Critics say that pressure groups benefit the well organised but they disadvantage the weakly organised, subsequently working against the public interest. This is because the pressure groups run on donations for their funding. As a result, a pressure group with as little as two or three wealthy advocates may end up becoming influential and having its cause heard by the government. However, its members may not represent as much of the population as is suggested by the pressure group’s standing, thus creating inequality. This is amplified by the fact that the larger pressure groups can leave many smaller ones in their shadow.
The ruling class also have the power to prevent the introduction of laws that would threaten their interests. Thus, for example, there are few laws that seriously challenge the unequal distribution of wealth. Laureen Snider argues that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability which is why the crime statistics show the working class to be the largest perpetrators of crime. Selective enforcement is another Marxist view on crime and social
Although we are currently in a coalition the government still has a majority through the combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. This therefore often renders opposition as a form of scrutiny meaningless and also means that it is difficult for the executive to be held to account. Party loyalty is also very strong. The power of prime ministerial patronage renders many MPs excessively docile and loyal, hence the term ‘lobby fodder’. With the rise in the professional politician many prefer to remain loyal in order to gain power and move up in the hierarchy as opposed to become a rebel who remains in the back benchers.
Furthermore, proposed indirect taxes on luxury goods such as motor cars and petrol would have affected the Lords as they were among the few rich enough to afford such luxuries. The Lords set up a budget protest league and denounced the budget as “confiscation and robbery”, and breaking with convention overwhelmingly vetoed the budget. A less important reason was that the Lords believed the budget amounted to a social revolution. They were worried by the idea of progressive and redistributive taxation which taxes the rich more heavily. They feared once these principles were established they could be extended to ‘soak the rich’ and even out the unfair distribution of wealth in Edwardian Britain.
Sociologists often carry out research which can influence and be used by governments to dictate social policy. Some sociologists argue that sociological research has a large impact on social policy, whilst others argue that it has little influence, and that investors and the powerful are what influences social policy. Governments are elected by the people, as such the government and other political parties want to please the voters. This means that new social policies can influence how the government is perceived and how popular it is, if a new social policy is not popular then the government will lose popularity, and therefore voters. Moreover, governments will not accept findings which go against their beliefs, this suggests that social policy is only influenced by sociological research if the research findings happen to agree with the governments view.
One of the big issues in these two eras was conflicting definitions of “freedom.” Although people had freedom to make money in the Gilded Era, only a small minority of robber barons could do so. In the Progressive Era, White immigrants and women had more rights and freedom to help improve their own working and living conditions. This ultimately made America better, more democratic, forward and progressive. The ideas of Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and Horatio Alger success formula made the Gilded Era. Government played a minor role and cities did not offer public relief.
The Industrial Revolution was rejected by the conservatives because it brought more power to the bourgeoisie, who owned the means of production, while it weakened the nobles. Liberalism embraced the Industrial Revolution, as it was considered the “bourgeois liberalism”. Religiously, they were very different as well. Conversatism favored a well established, powerful church (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox), and believed the Enlightenment had brought violence upon the Catholic church. There wasn’t much separation between church and state.
I believe that while Singer develops his argument by claiming that while people in rich states can survive without luxuries; those in poorer ones where most are manufactured could not survive, as their economic base would fall apart. With some adjustment of his analogy to make it a more accurate representation of the global economy, Singer would find his argument overcoming its central inherent weakness. In my own opinion I believe, Singer’s view of our obligation to help relieve the suffering of people in distant nations are mostly right because, if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do
An elitist form of government became so because people let themselves be governed by elites. But the elite class is not perfect, they are still subject to personal biases, hence they are not the overwhelming choice to be rulers. We go back to the
Wilkinson and Pickett explore two of the most common assumptions about the social gradient that shows people at the bottom of social hierarchies suffer more problems- circumstances and individual tendencies. The authors, in critiquing the material explanation to societal problems, argue that richer nations should do better than poorer ones. This is a flawed argument, as national wealth does not indicate its distribution. A generally wealthy nation may have poorer diets, less educational opportunities, or worse housing in comparison to a less wealthy nation. Wilkinson and Pickett also give reason as to why everyone in a society should be concerned about inequality, not merely those vulnerable to the problems with which it coincides.