SOCIAL: THE MACHINE

I have a lot of experience. From my experience I have observed four classifications of people. People belong in one or more of these four categories; the establishment, the academy, the institution or the union. The establishment consist of government and political officials which seek to maintain law and order. These people work to accomplish government objectives. The academy on the other hand, are those people in advertising and the arts. These people entertain and provide content for mass media consumption. The institution is the realm of academia and professionals. These people are at the forefront of societal progress and they work to uncover solutions to societies problems. Lastly, we have the union. These people are comprised of workers and semi professionals. This is the category whereby most of the people are classified. They work under the government and for the institution and influenced by the academy. As you can see from this model we can clearly identify each type of person under a designated category. This according to structural functionalism is the societal machine. These groups of people cooperate with each other to be able to fulfil societal objectives. If there is a conflict these categories band together to dissolve social threats. Now that you know the classification of people from my perspective, I dare to ask, which do you fall under?

SOCIAL: SOCIETIES' PRODUCT

Ideology is a set of ideas or beliefs in which suggest how society should be or ought to be.  Whenever I think about ideology I always look at it with consideration of the political spectrum.  This political spectrum is basically a way to categorize several ideologies.  From a capitalist perspective, each of these separate ideologies are basically products.  These ideologies are created or manufactured as products of society.  Society could be looked at as a machine when in consideration of structural functionalism.  This machine produces the products known as ideologies.  We have on the left communism, proceeded by socialism to its right, liberalism in the middle, conservatism to its right and on the far right fascism.  These are products that political parties use as a framework in order to advance their political agenda.  They are products because each of these ideologies has its individual features and people subscribe to them.  Political parties sell this product and it creates macroscopic changes within our environment. From a capitalist perspective the value that is given to these ideologies by the people produces a surplus which is the increased amount of subscribers.  People also contribute their own ideals in their attempt to be a brokerage or to please the largest amount of people with the least amount of resistance.  Therefore, the ideology is only a product once people subscribe.  Essentially a parties product are the people.  This can be seen via improvements to their quality of life or standards.  The ideology and the people the subscribe to these become an interrelated product of the societal machine.  This output then expands and grows to increase the amount of people that subscribe. 

SOCIAL: THE MEANING OF, 'SLUT'

A “slut,” is a term connotated with negative meanings. It was a word used to denote an unkept women, traditionally. This word was used to degrade women and it can sometimes even refer to men. I digress however, as Amber Rose’s “slut walk,” has for me caused a certain empowerment for those being labeled this. This term has been essentially transformed from its negative roots to something a bit more positive. I really believe it is Amber Rose’s point of view that people should consider. This word for me stands for courage and strength. Those labelled with this word have gone through the tribulations of complicated interpersonal relations and they should wear this label as a badge of recognition. This is the true meaning of this word in this day an age. Funny how something which was previously negative has now been considered a sign of pride and strength. We should therefore encourage people’s passion to express themselves. This word to me means confidence and the ability to not care about what others think. This sort of personal power is priceless and I thus commend those with the fortitude to face their fears.

SOCIAL: MODERN OPS SOCIOLOGY

In sociology we have the concept of social structure.  A social structure can be defined as a hierarchy in which through consensus people subscribe.  A social structure is enacted via the beliefs and values of society.  I feel that sociology is not looking at social hierarchy more critically.  It accepts the distant view of categorizing people based on wealth.  I believe sociology should change to include hierarchy for not only wealth but, skill/ intelligence, and beauty/ charisma.  Looking at social structures from these three prongs will allow the sociologist to analyze the modern conflicts we have.  Yes wealth is a social structure but from my analysis the current view of social structures are out dated.  We need to look and emphasize skill/ intelligence and beauty/ charisma.

Skill/ intelligence can be looked at from a hierarchy of smart to dumb.  I know its quite frank but really, we need to talk about this. Those that are on top or the smartest gain scholarships, bursaries and other validation from the society.  They are looked at with such respect and dignity.  However as we go down the hierarchy we start to see that societies problem.  The negligence and the disdain for the dumb.  These people are unable to fight for what is equity.  They live in ignorance and are dismissed by society.  Someone needs to fight and represent these people.  This is where those higher in the hierarchy take it upon themselves to defend these people because they have realized that they are unable to defend themselves.  This social structure is thus supportive of the members on the bottom.  The intelligent people ensure that these dumb people are being represented equally.  However, not all intelligent people are advocates of equity.  There is a likelihood that the opposite can happen as well, just be aware.

The oldest and most known way of division was and is beauty/ charisma.  Yet, we don’t really talk about this social structure as much as we value it.  Society adores these people and through their adoration they blindly submit.  This is the thorn of this social hierarchy.  People become confused and dumb when affection hits them.  They are unable to think properly because of their feelings or emotions.  This hierarchy is the oldest and is the one of the most potent yet it is overlooked and forgotten.  Clearly those who are considered, “hot,” and, “popular,” have the ability to influence people while those that are considered, “ugly,” are left to find other channels in which they can exercise their regression. 

SCHOLAR: ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL CLEAVAGES

The structure of political parties is described in its constitution and or manifest. It also describes the parties decision making and its mission. Its mission gives people an idea of what the party intends, it is an extension of their objectives. Parties are commonly structured as follows the convention is at the top followed by the executive committee, than the party officers, branches and lastly the members. The convention identifies and pushes the parties objectives. The executive committee allocates resources and makes decisions about the parties direction. The party officers communicate with the branches who campaigns locally. They also find local donors whom are willing to donate to the party’s cause. The members are the last part of this structure, they usually are required to be above the age of 19 and also they must pay a membership fee.

