Chapter 13: Economy and Politics

     

    Both, economy and politics, are two concepts very difficult to understand, people that understand both concepts well enough, understand that these two concepts are actually very connected to each other, they affect each other, and we often confuse each other by mixing them together. To satisfy a people’s needs and wants, every society develops a system of roles and norms that governs the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. This system is called the economic institution. An Economic institution is different than a political institution, the system of roles and norms that governs the distribution and exercise of power in society. Different political institutions choose to take to practice different economic institutions, these two kinds of institutions are what form every country’s government. There is much more to these institutions and systems than only this.

    Economic systems are all about who controls the factors of production, resources needed to produce goods and services, either the people, or the government. All economic systems comprise three main sectors: Primary Sector, which deals with the extraction of raw materials from the environment, the Secondary Sector, which concentrates on the use of raw materials to manufacture goods, and the Tertiary Sector, which is composed of providing services. Economy is basically is not all the same, it has many economic models. In capitalism the factors of production are owned by individuals rather than by the government. In Socialism the factors of production are owned by the government, which regulates economic activity. In the picture below, you can see in the spectrum how economic points of view, or practices, change radically from one perspective to another.

    Capitalism is a form of economy where the people own the means of production. The economy is basically determined by the law of supply, states that producers will supply more products when they can charge higher prices and fewer products when they must charge lower prices, and the law of demand, states that consumers will demand more of a product as the price of the product decreases. Capitalism is known as a term called laissez-faire capitalism, which is French for “let the people do what they want to do”. Today we find free-enterprise systems thanks to capitalism limiting government control of business in economy. Another innovation capitalism has brought are corporations, a business organization that is owned by stockholders and is treated by law as an individual person. A problem that tends to happen on capitalist economies is the formation of an oligopoly, the market situation in which a few large companies control an entire industry.

    Totally opposite to Capitalism is communism, a political and economical system in which property is communally owned. Sometimes communism leads to totalitarianism, when this happens, those in power exercise complete authority over the lives of individual citizens.Sometimes governments do influence in capitalist economies though. During protectionism government uses trade barriers to protect domestic manufacturers from foreign competition. Many people are against free trade, trade that is not restricted by trade barriers between countries. There are some important factors inside politics that will help it succeed, one of them is power, the ability to control the behavior with or without their consent. Power is usually exercised by the state, the primarily political authority in society. Different political institution have different legitimacy, which refers to whether those in power are viewed as having the right to control, or govern, others. According to Weber, legitimate power is authority. There are different kinds of authorities, traditional authority is power that is based on longstanding custom. Rational-legal authority is based on rules and regulations, finally charismatic authority is based on the personal characteristics of the individual exercising the power. The opposite of authority is coercion, power that is considered illegitimate by the people.      

Types of Governments 

    There are many types of governments that make politics. There is democracy, power is exercised through the people, monarchy is a type of government in which one person rules, constitutional monarchy where the monarch is nothing but a symbolic head o state and democratic socialism which is the combination of a democratic government with a socialist economy. All these systems have been democratic, except for the monarchy, but there are also other systems, authoritarian systems. Here we include governments based on authoritarianism where power rests firmly with the state. Examples of these kinds of systems are absolute monarchy, an authoritarian system in which the hereditary ruler holds absolute power. A dictatorship, an authoritarian system where all the power is in hands of one individual only, when a little group has seized the power from a previous government, they become a junta. When there is a group trying to seek and gain power by legitimate means, it is called  political party.

    The final question then is, why do these two affect each other? Well, throughout history, it is clear how authoritarian governments have always had socialist/communist economies, while democratic governments have had less socialist and capitalist economies, that is how politics could change economy and how economic institutions shape political institutions, which in the end, were a little more similar than anybody ever thought they were. 

Chapter 14: Education and Religion

    
     Two of the most important factors to modern society are education and religion. Education consists of the roles and norms that ensure the transmission of knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior from one generation to the next, this is the reason why education is fundamental for every society, without education, no society would be able to succeed. Religion is a system of roles and norms that is organized around the sacred world and that binds people together in social groups. Religion, just as education, is also a keystone to society, religion makes people of all different kinds equal, unites people with the same beliefs and makes them closer together. Both education and religion are essential for every society to be successful for a long time.


