Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Distinguish between power and authority

Good Essays
334 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Distinguish between power and authority
1. Distinguish between power and authority

Power is the ability to coerce or force someone to do your will even if in some cases they may not want to. Authority is the skill of making people willingly do your will. It also the right to give orders, enforce obedience or make decisions.

2. Compare and contrast the features of the leadership of bands, tribes, chiefdoms and state societies

A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or houses. These elites form a political ideological aristocracy relative to the general group.

3. Compare and contrast rank based societies and stratified state societies
Power or privilege for some groups over the other it is called social stratification. It is a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy social stratification is based on four basic principles.

4. Discuss the dimensions of social stratification and how these dimensions define state society

refers to a system by which categories of people in society are ranked in a hierarchy. For example of the Titanic to show the consequences of social inequality in terms of who survived the disaster and who did not. Four principles are identified which help explain why social stratification exists. First, social stratification is a characteristic of society and not merely of individuals. Second, social stratification is universal but variable. Third, it persists over generations. And, fourth, it is supported by patterns of belief.

5. What means are used in various societies to maintain social control? Cite example to support your generalizations
Societies have developed both informal and formal means of dealing with conflicts and the disorder that results from conflict. Informal means of social control include ridicule and ostracism. Formal means of social control include formalized laws and sanctions. Methods for judicial settlement of such laws range from the formal song duels of the Inuits to the formal court system of the United States.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Ap Gove Study Guide

    • 20135 Words
    • 81 Pages

    Authority – the right to use power; the exercise of rightful power is easier than the exercise of power that is not supported by any persuasive claim of right…

    • 20135 Words
    • 81 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Authority means the right or power to enforce rules or give orders. To do this they need legislations to enforce their laws, to function properly the uniformed pubic services need to have legislations.…

    • 2059 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social classes or social stratification in sociology is a concept involving classification of people into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political, race and ideological dimensions. When differences lead to greater status, power or privilege for some groups over the other it is called Social Stratification. It is a…

    • 2317 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dual Federalism

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Authority- refers to the willingness of people to obey government out of respect, while power may be created simply out of fear.…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    City Road Cardiff

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Social science is the study of human society and of the relationship of individual members within the society. Within the social sciences, the society is broken down into different variations of inequalities such as class, age, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Inequality is a disparity of not having the same lack of opportunities, status or treatment. In sociology and other social sciences, sociologist base their studies simply under the stratification system, which refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social stratification refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. Hypothetically, we can analyze social stratification from three major perspectives. Structural functionalists argue that social stratification is beneficial for a society, while a conflict theorist would argue that, rather than benefiting society as a whole, stratification provides some people with advantages over others. Finally, a symbolic interactionist would analyze how social stratification helps us see patterns of social inequality in our everyday…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    SSD2 Module 4 Notes

    • 28472 Words
    • 90 Pages

    Subcultures are groups within complex cultures who share the basic cultural outlook of the larger culture, but have significant differences.…

    • 28472 Words
    • 90 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Inequality In Australia

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Class is a significant force in all societies, understanding class is crucial if we are to see how groups of people within our society have different experiences. Social stratification refers to the way society is organised within hierarchical layers (Furze,…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology defines inequality as ‘the unequal distribution of opportunities, rewards, and power among and between individuals, households and groups’(1). It goes on to say that ‘the subfield of social stratification has as its main task the description and analysis of inequalities, or the makeup of the stratification system of any given society’.(1) From this one definition, we can already begin to see the strong links that lie between inequalities and social stratification. As we delve deeper into the topics, we can begin to see both the inevitability and the functionality of stratification caused as a result of both global and domestic inequalities.…

    • 1831 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It refers to an individual’s social standing or a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power. Social stratification produces and maintains inequality, not individual inequalities, but about systematic or social inequalities. The structure of society affects a person's social standing (OpenStax College, 2015, p.187). The term social stratification is also used in the social sciences to describe the relative social position of persons in a given social…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person in a society has a specific role or significance to that society, which often change throughout the course of their life. (5) The system used to describe and organize these roles is known as the Social Dominance Theory, which is comprised of three main parts: a gender system, an age system, and an arbitrary-set system. The Social Dominance Theory argues how several societies or groups organize themselves into hierarchies, in which the share of wealth and resources among the people is disproportionate. Over time, the systems of the Social Dominance Theory change, which is relevant to changes in age and gender roles because oppression and prejudice in a society allows the roles to evolve. The evolution of the systems results in…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The social structure of Britain has been highly influenced by the concept of social class. In sociology, the term ‘social class’ is most often used to refer to the primary system of social stratification found in modern capitalist societies. Social stratification refers to ‘the presence [in society] of distinct social groups which are ranked one above the other in terms of factors such as prestige and wealth’.…

    • 1749 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Global Stratification

    • 1804 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Social stratification is a categorized arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. Patterns of structural inequality, raises the main sociological issue which is, economic development that accompanies human development.…

    • 1804 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social inequality describes a condition in which members of a society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power. Some degree of social inequality is found in every society. When a system of social inequality is based on a hierarchy of groups, sociologists refer to it as stratification: a structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society. Ascribed status is a social position assigned to a person without regard for that person's characteristics, for example, being a Queen is an ascribed status, as is being a female. By contrast, achieved status is a social position attained by a person largely through his or her own effort. This can be positive or negative so a person can be an ex-prisoner or a judge. These are achieved statuses.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social stratification is the separation of huge numbers of people into strata according to their relative power, property, and prestige. It affects to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group. Although they may argue as to which structure of social stratification they employ, all societies stratify their members. Bovee, Thill, and Tumin talk about social stratification in some way in their papers, which will be addressed below.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics