Rudolf von Jhering, a German jurist recognised law as a means of ordering society in a situation where there are many competing interests, not all economic. His view was that legal developments were driven by the constant tussle between individuals and groups within society to have their interests portrayed and supported by the law. He expressed that law could be used in self-interest by individuals and groups in order to achieve advances in their own purposes. As a result, the law acts to determine the true balance between different interests by examining the value of each. The American legal scholar, Roscoe Pound, was influenced by Jhering.
The three sociological paradigms are one Functionalism which is a society viewed as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability, order and common beliefs. The second is Conflict, a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict, change and a continuous power struggle. The third is Symbolic Interactions which is the way we communicate and symbolic meaning, harmony and cooperation. I also understand that a paradigm cannot be tested and that a theory can, which leads me to the two sociologists I chose that have a connection to all three paradigms I listed. The first is, Max Weber who was a German Conflict theorist who in part responsible for the development of the Symbolic Interactionist paradigm because he argued that meaning requires understanding.
Kaila Molzen November 8, 2012 Sociology 3310 Thomas Long Analysis of The German Ideology The German Ideology, written by German Sociologist, Karl Marx, gives us an understanding on how idealism and materialism work. As a German social thinker, Marx explored the different ideas of materialism. He approached his thinking in a new way that someone has not done in the past. He approached this idea of materialism by looking at economical and social conditions and what the results of those were, in which, to Marx, was this new idea of materialism. Marx mainly explored materialism by constructing two concepts: the social relations of production and the forces of productions.
Distinguish between the three contemporary theories of American democracy and politics (pluralist, elite and class, and hyperpluralist) and identify some of their strengths and weaknesses. 6. Understand the nature of the scope of government in American
Explain what is meant by balancing conflicting interests. Discuss the extent to which English law balances conflicting interests and briefly consider whether it is important to do so. Many argue that the law should act as a natural arbiter against the competing interests of those who seek to use the law and demand justice. Ultimately differing legal actors will have differing and competing interests. This is an age old legal dilemma and is what is effectively meant by ‘balancing conflicting interests.’ In the nineteenth century, von Jhering recognised law as a means of ordering society in a situation where there were many competing interests, not all being economic; as he believed utilitarianism views he was concerned with social aims and results over individuals.
The major principles of the constitution were the idea of popular sovereignty, representative Government, Limited government, Personal and economic freedom, separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism. Unit 1 ends off into explaining the ideas of Federalism. Federalism is defined a power shared between national, state, and local governments. The unit goes into the specifics on federal division on power, the Enumerated Powers are powers listed specifically in the Constitution that are given to the federal government. And the Implied Powers are national powers not listed in the Constitution but that have expanded over time, also known as the Elastic Clause.
Select ONE contemporary political movement, identify one or more symbols that are associated with it and describe the struggle that it wages over these symbols: Symbols help organize ideas, values, and experiences. But, one must be careful with the symbols because they often have unexpected meaning. Symbols play very important in politics. There are two sides of symbolic politics: the politics of symbols and the symbolic aspects of politics. The politics of symbols refers to the creation, elaboration, and the use of symbols for political purposes.
As must appear self-evident to both historians and astute observers by now, the United States, in its history, has had a rather facile and at times acrimonious relationship to the idea of domestic democracy (If this is not self-evident, see Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival, along with Failed States. For a specific analysis of this observation applied to the USA Patriot Act, see my A User’s Guide to the USA Patriot Act). What is seldom noticed, however, is the speed with which the U.S. has moved from a liberal democracy to, at best, an authoritarian government. To demonstrate this rapid movement in U.S. government, we will use as a base Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” address to Congress, on January 6, 1941. By all rights, and regardless of FDR’s real intent (some say it was to garner support for U.S. involvement in WWII), very few would doubt that his elucidated four freedoms form an important base for understanding liberal democracy.
The decisions that affect welfare reform such as health care, defense, environment and taxes - is not merely a conversation between politicians, the public and "special interests". It is also the product of the many foundations - the "think tanks" - dedicated to discovering what is best for all, or at least for some of us. What they bring to the process is not only honest research, but also heart-felt ideology and what is often a dedication to differing priorities and outcomes. I believe there is many important factors that are considered in political reform decision-making process that is not favorable, justified and quantified. Citizens of industrialized democratic nations like the United States, often hold there elected and appointed leaders
Faction, a problem could not avoid in American society because of the vast different opinions. In favor of republican, James Madison emphasized that the strong Constitution has the control to deal with violence and aggression caused by faction which those in favor of democracy could not because of its instability government. Furthermore, in the federalist no.51 he stated that the Constitution’s separation of power also helps mitigate the problem of factionalism. Believing in pluralist theory that power is relatively broadly distributed among many more or less organized interest groups in society, and the fear of majoritarian rule, James Madison one more time convinced that the Constitution will mitigate the problem of factionalism by diving