...Public Policy at University of Dar-Es-Salaam ------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------- Civil society is often described as the “third sector”, a domain outside market and state which contributes economic participation. Its strength can have a positive economic influence on the state and the market. Other scholars such as Adam Smith and Marx in identifying civil society primarily as economic interaction through the market and hence civil society acting as the agent for promoting economic development in country by stimulating good governance like transparency, effectiveness, openness, responsiveness and accountability. Therefore key features of successful civil society which emanate from various definitions include the following: separation from the state and the market; formed by people who have common needs, interests and values like tolerance, inclusion, cooperation and equality; and development through a fundamentally endogenous and autonomous process which cannot easily be controlled from outside. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the functions or economic roles of civil society. Firstly, Civil society is often associated with its advocacy role. Civil society can identify problems that are not addressed by the economic elite and bring them to public attention, thereby creating public opinion, awareness and change. In many countries ,NGOs have taken on a “watchdog” function, they monitor...
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...EPS perspective Too Many Too Little Debtanu Dutta Surbhi Verma EPS Co-ordinators (Batch 2012-14) eps@iimk.ac.in Manjunatha Belgere Ajinkya Lokare Faculty Advisory Board Prof. Kausik Gangopadhyay Prof. Subhasis Dey Prof. A. F. Mathew Prof. Sthanu Nair Prof. Venkat Raman Prof. Rudra Sensarma Editorial Board Biswa Prateem Das Debtanu Dutta Manjunatha Belgere Presented by Economics Politics & Social Sciences Interest Group Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Editorial After an inspiring success of the inaugural edition, we are very happy to present you the second volume of “Pragati”, magazine from Economics, Politics and Social sciences (EPS) Interest Group of IIM Kozhikode. This time it is much inclusive and much bigger. We received articles from students of the esteemed colleges of India and published the best among them. This is a result of tireless effort and dedication from the student members of the group and endless inspiration and help from the faculty members of our “Faculty Advisory Board”. EPS Interest Group is a cohort of enthusiasts on economic, political and social issues. Main aim of this group is to create awareness about recent related issues and sensitize the community on the importance of human initiatives. As a group we facilitate debate, discussion, article writing, social live projects and other activities. Our teachers always say that creating awareness is the first step of mobilizing people. EPS strives to engage people in...
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...The Numerical Impact & History Of A Materialistic Society University Author Note Abstract This paper utilizes four published research articles and six online renowned articles that contain relevant information and reports on how various materialistic spending and reasoning has impacted numerous societies over different times in history. The piece will compare and contrast the benefits of unnecessary spending on an economy as well as one’s state of mind. It’ll also delve in to the common practice of obtaining material for impression purposes and the benefits or lack thereof of doing so. The paper will also draw common correlation between jewelry and society all over history to modern daytime to find the more significant aspect to a society between living and impression. Centuries of historical documents suggest that a materialistic society causes a population to be more unhappy, divided and non-beneficial because of its emphasis on overvaluing items in the process of finding happiness. The emphasis on earning our peers acceptance through materials would lead us to achieve further happiness but statistics prove other wise. In ancient Rome, Asia and Africa along with medieval Europe there has been recorded history of how excess goods and jewelry were used to accentuate their self-importance and status to others. In modern time we find ourselves shopping, adding unnecessary expenses to our lives during the holiday seasons to reach a level of acceptance...
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...Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder The economic burden of ADHD 4/9/2010 DeVry University Angela Cawein Do you have trouble staying on task or completing projects you have started? Do you procrastinate to the point that things are not completed? Do you often lose or misplace items or have difficulty remembering appointments? Do you always run late to work or appointments and feel like you can never get caught up? Do you find that it is almost impossible to sit still? Do you get easily distracted by noises and forget what you were doing? Allen a first grade student at Triton Elementary School does not like school. He cannot sit in his seat for more than five minutes. He is always interrupting class with strange noises, getting out of his seat, throwing objects, sharpening his pencil and touching people around him. Allen has been noted by his teachers to blurt out answers to questions before they have been completed. He intrudes on other children’s activities, but seems to have adequate social skills. He has a history of not completing activities, being disorganized, easily distracted and has trouble paying attention to tasks or play activities. Allen has been motor-driven, defiant of rules, a poor sleeper, and inattentive to direction. He also has long been in trouble for disobeying authority. Allen and over four million children in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD. The economic burden of ADHD to society, medical costs, employment and work related...
