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14GOVERNMENT, THE ECONOMY, AND THE ENVIRONMENTGOVERNMENT, THE ECONOMY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

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Chapter Outline

• Economic Systems• Power and Authority• Political Behavior in the United States• Models of Power Structure in the United

States• The Changing Economy• The Environment• Social Policy: Affirmative Action

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Economic Systems

•Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are largely in private hands, and the main incentive for economic activity is the accumulation of profits.

•Laissez-faire – people could compete freely with minimal government intervention.

•Modern capitalism tolerates monopolistic practices.

Capitalism

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Economic Systems

•The theory of socialism was refined by Marx and Engles.

•Socialism attempts to eliminate economic exploitation.

•Under socialism, the means of production and distribution are collectively rather than privately owned.

•The objective of socialism is to meet people’s needs rather than maximize profits.

Socialism

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Power and Authority

•Weber argued that power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others.

•Sources of power in political systems include:

force

influence

authority

Power

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Power and Authority

•Authority is power that has been institutionalized and is recognized by the people over whom it is recognized.

Types of Authority

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Power and Authority

Traditional Authority: In traditional authority, legitimate power is conferred by custom and accepted practice.

Legal-Rational Authority: In legal-rational authority, power is made legitimate by law.

Charismatic Authority: In charismatic authority, power is made legitimate by a leader’s exceptional personal or emotional appeal to his or her followers.

Types of Authority

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Political Behavior in the United States

•Political socialization is the process by which one acquires political attitudes and develops patterns of political behavior.

•The principal institutions of political socialization are:

the family

the schools

the media

Political Socialization

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Political Behavior in the United States

•Most citizens do not participate in political organizations on local or national levels.

•Only 8 percent of people in the United States belong to a political club or organization.

•Not more than 20 percent have ever contacted an elected official regarding an issue or problem.

Participation and Apathy

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Political Behavior in the United States

Table 14.1: Political Party Preferences in the United States

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Political Behavior in the United States

Voter Turnout: 2000

203186

13092 76

19

111 111 111

(Population 18 and older, in millions)

Non-votingpopulation

Votingpopulation

Totalpopulation

Citizenpopulation

Registeredpopulation

Source: Figure 1 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

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Political Behavior in the United States

Voting in Presidential Elections: 1918--2000

Source: Figure 3 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

(Population 18 and older, in millions)

Number registered but not votingNumber votedPercent of

registeredvotersvoting Year

2000

1996

1992

1988

1984

1980

1976

1972

1968

85.5

82.3

90.0

86.2

87.7

88.6

88.7

87.1

91.2

110.8

105.0

113.9

102.2

101.9

93.1

86.7

85.8

79.0

18.7

22.6

12.7

16.4

14.2

12.0

11.1

12.7

7.6

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Political Behavior in the United States

Citizenship and Voting Rate by Race and Ethnicity: 2000

Source: Figure 2 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

2.260.461.8

86.4

Whitenon-Hispanic

Black

5.753.5

56.884.2

41.325.4

43.382.8

39.127.5

45.1

Asian andPacific Islander

Hispanic(of any race)

78.6

Proportion not citizensin the voting-agepopulation

Voting rate basedon voting-agepopulation

Voting rate basedon voting-age, citizenpopulation

Voting rate basedon voting-age, citizen,registered population

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Political Behavior in the United States

Voting by Age: 2000

Source: Figure 4 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

36.1

50.560.5

66.3 70.1 72.266.5

18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 to 74 75 and over

(Percent who voted of the voting-age citizen population)

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Political Behavior in the United States

Voting by Educational Attainment: 2000

Source: Figure 5 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

(Percent who voted of the voting-age citizen population)

39.3

Less than9th grade

38.0

52.563.1

75.481.9

9th to12th grade,no diploma

Highschool

graduate

Somecollege orassociate

degree

Bachelor’sdegree

Advanceddegree

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Political Behavior in the United States

Reason Given for Not Voting: 2000

Source: Figure 8 in Annie Jamieson et al. for the Bureau of the Census. 2002. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Current Population Reports Series P20-542. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.

(Percent who voted of the voting-age citizen population)

20.914.8

12.210.2

10.2

7.77.5

6.94.0

2.62.4

0.6

Too busyIllness or emergency

Not interestedOut of town

Other reasonDidn’t like candidates

Refused, don’t knowRegistration problems

ForgotInconvenient

Transportation problemsBad weather

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Political Behavior in the United States

•Women are significantly underrepresented in government in the United States.

•In 1999, there were 67 women in Congress, accounting for 58 of the 435 members of the House and 9 of the 100 members of the Senate.

•Often, women in office or running for office are treated differently than men by the media.

Women in Politics

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Political Behavior in the United States

Women in National Legislatures

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Political Behavior in the United States

Anti-Tobacco Vote and Campaign Contributions

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Models of Power Structure in the United States

Mills’s Model

--Mills described a small ruling elite of military, industrial, and governmental leaders.

--Power rested in the hands of a few, inside and outside of government….the power elite.

--The power elite are mostly male, white, and upper class.

Power Elite Models

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Models of Power Structure in the United States

Domhoff’s Model

--This model stresses the roles played by elites of the corporate community and the leaders of policy-formation organizations such as:

chambers of commerce

labor unions

Power Elite Models

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Models of Power Structure in the United States

Figure 14.1: Power Elite Models

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Models of Power Structure in the United States

•According to the pluralist model, many conflicting groups within the community have access to government, so that no single group is dominant.

•A variety of groups play a significant role in decision making.

