SOCY 122 Flashcards
What is C Wright Mill’s view on The Power Elite?
“A small group of military, industrial, and governmental leaders ultimately control the fate of the United States. In this model, power rests in the hands of a few people in society.”
What is G William Domhoff’s view on The Power Elite?
In his elaboration on Mills’ original book, he “agreed with Mills that the power elite run the world’s industrialized capitalst nations, but stressed the role played by elites within the corporate community, policy formation organizations, and the social upper class”
What are the 4 Dimensions of Power (Mann 1986)?
- Ideological power
- Economic power
- Military power
- Political power
What is Marx’s theory on power?
“Society is stratified by two unequal classes (ruling and subordinate class)
What is Weber’s theory on power?
“Society is stratified by inequal classes, status groups, and parties”
What is Bourdieu’s theory on power?
“Society is stratified based on forms of capital including social, cultural, economic, and symbolic”
What are the three functions of the state?
- Maintaining order by being a decision-making body
- Protecting against other states
- Providing a sense of belonging (such as nationalism and patriotism)
What are the historical vs. current mechanisms of state power?
Transition from empires to nation states and changes in borders.
Historical:
- Defined by the physical restriction of people to one place (ex. because they were surrounded by water)
- Empires - groups of states under a single supreme authority; largely machines for war (power through conquest)
Current:
- Territorial state size has become less important than economic and institutional power for the survival and prosperity of states and their societies (Used to be bigger = better)
- Nation states
What are the different regime types?
- Anarchy
- Dictatorship
- Monarchy
- Authoritarian
- Fascist
- Totalitarian
- Theocracy
- Oligarchy
- Democracy
What do welfare states provide?
- Labour wages
- Employment insurance
- Health insurance
- Old-age pensions
- Aid to those who are struggling financially and for folks with disabilities
- Family allowances, parental leaves, childcare subsidies (more recent)
How do states provide welfare?
- Public sector - the welfare “state” technically only refers to government programs and/or regulations.
- Private sector - ex. private daycares, mental health services and supports
- Non-profits/community sector - can be partially government funded or privately funded, and are often subsidized by tax deductions
- Informal sector - goods, benefits, and services that family members or other informal groups provide for each other (often gendered)
What are welfare states?
“A government that
facilitates programs promoting
social welfare.”
“A state committed to
influencing markets and social
forces with the aim of achieving
greater equality”
What are the 3 different types of welfare?
- Liberal Welfare States – largely market-led
(private/market delivery of welfare), with high
degrees of stratification. - Conservative Welfare States – families are
responsible for securing welfare - Social-Democratic Welfare States – sees
welfare as a right and the state as responsible
for delivering welfare services
What are the forms of family structures?
Bilateral, Patrilineal, Matrilineal
What are the marriage types?
- Monogamy (only one spouse)
- Serial monogamy (multiple spouses but only one at a time)
- Polygamy (several spouses at once)
- Polyamory (several partners at once)
What do the Big Three have to say on the family?
- Durkheim: what families do for society and their members
- Marx: what families do to society
- Weber: Interested in the way relationships form
How have families changed over time?
- Social class differences
- Gender role differences
- More gays
- Changes in marriage trends
- Changes in child-bearing shit
- Significant parts of this are higher divorce rates and familial violence
What is the purpose of the sociology of religion?
chatgpt: “This sentence is talking about studying how people, groups, and societies think about religion. It looks at how these ideas show up in public life and affect people’s personal lives. It also considers how different interpretations of religion impact individuals, groups, and society as a whole.”
“concerned with how individuals, institutions, and cultures construe religious belief, how these ideas penetrate public culture and individual lives, and with the implications of religious interpretations for individual, institutional, and societal processes”
What are the elements of religion?
The Sacred and the Profane (Durkheim) Cosmic-esque shit vs everyday life
What are the various forms of religious organizations?
- Ecclesia (large and national or official religion)
- Denominations (large but not connected to the state)
- Sects (small group that broke off and changed ex. Protestantism)
- Cults/New Religious Movements (small and alt)
What are the theoretical perspectives and theses on religion? (as seen in lecture)
- Durkheim: S+P, religion is functional because it gives people purpose, offers values, helps during crisis
- Talcott Parsons (like Kirstyn): integrative function of religion
- Marx: false consciousness that comes with religion
- Weber: Protestant Ethic led to the spirit of capitalism (do good work for God —> promotion of capitalism)
- W. Brown: Secularization in the west is becoming more popular
What are the theoretical perspectives covered on the family in Mitchell (2021)?
- “Sociologists use a variety of theories and methods to explain the structure and dynamic of families
- Family research is invaluable to human knowledge and understanding
- Theory and research depend closely on each other
- There are two equally scientific and complementary methodological approaches to studying families (quantitative and qualitative)
- A researchers choice of theory and methods, as well as their own values, biases, and behaviours can influence the entire research process
- It is important to critically evaluate theory and research in order to make meaningful interpretations”
