Sociology Chapter 13
The U.S. government employs about __________ people, excluding the U.S. Postal Service.
2.1 million
Even in Presidential election years, voter turnout can be low. For example, in the 2012 presidential election, approximately __________ of eligible voters cast ballots.
60 percent
How does a city state differ from a nation-state?
A city-state is made up of a central city exercising control over the surrounding area.
__________ is a political system controlled by rulers who deny popular participation in government.
Authoritarianism
Sociologist __________ applied the term power elite to the most powerful in society, who are those at the top of business, the executive branch of the federal government, and the military.
C. Wright Mills
__________ is an economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production, from which personal profits can be derived through market competition and without government intervention.
Capitalism
__________ is a political system in which the people hold the ruling power either directly or through elected representatives.
Democracy
__________ requires that citizens be able to meet together regularly to debate and decide the issues of the day.
Direct participatory democracy
According to sociologist __________, the purpose of government is to socialize people to be good citizens, to regulate the economy so that it operates effectively, and to provide necessary services for citizens.
Emile Durkheim
__________ is the world's largest corporation.
Exxon/Mobil
According to William Domhoff, what is the role of the media in politics?
Media tend to reflect the biases of those with the greatest ability to access the media.
__________ result when military officers seize power from the government, as has happened in recent decades in Argentina, Chile, and Haiti.
Military juntas
__________ is a political system in which power resides in one person or family and is passed from generation to generation through lines of inheritance.
Monarchy
_________ are organizations of special interest groups that solicit contributions from donors and fund campaigns to help elect (or defeat) candidates who share their stances on specific issues.
Political action committees
How do professions differ from occupations?
Professions are characterized as having more self-regulation than occupations.
Portions of contemporary sub
Saharan Africa have relatively high foreign direct investment in mineral extraction, which is an example of __________ production. - primary sector
__________ is an economic system characterized by public ownership of the means of production, the pursuit of collective goals, and centralized decision making.
Socialism
__________ are political coalitions made up of individuals or groups that share a specific interest they wish to protect or advance within the political system.
Special interest groups
__________ includes a wide range of activities, such as fast food service, transportation, communication, education, real estate, advertising, sports, and entertainment.
Tertiary sector production
_______ is the social institution that ensures the maintenance of society through the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
The economy
__________ relies on modern technology to monitor and control people; mass propaganda and electronic surveillance are widely used to influence people's thinking and control their actions.
Totalitarianism
__________ are large companies that are headquartered in one country but produce and goods and services across many different national boundaries.
Transnational corporations
What percentage of the U.S. voting
age population is involved in the political process beyond simply voting? -10 percent
Political institutions first emerged in __________ societies as they acquired surpluses and developed greater social inequality. Elites took control of politics and used custom or traditional authority to justify their position.
agrarian
Monarchies are most commonly associated with __________ societies, and are associated with __________ authority.
agrarian; traditional
Although the most basic form of power is physical violence or force, most political leaders prefer to legitimize their power and then have what sociologists call __________.
authority
Rational-legal authority is also known as __________ authority, which is based on an organizational structure that includes a clearly defined division of labor, hierarchy of authority, formal rules, and impersonality
bureaucratic
Authoritarian governments_______________________.
can be a military junta with a joint civilian-military government
Individuals such as Hitler and Martin Luther King, Jr. are examples of __________ leaders.
charismatic
Weber applied the term __________ to power legitimized on the basis of a leader's exceptional personal qualities or the demonstration of extraordinary insight and accomplishment that inspire loyalty and obedience from followers.
charismatic authority
The ideal types of authority identified by Max Weber includes___________.
coercive authority
Although __________ theorists acknowledge that there are many purposes of government, they also believe that government primarily works in the interests of the wealthy or politically powerful elites in society.
conflict
Companies such as Time Warner and Viacom have extensive holdings in radio and television stations, cable television companies, book publishing firms, and film production and distribution companies. These companies are referred to as __________.
conglomerates
Corporations with control both within and across industries are formed by a series of mergers and acquisitions across industries. These corporations are referred to as __________; they combine businesses in different commercial areas, all of which are owned by one holding company.
conglomerates
In __________ monarchies, the royalty serve as symbolic rulers or heads of state whereas actual authority is held by elected officials in the national parliaments.
constitutional
A contract worker, or someone working temporarily, is doing__________________.
contingent work
. The __________ make(s) up the top level of C. Wright Mill's pyramidal model of the power elite.
corporate rich
The royal families in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands are present
day examples of __________. - constitutional monarchies
Sweden, Great Britain, and France have economic systems that are forms of __________.
democratic socialism
When did the scope of government influence in people's daily lives in the United States expand considerably for the first time?
during Depression in the 1930s
Within the conflict perspective, the __________ model highlights how power in political systems is concentrated in the hands of a small group and the masses are relatively powerless.
elite
Which of these is not one of the four main functions of government?
ensuring positive family relationships
The pluralist model is rooted in a __________ perspective, which assumes that people in a nation share a consensus on central concerns and that the government provides services that no other institution can fulfill.
functionalist
In __________ monarchies, a powerful figure claims a hereditary right to rule based on membership in a noble family or a divine right to rule considered God
given and therefore legitimate. - absolute
__________ is the formal organization that has the legal and political authority to regulate the relationships among members of a society and between that society and those outside its borders.
government
The corporate rich influence the political system by______________.
helping to finance campaigns and grant favors to political candidates
A person who is on the board of a bank also sits on the board of a computer manufacturing company that borrows money from that bank. This is an example of an __________.