Pluralist Model

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The Changing Economy

•Sociologists foresee a workforce increasingly composed of women and racial and ethnic minorities.

•A more diverse workforce means relationships between workers are more likely to cross gender, racial, and ethnic lines.

The Face of the Workforce

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The Changing Economy

Figure 14.2: Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Labor Force, 1986 and 2008

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The Changing Economy

Median Earnings of Workers 15 Years Old and Over by Work Experience and Sex: 1967--2000

1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Income in 2000 dollars Recession

$31,040

$27,355

$20,311

$37,339

Male, full-time,year-round workers

Male, total workers

Female, full-time,year-round workers

Female, total workers

Source: Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Robert W. Cleveland, and Marc L. Oemer. 2001. Figure 3 in Money Income in the United States: 2000. Current Population Reports Series P60-213. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also accessible at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income00.html.

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The Changing Economy

Monthly Earnings by Field of Training for Selected Education Levels: 1996

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2001. The Population Profile of the United States: 2000. Figure 9-3. (Internet Release) accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html#cont.

$4,680$3,208

$3,046$4,416

$2,996

$3,962$2,727

$2,373$3,645

$2,783$2,412

$3,455$2,586

$3,292$2,660

$2,802

$3,197$2,429

$3,808$2,804

$2,578Other

Vocationalstudies

Education

Social Science

Liberal Arts

Science

Business

Computers

Engineering

Bachelor’sdegree

Associatedegree

Vocationalcertificate

(Average earnings indollars for peopleemployed full-timefor the previous4 months)

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The Changing Economy

•Deindustrialization is the systematic, widespread withdrawal of investment in the basic aspects of productivity such as factories and plants.

•Downsizing is a reduction in a company’s workforce.

Deindustrialization

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The Changing Economy

•E-commerce is a term for the numerous ways that people with access to the Internet can do business from their computers.

•The growth of e-commerce means jobs in a new line of industry as well as growth for related industries.

E-Commerce

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The Changing Economy

•With downsizing and deindustrialization, a contingency workforce has developed, in which workers are hired only for as long as they are needed.

•The contingency workforce has been termed the temping of America.

•According to one estimate, contingency workers constitute about one-fourth of the nation’s paid labor force.

The Contingency Workforce

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The Environment

•Air Pollution

--In cities, air pollution is primarily caused by automobiles and emissions from electric power plants and heavy industries.

--The World Health Organization estimates that up to 700,000 premature deaths per year could be prevented if pollutants were brought to safer levels.

Environmental Problems: An Overview

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The Environment

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 199019101900

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

Nitrogen oxides

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide Emissions per Unit of GNP Since 1900

Source: Office of the President. 2000. Economic Report of the President: Transmitted to the Congress, February 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 242.

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The Environment

•Water Pollution

--Dumping of waste materials by industries and local governments has polluted streams, rivers, and lakes.

--Many bodies of water are now unsafe for drinking, fishing, and swimming.

--Pollution of the oceans are now becoming a major concern.

Environmental Problems: An Overview

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The Environment

•Contamination of Land

--A significant part of land contamination comes from the tremendous demand for landfills to handle the nation’s waste.

Environmental Problems: An Overview

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The Environment

The Impact of Global Warming

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The Environment

The natural environment serves three basic functions for humans:

1.The environment provides the resources essential for life.

2.The environment serves as a waste repository.

3.The environment houses our species.

Functionalism and Human Ecology

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The Environment

• Less affluent nations are being forced to exploit their mineral deposits, forests, and fisheries to meet debt obligations.

• The poor turn to the only means of survival available to them:

plow mountain slopes

burn plots in rain forests

overgraze grasslands

Conflict View of Environmental Issues

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The Environment

• Western industrialized nations account for 25 percent of the world’s population.

• Western industrialized nations are responsible for 85 percent of worldwide consumption.

Conflict View of Environmental Issues

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Social Policy and the Economy

The Issue

--1961 executive order issued by J. F. Kennedy called for contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”

--Currently, affirmative action refers to positive efforts to recruit minority group members or women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.

Affirmative Action

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Social Policy and the Economy

• The Setting

--Discriminatory actions currently outlawed include: Discrimination based on race, sex, or both Word-of-mouth recruitment among all-White or all-

male workforces Recruitment exclusively in schools or colleges that are

limited to one sex or are predominantly White Discrimination against married and/or pregnant women Advertising in male and female help wanted columns

when gender is not an occupational qualification Job qualifications and tests that are unrelated to the job

Affirmative Action

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Social Policy and the Economy

Figure 14.3: U.S. Median Income by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender, 1999

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Social Policy and the Economy

Minority-Owned Firms as a Percent of Total Firms in State: 1997Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2001. Minority-Owned Business Enterprises. 1997 Economic Census. Slide 17 accessed at http://www.census.gov/csd/mwb/Minorityp.htm.

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Social Policy and the Economy

• Sociological Insights

--Conflict theorists view affirmative action as a legislative attempt to reduce the inequality embedded in the social structure by increasing the opportunities of groups that have been deprived in the past.

--Interactionists focus on situations in which some women and minorities in underrepresented professions and schools are often mistakenly viewed as products of affirmative action.

Affirmative Action

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Social Policy and the Economy

Policy Initiatives

--Opponents of affirmative action insist that its goals are, in fact, quotas that lead to reverse discrimination.

--A 1996 California measure prohibited any program that gives preference to women and minorities in college admissions, hiring, promotion, or government contracts. It aims to abolish affirmative action.

--The United States is not alone in its struggle to find acceptable ways of compensating for generations of inequality between racial groups.

Affirmative Action