Introduction to Sociology/Politics/Jungho Kang

1. Summary

 This article introduces 'Politics'. Politics is the process by which groups of people make social economic decisions.
Max Weber said, Power is the likelihood that any person or group will be able to carry out his or her own doctrine despite the resistance of others. Authority is a legitimate power. Authority doesnt need violence. There are 3 sources of authority: traditional, rational-legal, and charisma. Violence is one kind of authority gives it the right to use power to force citizens to do what the government deems appropriate.
 There are many forms of government. Monarchy is governed supreme power individual who is head of state. Democracy is governed by citizens. But there is a danger of Ochlocracy. Communist state is governed by single-party rule of a Communist party. It started from Marx's ideas. There are other forms like totalitarianism, oligarchy, theocracy.
 As information technology develops, political ideology has changing. Especially, social network is Eye of the typhoon. Watch individual, social networks seem weak, but they have stronger political power than any media.


2. What was interesting

 Although I am a student of sociology, I didnt interest about politics issues. In fact, the word Politics is hard to understand for me. However, when I read this article, I became able to understand politics to a certain extent. But the make social economic decisions is still difficult to understand. I I hope the professor will give me further explanation of this word.


3. Discussion Point

 This time, I thought Korea is only country which has young people less vote. But this article said, Generally, Young people are much less likely to vote than are older people. Therefore, I looked for more of this phenomenon, and found some interesting article. This article said, Schools and societies do not teach politics and suffrage. I went a step further and tried to think more intensely. In Bourdieu, he said educational institutions (like schools) are being used as instruments to reproduce class inequalities. I think Powers(rulers) do not give political education because they watch out for younger generations with the power to change the world. How about other opinion? Why young people don’t vote.



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