  Education was created in order to be able to teach new generations the building blocks of the society they live in, to teach them the rules, norms, how to behave, and all other essential matters that will facilitate social control in the future. Kids, just like adults, get educated every day, either by a formal or informal education. There are two kinds of education, formal and informal. Formal education, which involves instruction by specially trained teacher who follow officially recognized policies, is called schooling.Informal education is the one that we get from the people around us and/or our parents. This type of education is mainly on how we should behave within society, and about the norms of our local community. There are many problems to a formal education institution according to conflict sociologists. Sociologists use the term hidden curriculum to describe schools’ transmissions of cultural goals that are not openly acknowledged. Formal education institutions, according to conflict sociologists, also promote inequality by tracking, tracking involves the assignment of students of different types of educational programs, such as general studies, vocational training, and college-preparatory studies. There are some alternatives to education too. Charter schools receive a character of operation from the state and is basically managed by the state, but is ran as if it were a private institution. In this kind of institution, parents have school choice, the amount of money they want the state to spend on them. Another solution is homeschooling, a system in which a child’s main education is undertaken by parents at home. Most schools have also adapted zero tolerance policies. These involves set punishments, even expulsion, for serious offenses such as carrying a weapon, committing a violent act, or possessing drugs or alcohol. A new system in American schools that has derived lately is bilingual education were the children learns two languages at school, including English. In religion, sacred things are very important. Sacred is anything that is considered to be part of the supernatural world and inspires awe, respect and reverence, the opposite of profane, which is anything considered to be part of the ordinary world and thus, commonplace and familiar. Many times being part of a religion involves practicing a certain ritual; a ritual may be defined as an established pattern of behavior through which a group of believers experiences the sacred.

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  There are three main types of religions. The first one is animism. Animism is a belief that spirits actively influence human life. Examples of religions included in this category are, shamanism, where it is believed that spirits communicate only with one person in the group, called shaman, and totemism, which involves a believe in kinship between humans and animals or natural objects. The second kind of religion is theism, the belief in a god or gods. Two derivations from theism are monotheism, which involves only believing in one god, and polytheism, which involves believing in more than one god. The third kind of religion is ethicalism, which is based on the idea that moral principles have a sacred quality.Religion is divided into a couple organizational structures. An ecclesia is a type of religious organization in which most people in the society are members by virtue of their birth. A denomination is a well-established religious organization in which a substantial number of the population are members. A sect is a relatively small religious organization that typically has split off from a denomination differences concerning beliefs. Finally a cult is a new religion whose beliefs and practices differ markedly from those of the society’s major religions.

   Religion and education share the same objective, to promote social control, yet, time has shown how both have had different correlations as to the importance society gives to each. Education used to be a minor detail in a kids daily life, with the years education has become more and more important, today parents give great importance to the quality level of the education their child is receiving. 

                      Different religions in USA.

Meanwhile, religion has been on a constant decrease. American society is becoming more secular, religion is losing its influence in everyday life in the United States. Even though it is hard to measure religiosity, the depth of people’s religious feelings, statistics show that religion’s influence on American life is in constant decline.

Chapter 11: Gender, Age, and Health

     We plan to make an unequal society equal, we try to make a society where there are men and women, two genders with totally different characteristics, equal and have both sexes perform equal roles when its simply impossible. So this difference in genders contributes to an unequal society, many problems come when these genders, male and female, fight for their roles in society. Gender is not the only factor societies look up to, treatment in society is different depending on your age, of course this always depends on the society you are living on. Many times a high age brings disabilities to the human body, and people who suffer of these disabilities see how the chances society gives them to get a decent job are significantly lowered. 

     Gender comprises the behavioral and psychological traits considered appropriate for men and women. People in a society have roles, gender roles are the specific behaviors and attitudes that a society establishes for men and women, and these roles are different, therefore, in many cases, men or women prejudice the other sex based on how well a member of the other sex can fulfill his role. A very important factor to get people to fulfill their role correctly is gender identity, gender identity is the awareness of being masculine of feminine as those traits are defined by culture. Like mentioned before, gender roles tend to lead to social inequality, patriarchy is a system where men are dominant over women, in many cultures the men of the family becomes the leader and decides what happens inside the house. Sexism is the belief that one sex is by nature superior to the other. Many movements have been held in the past century claiming sexes are equal. Women’s movement, in America, held’s that the sexes were socially, politically and economically equal, women make this movement. Women had never had the right to vote in elections, but in the past century they were able to accomplish the suffrage reform, which gave them the right to vote. More and more women are joining the work force every day, decreasing the wage gap, the difference between a woman’s salary and a man’s salary. There once was said that there is a “glass ceiling” in businesses, the glass ceiling is the invisible barrier that prevents women from gaining upper level in businesses, this “glass ceiling” is apparently beginning to vanish though. It is visible how women have a second shift, their work in society, women not only do they work on their professional regular work but they also have  a ”second shift” because they get home and must take care of the kids, clean the house, cook etc… these actions are usually attributed to women in most societies.

