Question | Answer |
race | a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important |
ethnicity | a shared cultural heritage |
minority | any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates |
prejudice | a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people |
stereotype | a simplified description applied to every person in some category |
racism | the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another |
scapegoat | a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom other people unfairly blame for their own troubles |
discrimination | unequal treatment of various categories of people |
institutional prejudice and discrimination | bias built into the operation of society's institutions |
pluralism | a state in which people of all races and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing |
assimilation | the process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture |
miscegenation | biological reproduction by partners of different racial categories |
segregation | the physical and social separation of categories of people |
genocide | the systematic killing of one category of people by another |
social institution | a major sphere of social life, or societal subsystem, organized to meet human needs |
economy | the social that organizes a society's production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services |
postindustrial economy | a productive system based on service work and computer technology |
primary sector | the part of the economy that draws raw materials from the natural environment |
secondary sector | the part of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods |
tertiary sector | the part of the economy that involves services rather than goods |
global economy | economic activity that crosses national borders |
capitalism | an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and services are privately owned |
socialism | an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and services are collectively owned |
welfare capitalism | an economic and political system that combines a mostly market-based economy with extensive social welfare programs |
state capitalism | an economic and political system in which companies are privately owned but sooperate closely with the government |
profession | a prestigious white-collar occupation that requires extensive formal education |
corporation | an organization with a legal existence, including rights and liabilities, separate from that of its members |
monopoly | the domination of a market by a single producer |
oligopoly | the domination of a market by a few producers |
politics | the social institution that distributes power, sets a society's goals, and makes decisions |
power | the ability to achieve desired ends despite resistance from others |
government | a formal organization that directs the political life of a society |
authority | power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive |
routinization of charisma | the transformation of charismatic authority into some combination of traditional and bureaucratic authority |
monarchy | a political system in which a single family rules from generation to generation |
democracy | a political system that gives power to the people as a whole |
authoritarianism | a political system that denies the peoplr participation in government |
totalitarianism | a highly centralized political system that extensively regulates people's lives |
welfare state | a system of government agencies and programs that provides benefits to the population |
pluralist model | an analysis of politics that sees power as spread among many competing interest groups |
power-elite model | an analysis of politics that sees power as concentrated among the rich |
Marxist political-economy model | an analysis that explains politics in terms of the operation of a society's economic system |
political revolution | the overthrow of one political system in order to establish another |
terrorism | acts of violence or the threat of violence used as a political strategy by an individual or a group |
war | organized, armed conflict among the people of two or more nations, directed by their governments |
military-industrial complex | the close associationof the federal government, the military, and defense industries |