KEY CONCEPTS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES – KEY TERMS
CHAPTER 15 – ECONOMIES, WORK AND CONSUMPTION
- Economies social institutions that organize the production, distribution and consumption of goods
and services
- Reasons for expansion of economy:
o Agricultural technology
o Productive specialization
o Division of labor
o Permanent settlements and trad
- Cottage industry people labored in their own homes
- Changes due to industrialization:
o New forms of energy (with the invention of steam engine)
o Centralization of work in factories
o Manufacturing and mass production
o Division of labor and specialization
- Information revolution the development of new technologies such as the computer
- Primary sector of economy generates raw materials directly from the natural environment e.g.
agriculture, hunting, fishing, forestry, mining
- Secondary sector transform raw materials into manufactured goods (grows quickly as a society
industrialize)
- Tertiary sector generates services rather than goods e.g. teachers
- Capitalist economy an economic system in which resources and the means of producing goods and
services are privately owned
- Liberal capitalism free market, facilitative state and a legal framework which helps maintain
capitalism
- Organized capitalism an administered market and a more directive state
- Disorganized/Post-Fordist capitalism involves an increase in the service sector, more global and
dispersed operations and a decline of nation-states
- Fordism an economic system based on mass-assembly-line production, mass consumption and
standardized commodities
- Post-Fordism new economic system based on flexibility, specialization and tailor-made goods
- Global economy economic activity spanning many nations of the world with little regard for
national borders
- Consequences of global economy:
o Global division of labor
o Workers in poorer countries working long hours for little pay
o An increasing number of products pass through the economies of more than one nation
o National governments can no longer control the economic activity that takes place within
their borders
o A small number of businesses operating internationally, now control a vast share of the
world’s economic activity
o Extraordinary inequality of wealth
- Socialism an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and
services are collectively owned
- Communism an economic and political system in which all members of a society are socially equal
- Neoliberal market capitalism decentralized, open markets, minimum state involvement (e.g. USA)
- Social market capitalism more organized markets, social partnerships (e.g. western and
Scandinavian countries)
- Developmental capitalism guided market, tight business networks, reciprocity between states and
firms (e.g. Japan)
- Democratic socialism an economic and political system that combines significant government
control of the economy with free elections
- State capitalism an economic and political system in which companies are privately owned
although they cooperate closely with the government (Japan, South Korea, Singapore)
CHAPTER 15 – ECONOMIES, WORK AND CONSUMPTION
- Economies social institutions that organize the production, distribution and consumption of goods
and services
- Reasons for expansion of economy:
o Agricultural technology
o Productive specialization
o Division of labor
o Permanent settlements and trad
- Cottage industry people labored in their own homes
- Changes due to industrialization:
o New forms of energy (with the invention of steam engine)
o Centralization of work in factories
o Manufacturing and mass production
o Division of labor and specialization
- Information revolution the development of new technologies such as the computer
- Primary sector of economy generates raw materials directly from the natural environment e.g.
agriculture, hunting, fishing, forestry, mining
- Secondary sector transform raw materials into manufactured goods (grows quickly as a society
industrialize)
- Tertiary sector generates services rather than goods e.g. teachers
- Capitalist economy an economic system in which resources and the means of producing goods and
services are privately owned
- Liberal capitalism free market, facilitative state and a legal framework which helps maintain
capitalism
- Organized capitalism an administered market and a more directive state
- Disorganized/Post-Fordist capitalism involves an increase in the service sector, more global and
dispersed operations and a decline of nation-states
- Fordism an economic system based on mass-assembly-line production, mass consumption and
standardized commodities
- Post-Fordism new economic system based on flexibility, specialization and tailor-made goods
- Global economy economic activity spanning many nations of the world with little regard for
national borders
- Consequences of global economy:
o Global division of labor
o Workers in poorer countries working long hours for little pay
o An increasing number of products pass through the economies of more than one nation
o National governments can no longer control the economic activity that takes place within
their borders
o A small number of businesses operating internationally, now control a vast share of the
world’s economic activity
o Extraordinary inequality of wealth
- Socialism an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and
services are collectively owned
- Communism an economic and political system in which all members of a society are socially equal
- Neoliberal market capitalism decentralized, open markets, minimum state involvement (e.g. USA)
- Social market capitalism more organized markets, social partnerships (e.g. western and
Scandinavian countries)
- Developmental capitalism guided market, tight business networks, reciprocity between states and
firms (e.g. Japan)
- Democratic socialism an economic and political system that combines significant government
control of the economy with free elections
- State capitalism an economic and political system in which companies are privately owned
although they cooperate closely with the government (Japan, South Korea, Singapore)