Gender roles of women that stay in home cleaning and taking take of children.

     Societies are changing at fast rates, old people have always been the once that you go to look for advice, since old used to be seen as wise, but things have changed. Societies today tend to have preference for some age groups over the others and this causes social inequality, since they prefer a group of people of one certain age over the other. Ageism is the belief that one age group is naturally superior to the others. It is amusing how in a society like the American society where people seem to worship youth and look forward to looking as young as possible, there are each time more and more old people, more than ever before. Sociologist have observed a new phenomenon which they decided to name “the graying of America”, which refers to how by 2050 1 in every 5 people will be elderly, that’s 20% of the entire population. Today there are many elderly people since they are mostly part of the baby-boom generation, period of time when birthrates in the US simply got extremely high, then they lowered again but all those kids born during that period are today around 50-60 years old. Another problem we are facing today is the dependency ratio, back in the 60’s, for every 5 workers there was 1 retiree, this is the dependency ratio, but by 1998 this had lowered to 3 workers per retiree and it is estimated that it will continue to lower and reach a 2-1 ratio by 2030. It is thought that elderly people will continue to increase as well thanks to the availability of medicine, Medicare is the government-sponsored health-insurance plan for elderly Americans and Americans with disabilities. There is also another program; the Medicaid is the state and federally funded health insurance program for low-income individuals.A main reason why elderly population is growing so fast is thanks to health. Even though health might be very good, citizens are not happy with the medical system. Most people are under managed care programs, where you pay a monthly or annual fee and in return receive health-care services. This is the most common method used for health insurance. Medicine has developed and today we can also see alternative medicine, for example, acupuncture, acupressure, massage, yoga and more unconventional methods. One of the biggest problems that today’s medicine has to face is the Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease that attacks the immune system, leaving a person vulnerable to a host of deadly infection.

     Our society is full of prejudice and discrimination, and we complain that everyone should be equal over and over again without any actual response. The truth is, why do we claim so much that we are all equal when we are not, races, ethnicity, gender, age, all those factors make us different, and capable of accomplishing different tasks. Gender and age are two factors that make society unequal, yet we will have to live with it. Should we worship youth so much and leave the elderly people, who brought us to the world, out? Probably we are not taking the right decision when it comes to answering that question.

Chapter 12: The Family

     Family is more than a group of individuals, is a group of people related by blood, marriage, and adoption that often live together and share a monetary fund. And the family can be divided in four types of it: nuclear which is one parent or both that liv e with their children, family of orientation which is a family when have one bon or adopted into, family of procreation which is family one has a partner and kids with, and extended family which is two or more generations of the family as grandparents or cousins living in the same roof.

     In this we can also see the kinship that is a network of people which are married, born or adopted into a family. They are three different levels of kinship: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary kinship is the on closest relationship. These only include the mom, dad, spouse, sister, brother, daughter, and son. The secondary kinship is the second closest relationships such as aunts, grandparents, nephews, and nieces. And at last the tertiary kinship is one of the largest subgroups and contain aver 150 categories. Sociology defines marriage simply as the rules established between individuals.  They are different types of marriage. Monogamy that most of the cultures follow this union type and one can only marry another persona at a time, and you can remarriage by divorcing. Polygamy is that one can be married to several people at a time and it is done because of prestige and wealth. Polygyny in here one man marries many women this is a common type of polygamy. Polyandry is when one woman can marry many men at a time. Patrilocality are families that leave near the husband family.

     Some characteristics that family has are that they regulate sexual activity, reproduction, socialization, economic security, emotional security. People get married often due or physical or emotional attachment with their partner. And they are two different types of marriage homogamy that is marrying a similar age, race, religion, and socio-economic status and the heterogamy that is marrying people from different social characteristics. 

