SOCIOL 4A03 Lecture Notes - Authoritarianism, Capitalism, Middle Ages
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Published on 31 Jan 2013
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Attitude formation:
-authoritarianism
-as you go down the class hierarchy measures of authority become higher
-authoritarianism scale
-authoritarians tend to be more prejudice
-they tend to be xenophobic=fear of the outsider, fear of people who are different from you
-therefore, this increases as you go down the class hierarchy
-discrimination also increases
-authoritarianism represents the absence of cognitive complexity
-they tend to see things in terms of absolutes
-raise children in strict ways
-seem to be law and order typessomeone who believes in harsh penalties to people who
break the law
-absence of organizational complexity
-“the world should be the way I want it to be and if not then the world is wrong”
-world view:
-relative lack of education
-as you go down the hierarchy, educational obtainment decreases
Adorno and Fromm:
-called authoritarianism an “escape from freedom”
-some people are afraid of freedom because they need to take on a lot of responsibility
-authoritarians cannot handle that level of responsibility and so they try to escape from it
- Fascismideology of native Japan and Germany
Income and Poverty:
-difficult to determine poverty
-a political “hot potato”
-there is intense debate over whether the definition should be absolute or relative
-absolute tends to focus on economic yard sticks
-ex. anyone who makes less than 20 000/yr is in poverty
-relative looks at people compared to other people
-not interested in absolute cutoff points but whether this person can lead a decent life given what a
person makes and the resources they have
Defining poverty:
-has political consequences
-because if you can capture the definition of poverty and get people to agree, this can influence political
decisions
- can change the laws on the right of people to own property
- fair hiring laws, promotion, etc.
-If someone owns a factory or office, they own that enterprise and they have property rights over it
-this doesn’t go on indefinitely
-need safe workplace
-have to have fair hiring laws and fair laws of promotion
-therefore, ownership of property is subject to limitations
-in 19th century employers would do what they wanted
-nowadays it’s harder to fire someone