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...1. Summary: The Indian government has the power to acquire private land for public use (the philosophy of eminent domain). Land acquisition is a very important and absolutely necessary activity that every government must undertake, and it is absolutely imperative that the government have a clear, just and feasible policy regarding land acquisition that provides fair compensation to the parties affected by the acquisition. A land acquisition policy must be clear on the factors mentioned blow: 1. The definition of public use (or the type of projects that the policy is applicable for): In general, the definition includes strategic purposes (those relating to Defense), infrastructure projects for development of villages, etc. 2. What all kinds of land can be acquired and how much of it: In all cases, there are restrictions that the land acquisition must not impair historical or artistic monuments of importance or desecrate religious structures, graveyards, etc. Due to concerns pertaining to food safety, in India, restrictions are often imposed on the acquisition of irrigated multi crop lands. 3. Who the affected parties are (or who are to be compensated): Land owners are the most obvious affected parties (they are always considered among those to be compensated). But people depended on the land indirectly, like landless labourers working on the land and others who depend on the land for livelihood, are also affected, often adversely. 4. In what form the...
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...1) Evaluate the success of the first Five Year Plan. The Five Year Plans were a sequence of national plans directed towards the Soviet Union’s economic advancements. The first Plan was created to initiate collectivization and rapid industrialization. The successes of Stalin’s first Five Year Plan included the high rate in factory distribution and the creation of the Soviet Union as a prominent industrial power. However, due to these successes the agricultural production was damaged as a result of Stalin’s collectivization, which lead to the starvation of many Kulaks, rebellion and widespread famine. 2) Assess the impact of collectivism on Soviet economics and society. Collectivism is a system in which private farms were eliminated, instead, the government owned all the land while the peasants worked on it. Stalin’s Five Year Plans were used to strengthen the Soviet Union domestically through financial independence and focused on industrialization as well as agricultural collectivization. Collectivization impacted the Soviet economics and society negatively because of the unpopularity within the peasant class and the Kulaks especially, mass slaughters of livestock and famine,...
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...Behaviour of a Retail Company/Business and their Economic Efficiency for Society Poppy Stevens Stream 1B Student ID: 187645 Introductory Business Studies Companies and Businesses worldwide all have one goal, and that is to make a profit, and to do that they need to have a good hold in the world’s economy, to have a good reputation and have consumers eating out of their hands. A good example of this would be Apple Inc. Apple is one of the worlds most well known companies, and has a market value of more than half a trillion dollars (Krosinsky, 2012). Apple is known for it’s Computer hardware, Computer software, but mainly Apple is known for their production of iPods, iPads, iPhones, MacBook’s, and of course iTunes. This essay will cover the following: The kind of market structure Apple has, how much consumers demand their products and the economic efficiency of the company. When it comes to building a market you need to know your consumers wants, needs, fears and concerns so you can build up and around it to provide them with exactly what they want. Apple has their consumers wrapped around their finger, due to the fact that they use the strategy of market segmentation. Market segmentation is when the market has been cut up into groups/segments where consumers have similar wants and needs for a certain product. This would be a better definition, “Market segmentation is the technique used to enable a business to better target it products at the right...