                                                Extended family also the base of society.

     Family disruptors is almost for ending something, this interfere with the family and start to begin and create the problems like family violence which is one of the most devastating and also most rare type of disruption with no boundaries regarding the age, race or religion. The second step is the divorce by the separation of the couple, one of two marriages end up in divorce. Those couples with college degrees are less likely to experience divorce while graduate women are more likely to get divorced. African American also is more likely to get divorced. Some side effects that these disruptors bring are the depression, anxiety, alcoholism, suicide, and drug abuse. Widowing is when one reaches old age and one spouse die. New issues with families are he delayed marriage, delayed childbearing, childlessness, single parent families, remarriage, and same-sex marriage. On delayed marriage and childbearing many people are together but not married maybe because economic issues. In childlessness infertility of voluntary childlessness has occurred, after WWII women were given more opportunities in the workforce. Single parent families are families with divorced parents with a case of dead spouse or issues within it. Money is one of the biggest concerns for families. The remarriage are step families in which a spouse becomes a widow and remarry again, it takes 5 years for kids in a remarried family to be fully adapted. And the same-sex families are the same sex couples in which they are judged negatively but a research in Binghamton University made a study on how people judge same sex families. Also the University of Amsterdam discovered that children in lesbian homes than kids in straight families scored higher on psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence and did better academically with less behavioral issues.

     Family is like a small society in which they can create issues such as disruptions and the different types of marriage that depending on what part of the world are you is different. Each family is different the rules and how is it organized.

Chapter 10: Racial and Ethnic Relations

     Societies always say how they try to make everyone equal, to make each person equal to one another, but the simple truth is that, no matter how hard we try, we are all born different. Society tends to divide people into groups depending on their characteristics, which similar to other people on the group, and different to the characteristics to the rest of the members of that society. 

     People in society are mostly separated into race and ethnicity. These groups, as part of the same society, interact with one another and there are identified interaction patterns among dominant and minority groups. Many people go into the USA in search for a new life, these people come from many different places, and when they get to the American society, they begin to form part of one of these groups as well, the population of these minority groups in the USA is growing at a very fast rate, faster than in any other period in history. Race is a category of people who share inherited physical characteristics and whom others see as being a distinct group. Ethnicity is the set of cultural characteristics that distinguishes one group from another group. People who share a common cultural background and a common sense of identity is called ethnic group. Societies also have what they call minority groups. A minority group is a group of people who, because of their physical characteristics or cultural practices, are singled out and unequally treated.

 

     Society is divided and these groups that it is divided into treat each other differently, after all, people all treat each other depending on the group that they come from. Main behaviors that these group take towards each other are: discrimination, “treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction infavor of or aga-inst, a person or thing based on the group,class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit”, and Prejudice, “any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.” There are two types of discrimination, legal discrimination, discrimination upheld by law, and Institutionalized discrimination, discrimination as an outgrowth of the structure of a society. There are also many types of prejudice, stereotype, an oversimplified, exaggerated, or unfavorable generalization about a group of people, for example, or racism, the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is naturally superior to other races or ethnic groups, these two are two great examples of prejudice. Scapegoating, a term used by psychologists, refers to the practice of placing the blame for ones troubles on a innocent individual or group, psychologists believe this might affect discrimination between members of society.

     Minorities have cultural pluralism a policy which allows each group within society to keep its unique cultural identity. Assimilation, the blending of culturally distinct groups into a single group with a common culture identity. Minorities have throughout history undergone segregation, minority group is forbidden to live in the same areas as the dominant group and cannot use the same public facilities. There are two types of segregation, De jure segregation based on laws, and de facto segregation based on informal norms. Minorities in many cases have suffered of subjugation, the maintaining of control over a group through force, slavery, the ownership of one person by another, and finally, and worse, genocide, intentional destruction of the entire targeted population, extermination.

      The discrimination just for being different like another type of race and not to be the same as the others.

                                                            

     Societies always try to show off how equal their people is, but people will never be equal, and people tend to discriminate those that are not from their equal race or ethnicity, these groups feeling things such as repulsion towards each other eventually lead to conflict and chaos. Discrimination will probably change a lot in upcoming years too, we can see how in societies such as the American society minorities have increased in number to almost equal the number of those of dominant groups, eventually minorities will become the vast majority of people, and have the power over the dominant group that once the dominant group had over the minority group.