The Government as a Social Institution

Portia1993

So my last sociology assignment (Not A Level but for the Access Course) was to analyse a social institution using relevant perspectives and theorists etc...
I chose the government even though my tutor tried desperately to put me off this idea (She recommended; the family, religion or education)
I'm basically just looking for guidance as to what people would have put

*I'm not going to steal your ideas, I have already handed this in*
*Just want to put my mind at ease and maybe discuss ideas with people* :smile:

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Reply 2

hockey2217

I agree with your tutor that you should have chose something different. But, you didn't soo….

Pretty much you should've used a historical, societal and biological approach to analyze the government as an institution. Meaning what period of time of government did you choose to analyze, what structural framework did you use, and what kind of people participate in such society. On a broad scale of government, it's easy to talk about rationality vs reason, the inefficiency of bureaucracies, authority of power, scapegoating minorities for political incentive… The list goes on. What did you focus on?

Reply 3

Portia1993

OP

10

Original post by hockey2217

I agree with your tutor that you should have chose something different. But, you didn't soo….

Pretty much you should've used a historical, societal and biological approach to analyze the government as an institution. Meaning what period of time of government did you choose to analyze, what structural framework did you use, and what kind of people participate in such society. On a broad scale of government, it's easy to talk about rationality vs reason, the inefficiency of bureaucracies, authority of power, scapegoating minorities for political incentive… The list goes on. What did you focus on?

Because we had to use 2 opposing theories I stuck to what our tutor had said in class and wrote about the functionalist and Marxist theories
The theorists I included were Marx, Engels, Durkheim etc
I talked about what government does and how it has an impact upon the society
Then I split off into the different theories talking about what they were, what the different theorists thought etc
Finally I concluded by saying which was more relevant today (We only had 1000 words so I feel I packed as much in as humanly possible!)

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Reply 4

hockey2217

oh wow, yeah 1000 words isn't a lot to explain a couple grand theories. What do you think is more relevant today?

Reply 5

Portia1993

OP

10

Original post by hockey2217

oh wow, yeah 1000 words isn't a lot to explain a couple grand theories. What do you think is more relevant today?

Personally I think Marxism, but we're being divided more nowadays as opposed to JUST being the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. We have more people being borderline one or the other but at the same time we have people even struggling to live
I put in my essay that the bourgeoisie may have many companies which makes them money, whereas the proletariat would use their own time as their business, selling it on to the bourgeoisie. This is why I think people are divided more so nowadays, as there are few jobs to go around which is sad in a way and it divides the proletariat/ (proletarians?)

I also think socialism could be the way forward but I guess in theory it works fabulously, not so much in practice. The rich will always want the divide

The Government as a Social Institution

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