There are several classifications of elections and they are as follows, maintaining elections, critical elections, deviating elections and reinstating elections. Maintaining elections occur when the party who regularly wins, wins. Critical elections are those that change the party in power. Deviating elections on the other hand are election that are temporary shifts. Lastly, reinstating elections are those that bring back the party that regularly wins. It is important to analyze these because we can get an idea of how elections in the future are going to turn out. It gives us an idea of voting behaviors which would then allow parties to identify what the people want. These also allow party researchers to segment, target and position their parties in favor of public opinion.

Social cleavages are divisions within society which allow for a diverse voting bloc. These cleavages allow for diversity. These cleavages align with parties who meet their interest. Cleavages have political, social, ideological, and institutional dimensional considerations. The literature, “Political Parties in Canada,” explains many cleavages. They are rural/ urban, worker/ owner, state/ religion, periphery, materialistic and globalization cleavages. Rural prioritizes farming incentives and tax breaks for their crops while urban cleavages preference police safety, parks & recreation maintenance. The worker cleavage looks at employment conditions and salaries while owners look for reduced taxes on their profits. The state cleavage looks to maintain its authority and its government programs. Religious cleavages look to support parties that have conservative reserved values. The periphery cleavage looks at language and ethnicity. Materialistic cleavages are concerned for the availability of goods and services. Lastly the globalization cleavages look for integration in business.

In order to parties to be successful they must be able to maintain their structure. They need to make compromises with their leaders, members and the public at large. The party must be able to look at the macroscopic environment and be able to segment them so they can meet their needs through their campaign and or platform. They need to target specific demographics so that they can position themselves as such to appeal to them. Members must be aware and conscious of the parties’ objectives and missions. Each member has a role to play and these roles should compliment rather than conflict. If there is harmony within the party it could function more efficiently however, if there is conflict, people would be less efficient and can lead to a party at peril. In todays society, membership in parties are declining. This is a result of political apathy. Perhaps people are not being mobilized or intrigued enough. Parties need to reorganize and market themselves in modern ways. This could be advertisements in radio, t.v., flyers, banners or in the paper. Further they can continue to canvas door to door. They can involve themselves in social media like twitter so that they may appeal to a larger demographic. Lowering the voting age can also benefit political participation. This would allow people to be more knowledgeable about politics. An implication to this however, is the fact that we would have ignorant voters who guess. Another tactic that political parties can implement is to collaborate with the government to provide education to students at all ages so when they grow up, thy are aware of the process.

SCHOLAR: POLITICAL PARTIES

According to Sartori factions are have a negative connotation. Factions are anti establishment. Parties are pro establishment. Parties according to this author are for accomplishing things in society. According to Downs. Parties form coalitions in order to gain support. They cooperate with their members and other parties. They also make compromises. As for Madison, she specifies that factions are parties. These are essentially different explanations of what political parties are. Parties are a group of individuals who seek to control the government through election and public office. Factions on the other hand, are really associated with political turmoil. They are a clique of people who have self serving interests.

Parties perform many tasks. They organize votes, prepare their platform, campaign, they aggregate interest, they elect leaders, implement policy and persuade the government to their interests. They are contrasted against interest groups in this way. Interest groups are a group of individuals who influence the political process. They are usually single issued whereas political parties deal with multiple issues. Ideology plays a major part in political parties.

Ideology can be defined as a set of ideas or beliefs which dictate how a society ought to be. Ideology are important to political parties because they provide frameworks I which the government can run. The ideologies are separated through the political spectrum, left or right. On the left is communism and on the right is fascism.

There are a variety of political systems. They are classified as single party system, the dominant party system, the two party system and the multi party system. We will first explain the single party system. This system is where there is only one legal party who controls the government. In the dominant party system a single party regularly wins elections and other parties play a minor role. In the two party system, two parties often vie for power and often exchange positions, other parties are also allowed to function in this system. The multi party system is a system where parties often form coalitions in order to be in power. According to Lapombara parties can be divided as competitive or non- competitive party systems. We will first explore the competitive systems. In this category we have the one party dominant system, two party system and the multi party system. Much like in the first classification the one party dominant system regularly wins elections and others are allowed to function. The two party system allows for two parties who exchange power frequently. Lastly in the multi party system we have multiple parties who share power. This can be further divided to multi party dominant wherein, one party receives more than 40% of the votes and multi party loose where not any of the parties achieve 40%. The non competitive systems according to Lapombra are regime based. They operate through a hegemonic basis. This means they use force in order to coerce rather than consent the government to their position. There are three types the one party authoritarian system, the one party pluralist system and the one party totalitarian system. The one party authoritarian system sees competitors as threats and they immediately attempt to dissolve these. The one party pluralist system operates with pragmatism and they value ideology as a basis for their cause. The one party totalitarian system seeks to enforce social and economic structures which they maintain.

Duverger further classifies political parties as elite based political parties or mass based parties. Elite bases parties seek influential, powerful and wealthy members. They are very flexible and lack structure. They receive funds from single wealthy supporters rather than many people. Mass based parties operate within a hierarchy. They have a strong structure. They use ideology in order to operate. Their funding comes from many people rather than the odd wealthy supporter.

The origin of political parties is very interesting. In the UK the popish plot enticed the development of these parties. The parliament was dissolved by King Charles II where they banned Catholics from being members of parliament because they supposedly had intentions to kill the king. In the USA the forefathers of America needed to control factions. This was done through political parties. There was a conflict between centralization and individualism. Lastly in Canada the conservatives and the liberals have roots in preconfederation. The liberals had massive Catholic support while the conservatives were supported by the Protestants.

INQUISITIVE: SEA LEVEL RISING