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...Exploring The Role Of Government Watchdogs In Canada And Its Influence On Society, Economics, And Politics Introduction In our increasingly neoliberalized and privatized society, the concept of governance and ethical conduct has been falling from the grips of public dialogue and discussion. Self-regulation has become a “mantra for both governments and private industry in the neoliberal era (Burch et al., 2013, p. 259). Given the onset of recent environmental disasters related to the oil and gas industry, the oligarchic telecommunications industry, and our crippling health care system, the role for government watchdogs becomes ever more so important. Thus for any type of change to occur, effective governance is important as it must also progress with any changes in society (Marin, 2009). For this to occur, this requires an ombudsman - also known as a watchdog, or adjudicator who has the “power to set standards and apply sanctions” (Burch et al., 2013, p. 259). The ombudsman or watchdog acts as a “moral compass and societal conscience,” making it even more relevant in today’s 21st century (Marin, 2009). However, in the event that the ombudsman/watchdog model is unable to help with any type of meaningful reform or provide justice, it starts to experience public criticism. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be to explore the role of government watchdogs in Canada and their decreasing influence on public and private sector institutions. In doing so, it will be understood...
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...STRAYER UNIVERSITY ROCKVLLE CAMPUS YACINE FALL Sociology of Developing Countries---SOC 300 Spring 2013 2nd Assignment Subject: Can religion play a positive role in the improvement of social, economic, and political conditions of undeveloped societies? Elaborate your thought. Religion is usually defined as the belief of a supreme, invisible power that has absolute control over our fate as humans, the universe and everything surrounding it. This invisible power establishes symbols that relate humanity to spiritual and moral values. Religion is all about spirituality (nature of consciousness) and morality (the distinction between right and wrong or good or bad). Religion is present in every corner of the world but practiced very differently and it has different influences in our lives depending on the location where it is practiced. Therefore, it generates different outcomes. In some undeveloped societies, religion can play a positive role in the improvement of social conditions, but when it comes to economic and political conditions, it can be very devastating. Religion can sometime help improve and stabilize the social system in undeveloped countries through its teachings. In all of the four dominant religions practiced in the third world (Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam), the teaching of promoting peaceful coexistence among humans are very popular. Religion also infuses social norms like honesty, morality and equality which will lessen social injustices, racism...
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...Introduction Individuality and independence are highly valued in our society. It is sometimes easy to forget that everything we do, including our private thoughts and fantasies, grows out of or is shaped through our interactions with others, especially others close to us. Whether we like it or not: we are born into groups and spend most of our social lives in those same groups. All of us assimilate, at least in part, the perspectives of these groups and thereby acquire our language, values, attitudes, beliefs and sense of identity. The most basic sociological premise is that humans are social beings, shaped in many ways by the groups to which we belong. Whether they be families, athletic teams, clubs (such as sororities and fraternities), religious groups, socioeconomic classes, complex bureaucratic organizations, or nations, much of human life is guided by group norms. Much of human life is also consumed with conflicts between groups, each of which tries to defend its own self interests. The competition of individuals and groups for wealth and power is the fundamental process shaping social structure. The conflict of groups produces a progressive development of greater equality, democracy, autonomy and individuality, as different forms of privilege are abolished. Many factors interact to generate changes in people's behavior and in the culture and structure of their society, including the physical environment, population, clashes over resources and values, supporting values...
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...about the important shift to market society by explaining the material and ideological conditions that help integrate the society to transform into the market society. Firstly, this paper is going to explain the material conditions by showing what characterizes a market society and this also show how the market society differs from the structures of the previous social organization, and also the changes that take place in the workplace due to the shift to market society. Secondly, this paper will also be discussing the ideological conditions by looking at the early “protestant work ethic” and the “spirit of capitalism” and how those two is important to the emergence of the market society. Lastly, this paper will be concluded by explaining why the shift to market society is a necessary transformation. Market society is characterized by the self-regulation market system, the shift in relations between economy and social relations, and the commodification of everything. The self-regulation market system refers to as “a system capable of organizing the whole economic life without outside help or interference” (Polanyi, p. 43). This means that everything is controlled by the market itself including the goods that are produced and distributed. In other words, “it is an economy directed by market prices and nothing but market prices” (Polanyi, p. 43). This is a significant characteristic of the market society as it differs to some previous societies that are based on tradition, which...
