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Social Institutions

Social Institutions. Political & Economic, Healthcare & Media . Power & Authority . Economic Institution: functions that concern the production and distribution of goods and services Political Institution : where power is obtained and exercised .

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Social Institutions

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  1. Social Institutions Political & Economic, Healthcare & Media

  2. Power & Authority • Economic Institution: functions that concern the production and distribution of goods and services • Political Institution: where power is obtained and exercised • Power: the ability to control the behavior of others • Coercion: control through force • Authority: power accepted as legitimate by those subject to it

  3. Forms of Authority • Charismatic authority: arises from a leaders personal characteristics • Hitler, Chavez, King, Gandhi, Mandela • There is no replacement • Traditional authority: legitimacy is rooted in custom • Feudalism, Dalai lama • Rational-legal authority: power resides in offices rather than officials • Pope, Presidents • Can lose their power if abused

  4. Types of Political Systems • Democracy • Direct democracy: people directly decide majority wishes • Representative democracy: uses elected officials to fulfill majority wishes Democracy is Hard.

  5. Types of Political Systems • Totalitarianism: a political system in which a ruler with absolute power attempts to control all aspects of a society • Single political party • Campaign of terror • Control of communications • Military control • Planned economy (sometimes)

  6. Types of Political Systems • Authoritarianism: a political system controlled by elected or non-elected rulers who usually allow some type of individual freedom • Iran, Cuba

  7. Political Power in American Society • Candidates are usually pretty similar in ideas • Major candidates usually represent a moderate opinion • Costs $ of elections limit the field of who can run

  8. On What Do We Base Our Votes? • Family: family influences of our parents and relatives have a huge impact • Education: more educated tend to vote more often, be more informed • Mass media: publicizes some issues, ignores others, shapes public opinion • Age and Gender: young tend to be more progressive, women tend to be more liberal on social issues • Economic status and occupation: rich vs. poor, union vs. nonunion, etc.

  9. Two Models of Political Power • Pluralism: political decisions are made based on compromise among special interest groups • No interest group has more power than others • Hopefully most democracies • Elitism: a community or society is controlled from the top by a few individuals or organizations

  10. Functionalist Perspective: Pluralism • Believe major decisions are not made by the elite few • All interest groups have comparable power • Tax breaks are good for everybody

  11. Conflict Perspective: The Power Elite • A unified group of military, corporate and government leaders = power elite • Went to same schools • Same social and economic backgrounds

  12. Economic Systems

  13. Types of Economic Systems • Capitalism: based on private ownership and pursuit of profit • No pure market economies exist • Government should build infrastructure to help business, but stay out of other business affairs • Monopolies: company that has control of market share • Standard Oil, Steel Corp. in 1900s • Oligopolies: combos of companies that control production or distribution of good or servce • Cell phones, airlines, cable companies, food companies

  14. Types of Economic Systems • Socialism: means of production should be controlled by people, but exercised by government • Pure form is rare (NK maybe) • Europe in general • Most economies are mixed economies • a little bit of everything

  15. How has the U.S. economy changed over time?

  16. Media

  17. Perspectives on Media • Functionalist: Media is responsible for providing services and information to populations • Conflict: mass media spreads the ideas of the ruling class that controls the working class • Consider how blogs, youtube and other social media has changed each perspective view.

  18. Healthcare • Functionalist Perspective: • emphasizes positive effects of healthcare on entire society • Helps keep people healthy • Conflict • Focuses on the people that do not have access (in U.S.) and framing it as greedy business • Symbolic Interactionist: • Benefits specific groups like young and elderly more than other groups • Leaves out deficiencies

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