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Chapter 13 . Politics and the Economy in Global Perspective. What role did Africa, in particular the DRC, the world-wide division of labor?. rubber, ivory (to be used in making piano keys, billiard balls, snuff boxes)
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Chapter 13 Politics and the Economy in Global Perspective
What role did Africa, in particular the DRC, the world-wide division of labor?
rubber, • ivory (to be used in making piano keys, billiard balls, snuff boxes) • palm oil (a machine-oil lubricant and an ingredient in soaps such as Palmolive), • coffee, • cocoa, • lumber, • diamonds
copper, • cobalt (needed to manufacture jet engines), • industrial diamonds, • zinc, • silver, • gold, • manganese (needed to make steel and aluminum dry-cell batteries), • coltan (a heat-resistant mineral used in cell phones, laptops, and Playstations), • uranium (needed to generate atomic energy and fuel the atomic bomb)
Chapter Outline • Politics Power and Authority • Political Systems in Global Perspective • Perspectives on Power and Political Systems • The U.S. Political System
Chapter Outline • Economic Systems in Global Perspective • Work in the Contemporary United States • Politics and the Economy in the Future
The Belgian colonists viewed and treated the Congolese “like animals, as beasts of burden” forcing them to carry or push loads long distances. Urbain Ureel
Billion Barrels Source: U.S. Department of Energy (2007).
Politics, Power and Authority • Politics is the social institution through which power is acquired and exercised by some people and groups. • Government is the formal organization that has the legal and political authority to regulate relationships among members of a society and between the society and those outside its borders.
Power • Power; Is the ability of persons or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others. through the use of persuasion, authority, or forces, some people are able to get others to submit to their demands.
Ideal Types of Authority • Traditional • Kings, Queens, Emperors, religious dignitaries • Charismatic; power legitimized on the base of leaders’ exceptional personal quality. • politicians, soldiers, entertainers • Rational–legal ; authority is power legitimized by law or written rules and regulation • elected officials
Political Systems in Global Perspective • Political institutions emerged when agrarian societies acquired surpluses and developed social inequality. • When cities developed, the city-state became the center of political power. • Nation-states emerged as countries acquired the ability to defend their borders.
Nation-states • Nation-state; is a unit of political organization that has recognizable national boundaries and whose citizens possess specific legal rights and obligations. • Approximately 190 nation-states currently exist throughout the world. • Four types of political systems; are found in nation-states: monarchy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and democracy.
Types of Political Systems • Monarchy - A political system in which power resides in one person or family and is passed from generation to generation through lines of inheritance. • Authoritarianism - A political system controlled by rulers who deny popular participation in government.
Types of Political Systems • Totalitarianism - A political system in which the state seeks to regulate all aspects of people's public and private lives. • Democracy - A political system in which the people hold the ruling power either directly or through elected representatives.
Functionalist Perspectives: Pluralist Model • The pluralist model is rooted in a functionalist perspective which assumes that people share a consensus on central concerns, such as freedom and protection from harm, and that the government serve important functions no other institution can fulfill. • The functions of government: • maintain law and order • plan and direct society • meet social needs • handle internationalrelations
Political Action committees • Political action committees; are organizations of special groups that contribute solicit contributions from donors and fund campaigns to help elect or defeat candidates based on their stances on specific issues.
Conflict Perspectives: Elite Models • Power in political systems is in the hands of a small group of elites and the masses are relatively powerless. • Decisions are made by the elites, who agree on the basic values and goals of society. • The needs and concerns of the masses are not often given full consideration by the elite. • C. Wright Mills and power elite
The Economy • The social institution that ensures the maintenance of society through the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. • Goods are objects that are necessary or desired. • Services are activities for which people are willing to pay.
Economic system in global perspective • Pre-industrial economy; hunting and gendering, horticultural, pastoral, and agrarian societies. • Three economic sector; • Primary; the extraction of raw material. • Secondary; the processing of raw materials into finished product. • Tertiary sector; providing service
The Economy • Labor - the group of people who contribute their physical and intellectual services to the production process in return for wages. • Capital - wealth owned or used in business by a person or corporation.
Characteristics of Industrial Economies • New forms of energy, mechanization, and the growth of the factory system. • Increased division of labor and specialization among workers. • Universal application of scientific methods to problem solving and profit making.
Characteristics of Industrial Economies • Introduction of wage labor, time discipline, and workers’ deferred gratification. • Strengthening of bureaucratic organizational structure.
Characteristics of the Postindustrial Economy • Information displaces property as the central preoccupation in the economy. • Workplace culture shifts away from factories and toward diverse work settings, the employee, and the manager. • The conventional boundaries between work and home are breached.
Capitalism Four distinctive features: • Private ownership of the means of production. • Pursuit of personal profit. • Competition. • Lack of government intervention.
Socialism Three distinctive features: • Public ownership of the means of production. • Pursuit of collective goals. • Centralized decision-making.
Factors In the Rapid Growth of the Media Conglomerates • Aggressive political and economic maneuvering by dominant media firms. • Introduction of new technologies that increased the cost efficiency of global systems. • Policies of the U.S. government and organizations. • Conglomerate; different companies owed by one big mother company.
Five Characteristics of Professions • Abstract, specialized knowledge • Autonomy • Self regulation • Authority • Altruism