHITE SUPREMACY.

Question 32

First KKK

Answer 32

Used public VIOLENCE against BLACK people as a form of intimidation.
For the south, the changes were radical

Question 33

First KKK

Answer 33

People there for a long time were seeing Black people get rights that they previously learned to see as property and inhuman

Question 34

First KKK

Answer 34

KU KLUX KLAN ACT OF 1871- Federal law enacted that was used to enforce civil rights provisions under the constitution.

Question 35

First KKK

Answer 35

1870- federal court deems the KKK to be a TERRORIST ORGANISATION.
By 1872, clan was disbanded, but during this time LYNCHINGS peaked

Question 36

First KKK

Answer 36

Law was passed very quickly against KKK - quick negative reaction
Even thought the clan was disbanded, the lynchings peaked

Question 37

First KKK

Answer 37

Lynchings not necessarily a result of the KKK, because they were disbanded
In 1870s - Selling of postcards depicting lynchings
When these atrocities were taking place, the KKK was essentially gone

Question 38

Second KKK Clan

Answer 38

1915 – film Birth of a Nation is released.
“Clan Craze”
LYNCHING of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman

Question 39

Second KKK Clan

Answer 39

New ANTI-IMMIGRANT, ANTI-JEWISH, ANTI-CATHOLIC, PROHIBITIONIST and ANTI-SEMITIC
Membership reaches 4, 000, 000 by 1920, or 1 in 5 Americans

Question 40

Second KKK Clan

Answer 40

Decades later The Birth of a Nation played a role in why the KKK came back
Depicted as a film classed, despite its racist undertones

Question 41

Second KKK Clan

Answer 41

Celebration of the KKK, call to come back

At the time, there were advocacy groups for african americans, but it was a box office success

Question 42

Second KKK Clan

Answer 42

Film played an important role, but there are possible other factors
1920s - new laws that were anti-immigant…

Question 43

Second KKK Clan

Answer 43

KKK came to embody all of these, it spoke to a large amount of sentiments which allowed it to grow
Had the film not been released, we don’t know if the KKK would have still emerged
There isn’t enough evidence

Question 44

KKK and Politics in the US, 2

Answer 44

Membership comprised of both Democrats and Republicans; KKK candidate endorsements
1924- Clan member Edward Jackson is elected GOVERNOR of Indiana

Question 45

KKK and Politics in the US, 2

Answer 45

Anaheim California CITY COUNCIL taken over by the KKK in 1924
1926- Former clan chief Bibb Graves elected GOVERNOR of ALABAMA

Question 46

KKK and Politics in the US, 2

Answer 46

All positions on city council went to KKK members
During prohibition, the city council was very lax at the time so they came in to strictly enforce it
KKKK - in Canada was celebrated

Question 47

KKK and Politics in the US, 2

Answer 47

Films may have been different

Something small such as a film happening as determining an event would put us on shaky ground

Question 48

KKK and Politics in the US, 2

Answer 48

If you look at history such as the KKK, among factors such as hatred sentiments, lynchings, and the film
Yes the film made a role, it is still used as a recruitment tool
You need to find a careful balance between key events and factors

Question 49

Assisted Death in Belgium

Answer 49

The Case of Assisted Suicide in Belgium
Process in which euthanasia is being legalized in Canada
What should the law look like? How do we regulate it?

Question 50

Assisted Death in Belgium

Answer 50

Belgium legalized it in 2006
Not just applied to incurable physical illness
Certain people qualify for assisted suicide

Question 51

Assisted Death in Belgium

Answer 51

E.g. Treatment resistant depression

What constitutes intolerable suffering?

Question 52

Euthanasia

Answer 52

Euthanasia – The intentional termination of life by another person at the explicit request of the person wishing to die
Removed age restriction with the consent of parents
Passive vs. Active

Question 53

Euthanasia

Answer 53

Passive Euthanasia- Hastening death by altering treatment and/or letting nature take its course
e.g. Doctors take them off medication or the machine with request of patient
Active Euthanasia- Causing death via direct action

Question 54

Euthanasia

Answer 54

Voluntary Passive Euthanasia- Physician supplies advice, help, or means of to commit suicide to a patient wishing to end their life.

Question 55

Belgium

Answer 55

Significant debate in netherlands televised in Belgium

Activist groups in 80s

Question 56

Belgium

Answer 56

95 - euthanasia bill proposals

96 - committee advise governments on what bill would look like

Question 57

Historical Context of Belgium’s 2002 Euthanasia Act

Answer 57

Steadily aging population since 1960
Many ppl were getting older and asking for assisted suicide
90s many doctors were practicing assisted suicide
Close geographic proximity to the Netherlands, who

Question 58

Historical Context of Belgium’s 2002 Euthanasia Act

Answer 58

legalised euthanasia in 2000
Widespread popular support among the population
Dioxin food scandal
Democrats successful party

Question 59

Historical Context of Belgium’s 2002 Euthanasia Act

Answer 59

99 - government became aware of contaminated products
Tests and further actions were not taken so the left wing government used this scandal to win against right wing democrats

Question 60

Historical Context of Belgium’s 2002 Euthanasia Act

Answer 60

2000s - legalized same sex marriage and assisted suicide
If this crisis didn’t happen, would assisted suicide have happened
But we know it did play a role