The document outlines different topics related to politics and economics, including political systems, power structures, and economic models. It discusses concepts such as democracy, authoritarianism, capitalism, and socialism. Key factors of modern economies are also examined, such as the shift to service sector jobs, rising income inequality, decreasing union participation, and the globalization of markets.

1. Politics & Economy
Seth Allen
Intro. to Sociology

2. Chapter Outline
• Politics, Power and Authority
• Political Systems in Global Perspective
• Perspectives on Power and Political
Systems
• The U.S. Political System
• Economic Systems in Global Perspective
• Work in the Contemporary United States
• Politics and the Economy in the Future

3. 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.

4. Weber’s Three Types of Authority

5. Examples of Types of authority
Queen Elizabeth 11, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Franklin D. Roosevelt exemplify the
ideal types of Weber’s typology of authority. Which one is which? Is it possible for a
leader to posses elements of all three ‘types?

6. 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.

7. Nation-states
• Approximately 190 nation-states currently
exist throughout the world.
• Today, everyone is born, lives, and dies
under the auspices of a nation-state.
• Four types of political systems are found in
nation-states: monarchy, authoritarianism,
totalitarianism, and democracy.

8. 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.

9. 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.

11. Purpose of a Political Party
• Develop and articulate policy positions.
• Educate voters about issues and simplify
the choices for them.
• Recruit candidates, help them win
office, hold them responsible for
implementing the party’s positions.

12. Voter Apathy
• 10% of the voting-age population participates
at a level higher than voting.
• Over the past 40 years, less than half the
voting-age population has voted in
nonpresidential elections.
• In many other Western nations, the average
turnout is 80 to 90% of all eligible voters.

13. Taken from Society Pages

14. Functionalist Perspectives
The functions of government:
– maintain law and order
– plan and direct society
– meet social needs
– handle international relations
Pluralism, the shared power of many groups,
prevents one group from overpowering
another.

15. Pluralism explained
• A bill is sponsored in the House to increase worker’s compensation
benefits for those injured on the job. It is supported by the AFL-CIO,
the Episcopal Church, and the American Bar Association.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Small
Business Association, and Citizens United. In the end, a majority of
the Congress and the Senate votes for increasing benefits and the
President signs the bill into law.
FOR: AGAINST:

16. 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.

17. The Iron Triangle of Power
Joe Feagin, a noted conflict theorist
suggested an iron triange of power.
C. Wright Mills suggested a that
U.S. was in a perpetual war
economy and that the economy was
dominated by the ‘military-industrial
complex’

18. ELITE PERSPECTIVES ON GOV’T

19. ELITE PERSPECTIVES ON GOV’T

20. ELITE PERSPECTIVES ON GOV’T

21. CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES: ELITE
MODELS ILLUSTRATED
Link

22. THE ECONOMY

23. 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.

24. Capitalism, Mixed Economies,
and Socialism: A Continuum
Socialism Mixed Capitalism
• Centralized decision Economies • Profit, not equality, is
making the primary goal
• Mix of privately owned
• Publicly owned ‘means businesses and gov’t • Privately owned
of production’ owned industries means of production
• Collective goals, • Democratic • No gov’t intervention
collective decision in economy
• Some income re-
making
distribution
• Income redistribution Examples: South Korea,
• Heavy gov’t subsidies
• No private industry and intervention in the Taiwan, US prior to
Examples: Cuba, North economy the 1930’s
Korea, USSR Examples: Contemporary
USA, UK, Western
Europe

25. PRIMARY SECTOR OF PRODUCTION
IN EACH ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Industrial Societies
Production of goods
(Secondary)
Post-Industrial
Societies
Production
Pre-Industrial Knowledge/
Societies Information/
Extraction of Natural Services
Resources (Primary) (Tertiary)

26. Composition of U.S. Workforce, 2011
Taken from Bureau of Labor Statistics Site
Characteristics of
Professions: Abstract,
specialized knowledge,
Professional autonomy, self-
37.6% regulation, authority
over others, altruism
Sales & Office
23.6% All non-professionals are
grouped into
occupations, which
Service perform similar activities
17.7% in different settings

27. Labor Market(s) in the U.S.
Primary Labor Market
Good-paying, stable jobs, mostly
(Upper Tier) professions, possibility for
advancement
Lower-tier jobs
Mostly service-oriented,
less stable, more likely to
be dead-end,
Marginal Jobs
Not governed by labor
laws, heavily segregated by
race/gender/nationality
Underground Economy
Undocumented workers, illegal
goods & services

28. CONSOLIDATION OF
CORPORATIONS
By 2011, the 5 largest banks in
the U.S. owned $16 trillion of
assets, half of all assets in the
U.S. economy!

30. Types of Unemployment
• Cyclical - result of lower rates of production
during recessions.
• Seasonal - result of shifts in the demand for
workers based on holidays.
• Structural - skills needed by employers do
not match skills of unemployed.

31. MEDIAN LENGTH OF UNEMPLOYMENT
1967-2012
In 2012, the media length of unemployment was 20 weeks.

32. Labor Unions and Strikes
• In recent years, strike activity has diminished
as workers fear losing their jobs.
• In 2008 only 15 strikes involving more than
1,000 workers were reported.
• Number of workers involved in the actions
declined from more than 2.5 million in 1971
to 72,000 in 2008.

33. Conflict/Marxist View of Recent
Economic Crisis
Link

34. U.S. Economy in the Future:
Summary
 The increase in wages of primary sector
occupations, decreasing wages and
opportunities in the secondary sector
 Increasingly globalized economy in which
recessions in one nation affect another
 Greater reliance on temporary workers, short-
term employment
 Increase in service sector employment
 McDonaldization of Economy (see p. 154 of
Kendall text)

35. MCDONALDIZATION OF HIGHER
EDUCATION IN POST-INDUSTRIAL U.S.
College Inc Documentary
8:40-10:46