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...Helped Early Societies Spread, Study Finds This relates to class structure as well as stratification Huff Post BUISNESS March 20, 2014 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/02/class-warfare-societies_n_987882.html There has been much written lately about income and wealth inequality. As the administration tries to grapple with a debt crisis, sociologists have much to consider about the widening gap between the haves and have not’s. Why do cultures have a class structure, rich, poor and middle – instead of being egalitarian with resources shared equally by everyone? With the information surfacing around income inequality, a new study indicates that unequal access to resources brings about stratification, (Rich v. Poor, Haves v. Have not’s), and causes migration, displacing egalitarian societies. Researchers at Stanford used computer simulation to compare migration for egalitarian and stratified societies. (1) The researchers determined that when resources were consistently scarce, egalitarian societies – shared resources – remained more stable than stratified societies. Unequal sharing in the stratified societies gave those societies more incentive to migrate. Therefore, during periods of shortage, stratified societies were able to migrate, and egalitarian societies were not able to adapt to changing conditions as quickly. Stratified societies push egalitarian societies away from resources. Today stratified societies vastly out number egalitarian societies, and those...
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...themselves could develop and change their society. French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet was involved in the origins of the theory with the concept that technological advancements and economic changes can enable changes in moral and cultural values. Condorcet was the first to make the connection between economic and social development connection and that there can be continuous progress and improvement in human affairs. With that said, new advancements and improvements would need to keep pace with a constantly changing world. Furthermore, he encouraged technological processes to help give people further control over their environments, arguing that technological progress would eventually spur social progress. In addition to social structure and the evolution of societies, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim developed the concept of functionalism, which stresses the interdependence of the institutions of a society and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity. His most famous work is The Division of Labour in Society, which described how social order was to be maintained in a society and how primitive societies might make the transition to more economically advanced industrial societies. Durkheim suggested that in a capitalist society, with a complex division of labour, economic regulation would be needed to maintain order. He stressed that the major transition from a primitive social order to a more advanced industrial society could...
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...Equality greatly [plays into the wellbeing of society and through economic, social and cultural rights, degrees of equality and achievable. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket’s chapter “Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better”, on equality and health along with additional rights, highlight how inequality due to an economic gap can affect society as a whole (Wilkinson and Picket, 2011). Different ways in which the economic gap may be shortened and how the current measures addressing adversities scrutinize people on the poor end of the gap are important concepts that were highlighted through the resources. After the data and arguments presented in Wilkinson’s TED Talk and his chapter with Kate Picket, there remain questions on the feasibility...
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...What causes socio-economic inequality? By Briana Whetston Sociology 101 – 008 Department of Accounting University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, WI 54701 What Causes Socio-economic Inequality? ABSTRACT This paper will look into the reasons of socio-economic inequality of individuals throughout society. The expansive framework of this theme is our class discussion on Stratification. Countless people think of socio-economic inequality specifically as social class. Although this is a part of it, there are many other factors such as gender and racism that contribute to this matter. Furthermore, the overall thesis for this paper is that the causes of socio-economic inequality are caused by more than solely economic factors. The arguments that will support this thesis will be: 1) Gender inequality in the workplace; 2) Discrimination towards age and race 3) Unequal access to education and power; and 4) How the social behaviors of members of society, through forms of discrimination, affect the attitudes of others. This topic has a social relevance, being that countless people around the world are affected by socio-economic inequality. I INTRODUCTION A study done on national income distribution shows that families in the top twenty percent are making 47.2 percent of the nation’s income, while the bottom twenty percent are making only 4.3 percent of it. Correspondingly, ten percent of households in the United States own 68 percent of the nation’s wealth. This proves that...
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