interlocking corporate directorate
In addition to direct merger, competition is reduced over the long run by __________, where members of the board of directors of one corporation also sit on the board(s) of other corporations.
interlocking corporate directorates
The __________ make(s) up the middle level of C. Wright Mill's pyramidal model of the power elite.
legislative branch, special interest groups, and local opinion leaders
In __________ monarchies, rulers depend on powerful members of the nobility to help them retain their thrones and are not considered to be above the law.
limited
The Iron Triangle is also called the __________.
military-industrial complex
The Iron Triangle is also referred to as the __________, which results in the mutual interdependence of the military establishment and private military contractors.
military-industrial complex
Sometimes a corporation has virtually no competitors; this is termed a(n) __________. A(n) __________ exists when just a few companies have virtual control of an entire industry.
monopoly; oligopoly
A __________ has specific geographic territories and borders within which a citizenry shares language and culture, as well as rights and obligations.
nation-state
A __________ is a unit of political organization that has recognizable national boundaries and whose citizens possess specific legal rights and obligations.
nation-state
In a system of rational-legal authority, the authority is invested in the __________.
office
An example of __________ is the music industry, in which a few giant companies are behind many of the labels and artists known to consumers.
oligopoly
The unemployment rate takes into account ________________________.
only people who are actively looking for a job
Political parties create a __________, which is a formal statement of the party's political positions on various social and economic issues.
platform
In a __________ model, the needs and interests of widely divergent groups are met by the government through a process of accommodation and negotiation. Power in political systems is widely dispersed and shared among many competing interest groups.
pluralist
A __________ is an organization whose purpose is to gain and hold legitimate control of government; it is usually composed of people with similar attitudes, interests, and socioeconomic status.
political party
The subfield within sociology that focuses on the social circumstances of politics and explores how the political arena and its actors are intertwined with social institutions is called __________.
political sociology
__________ is the social institution through which power is acquired and exercised by various groups and individuals.
politics
__________ is the ability of persons or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others. Through the use of persuasion, authority, or force, some people are able to get others to submit to their demands.
power
Most workers in preindustrial economies (such as hunting and gathering, horticultural and pastoral, and agrarian societies) engage in __________ production, which is the extraction of raw materials and natural resources from the environment.
primary sector
The term __________ refers to the process of converting resources from state ownership to private ownership.
privatization
Gender, race, and class are closely intertwined with traditional authority. Political scientist Zillah Eisenstein applied the term __________ to the interplay of race and gender that reinforces traditional structures of power in contemporary societies.
racialized patriarchy
Although the U.S. Constitution grants __________ authority to the office of the presidency, a president who fails to uphold the public trust may be removed from office.
rational-legal
In Weber's work on authority, the term ___________ authority refers to power legitimized by law or written rules and regulations.
rational-legal
Weber believed that __________ authority was the only means to attain efficient, flexible, and competent regulation under a rule of law.
rational-legal
__________ authority is held by elected or appointed government officials, but authority is invested in the office, not in the person who holds the office.
rational-legal
In the United States, the political system is a __________ in which people have a voice in the government elected representatives who serve as bridges between themselves and the government.
representative democracy
The __________ of charisma occurs when charismatic authority is succeeded by a bureaucracy controlled by a rationally established authority or by a combination of traditional and bureaucratic authority.
routinization
William Domhoff used the term __________ to refer to a small, fixed, privileged group of people with the power to constrain the political system and serve the interests of capitalism.
ruling class
Large
scale organizations that have their own legal powers as an organization separate from the individual owners, such as the ability to enter into contracts and buy and sell property, are termed __________. - corporations
Steel workers who process metal ore and autoworkers who then convert the ore into automobiles, trucks, and buses are engaged in __________ production.
secondary sector
In industrial economies, __________ refers to the processing of raw materials into finished goods.
secondary sector production
Political __________ is the process by which people learn political attitudes, values, and behavior.
socialization
Citizen groups such as the American Conservative Union and Zero Population Growth are examples of __________.
special interest groups
In contemporary societies the government is called __________ and is the political entity that possesses a legitimate monopoly over the use of force within its territory.
state
Today, the U.S. State Department recognizes ___________ independent nation
states throughout the world. -195
A postindustrial economy is based on __________ production, which is the provision of services rather than goods as a primary source of livelihood for workers and profit for owners and corporate shareholders.
tertiary sector
The central ingredient in the U.S. governmental bureaucracy is __________.
the federal budget
In a __________ system, governments enforce conformity, deny citizens the right to assemble for political purposes, restrict access to information, and employ secret police to create an environment of fear and suspicion.
totalitarian
One example of a(n) __________ regime was the National Socialist (Nazi) party in Germany during World War II; military leaders there sought to control all aspects of national life, not just government operations.
totalitarian
In a __________ political system, the state seeks to regulate all aspects of people's public and private lives.
totalitarianism
Weber used the term __________ authority for power that is legitimized on the basis of long standing custom.
traditional
British kings and queens historically traced their authority from God. Weber called this __________.
traditional authority
The U.S. Constitution requires that each state have __________ senators and a minimum of __________ member(s) in the House of Representatives. The current size of the House of Representatives has not changed since the apportionment following the 1910 census.
two; one
Lisa works as a nanny and is paid in cash by the family she works for. She does not declare her earnings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She is a part of the_______________.
underground economy
People are not likely to accept authority as legitimate__________________________.
when they are threatened with physical force
