Social Cleavages

These four cleavages emerged as the part of the foundation of the argument for a sociological approach to explaining party systems. A social cleavage is a far cry from a political party, and so Lipset and Rokkan had to provide a transition from the former to the latter; which they did in three parts. The first being that these cleavages existed before all adult males were given the privilege of voting. What this meant was that before these men could have joined together and voted one way or another there already existed certain issues on which they held viewpoints, whether consciously or not. The second point they made was that during this time of enfranchisement of the masses, the structure made it so that political organizations had to rely on support of the people to continue to enjoy political success. Typically this support came from certain factions that were strongly supportive of whatever ideal the organization held. The final point they make about transitioning from cleavage to party system is that when there is a movement towards better representation it’s the result of a fracturing of current parties and not new ones. All of these points illustrate the steps taken in order to arrive at the assumption that party systems are a function of a sociological interaction between the people of a nation.

This essay will be discussing the extent to which social class and poverty affects health and illness. Firstly, what is social class? Each person’s perception of social class can be different; is social class defined by a person’s accent, the area they live in, or something as simple as their income? Project Britain describes social class as “The grouping of people by occupations and lifestyle”. (Cress, 2014). To find social class Sociologists group people according to common factors, they compare people and various criteria can be conveniently used to place people in social groups or classes. Next we ask the question what determines a person’s health, the NHS defines health as “Physical and mental, it is the absence of disease”. (NHS 2017).

Individuals within a society are grouped into certain rankings that is based on their wealth, income, race and education known as the social stratification. Sociologist use this to determine the social standings of individuals within a society. Social stratification can also appear in much smaller groups. These groups such as the work place, schools, and businesses can “take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks”. (Cole, 2017) The Caste system is also another form of stratification that one does not get a choice in. They are born into it and regardless of their talents will hold positions that are given to them their whole life. Social mobility is the ability for individuals to move about their social standings.

Next, the political sociology approach focuses to centre on groups and societal forces ((Blidook, Cochrane, Dyck, 2017). There are many social cleavages such as regions, economic classes, and ethnic groups that cause differing opinions. Alberta works with Kinder Morgan to benefit their economy however the province does not cater towards the needs of British Columbia. Kinder Morgan does not consider the impact to the First Nations, as they are an ethnic group who value nature. Similarly, the Canadian government does not consider the different economic classes that will be affected by the pipeline, if an oil spill/leak were to occur. Plus, with the expansion of the pipelines there will be no affordable housing, there will be alcohol and drug

On December 6th, 2012, the state of Washington legalized the use and possession of marijuana by adults over the age of 21. There were already laws in place to provide for the medical use of marijuana before this date, therefore this new initiative (Initiative 502) pertained mainly to recreational marijuana users. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office the day prior to the law going into effect, “The Department of Justice is reviewing the legalization initiatives recently passed in Colorado and Washington State. The Department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged.

A voter can be defined as an individual who votes, or has the right to vote, in elections. Voting behaviour is explained using the concepts of expressive voting and strategic voting. A rational voter would act more strategically, that is, the voter would vote to produce an election outcome which is as close as possible to his or her own policy preferences, rather than voting on the basis of party attachment, ideology, or social group membership (expressive voting). Strategic voting has become more important than voting on the basis of political cleavages (expressive voting), so voters have become more rational in their approach, however there is always an element of expressiveness in their behaviour. Political parties were initially formed to represent the interests of particular groups in society however, as these parties became more universal in the appeal of their policy programmes, voting behaviour shifted from expressive to strategic. This essay explores the reasons behind the declining importance of political cleavages, and the rise of strategic voting.

Throughout the world there are many diverse political cultures. A political culture is the attitudes, beliefs or practices among a group of likeminded individuals. (Giardino pg. 27) There are different categories that embrace a political culture like an Individualistic, traditionalistic and moralistic. An individualistic culture is one that prefers less government involvement. The traditionalists’ culture maintains government as the social and economic hierarchy and does not like change. The moralistic culture favors public good and it revolves around social issues. In shaping a political culture demographics such as population size, growth, distribution and diversity are essential to determine how a state is in any of the three categories. Society is strongly affected by decisions of who, what and when does an individual receive any types of goods or services. Government is the structure, buildings and institutions that are held within politics.

