sociology chapter 15

dictatorship

a form of government that restricts the right to political participation to a small group or even to a single individual. (page 643)

bureaucracy

a legal-rational organization or mode of administration that governs with reference to formal rules and roles and emphasizes meritocracy. (page 622)

meritocracy

a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement. (page 624)

international state system

a system in which each state is recognized as territorially sovereign by fellow states. (page 632)

welfare state

a system in which the state is responsible for the well-being of its citizens. (page 633)

democracy

a system of government wherein power theoretically lies with the people; citizens are allowed to vote in elections, speak freely, and participate as legal equals in social life. (page 643)

paradox of authority

although the state's authority derives from the implicit threat of physical force, resorting to physical coercion strips the state of all legitimate authority. (page 628)

altruism

an action that benefits a group but does not directly benefit the individual performing the action. (page 645)

rationalization

an ever-expanding process of ordering or organizing. (page 622)

Milgram experiment

an experiment devised in 1961 by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, to see how far ordinary people would go to obey a scientific authority figure. (page 625)

political party

an organization that seeks to gain power in a government, generally by backing candidates for office who subscribe (to the extent possible) to the organization's political ideals. (page 647)

interest group

an organization that seeks to gain power in government and influence policy without campaigning for direct election or appointment to office. (page 647)

political participation

any activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action. (page 649)

state

as defined by Max Weber, "a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." (page 627)

legal-rational authority

authority based on legal, impersonal rules; the rules rule. (page 621)

traditional authority

authority that rests on appeals to the past or traditions. (page 621)

charismatic authority

authority that rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader. (page 619)

soft power

power attained through the use of cultural attractiveness rather than the threat of coercive action (hard power). (page 640)

politics

power relations among people or other social actors. (page 619)

power

the ability to carry out one's own will despite resistance. (page 626)

routinization

the clear, rule-governed procedures used repeatedly for decision making. (page 622)

collective action problem

the difficulty in organizing large groups because of the tendency of some individuals to freeload or slack off. (page 644)

authority

the justifiable right to exercise power. (page 619)

taylorism

the methods of labor management introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor to streamline the processes of mass production in which each worker repeatedly performs one specific task. (page 623)

domination

the probability that a command with specific content will be obeyed by a given group of people. (page 627)

specialization

the process of breaking up work into specific, delimited tasks. (page 623)

citizenship rights

the rights guaranteed to each law-abiding citizen in a nation-state. (page 635)

political rights

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's ability to participate in politics, including the right to vote and the right to hold an elected office. (page 635)

civil rights

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's personal freedom from interference, including freedom of speech and the right to travel freely. (page 635)

social rights

the rights guaranteeing a citizen's protection by the state. (page 635)

game theory

the study of strategic decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and interdependence. (page 643)

coercion

the use of force to get others to do what you want. (page 628)