In this paper I will examine the social structure theory, along with its definition and how the different types of theories make up the social structure theory. I will also attempt to discuss the strain, culture conflict, and social disorganization theory all of which make up the social conflict theory. I also wish to discuss the video “Tent City, Arizona” and answer the following questions, “How does the video you selected support a social structure theory? What is the primary subject or content of the video? What social issues are raised in the video? What major principles of sociological theory are addressed in the video? What might be some possible ramifications for social policy change?”

“Unlike the structural functional theory, which views society as a peaceful unit, conflict theory interprets society as a struggle for power between groups engaging in conflict for limited resources. Karl Marx is the founder of conflict theory”. The social class most likely to implement or adopt the use of conflict theory are the capital class. As stated in class the social class has a minority called the “Bilderberg Group”; they hold incredible influence over government policies, Represent shared intra-class interests have large Economic power, political and social power, it is in theses hands that majority of the resources are held and controlled, while the majority are left remnants of whatever resource they are able to obtain. As said in class the, Max weber defined this social class as one composed of those who hold similar life chances, such as Income, Marketable abilities, Access to consumer goods and services,Ability to generate investment income, Power

Different ideologies tend to appeal to different demographic characteristics such as gender, class, race, etc. because a person’s background will affect which system of ideas they most closely align with. Liberalism and conservatism, for example, are ideologies that regularly contradict each other, because they appeal to different demographics based upon many factors such as class, race, gender, religion, etc. The general worldview of liberalism is that people have individual rights and liberty, while promoting progress. On the other hand, conservatism places greater importance of keeping tradition and strict regulation of rules. In determining the extent of appeal to different demographics, one must assess the ways in which both ideologies

The sociological approach of cleavage theory emphasises the importance of people’s social positions in explaining support for political parties and voting behaviour (Lipset and Rokkan 1967). The main assumption is that political and voting behaviour are shaped by social divides such as social class, religion or geographical place of residence. Research employing a sociological approach has shown that populist parties are supported by those who find it difficult to deal with changes in social dynamics, as a result of the integration-demarcation cleavage (Kriesi et al. 2008). Empirically, populist radical right parties are supported by male, less educated, and unskilled workers; radical left populist parties are supported by unemployed, less

Even today, divisions in groups have been as a result of continued differences among the uniting groups. Humans have a tendency to incline towards the protection of their interest’s aid favors of their perceived groups. Such favourism makes them advocate fully for their interests posing a challenging opposing side to the interests of their unperceived groups. Many nations today are faced with such opposing groups having differing interests and ideals. People advocating for similar ideals tend to create strong ties of

The social structure theory deliberates delinquency as a gathering of the person’s dealings with numerous groups, organizations, and process in the society. Any person irrespective of their prominence in life is likely to become delinquents if they continue with negative social affiliations. Every aspect of the society, social and economic must be viewed using the social structure theories to find the cause of crime and deviance. The social structure theories consist of four types which include social disorganization theory, anomie theory, differential association theory, and labeling theory. Several theories offer different answers to this delinquent of influential the key features of a social group.

Socialisation is a learning process where people learn and adapt to the appropriate and accepted values, attitudes and behaviours of their society. Nevertheless, separate groups exist within societies for reasons including ethnicity, class and culture and these can bring their own set of ‘norms’. Bond and Bond in Sociology and Social Care (2009 pg28) states “From the cradle to the grave we are being socialised”. Primary socialisation occurs from infancy to early adulthood. Secondary socialisation follows into the later stages of maturity. Anticipatory socialisation is where we learn to anticipate the actions and activities deemed appropriate by society. Resocialisation occurs when we learn new behaviours in response to new situations and

Social stratification can be simply defined by stating that it is a system in which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, page 224). The concept of social stratification is based on four central principles, which are social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, it carries over from one generation to the next, while it is universal, it is also variable, and social stratification involves not only inequality but beliefs as well (Macionis, pages 224-225). The first principle, that social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, basically says that children born into wealthy families are more likely to be of good health, do well in school, succeed in a career, and live a long life (Macionis, pages 224-225). An example of this first principle can be seen in the what happened to the Titanic. The first-class passengers survived not because they were better swimmers than the second- and third-class passengers, but because of their privileged position (Macionis, page 224-225). The second principle states that the concept of social stratification is one that carries over from one generation to the next (Macionis, page 225). This concept is essentially stating that the social standing of a person is partially determined by their parents. Most people’s social standing remains constant throughout their lives (Macionis, page 225). While social stratification is