SOC 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Charismatic Authority, Commoditization, Oligopoly

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 105
• Professor: Mustafa Koc

Document Summary

Economy as social relation: work involves activities we engage in to maintain our livelihood. It is a social process necessary for the survival of most people: the economy is the social institution that ensures the maintain of society through the production , distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Capitalism has become the dominant economic system around the world in the last 500 years. Concentration and centralization: while capitalist economy gets its dynamism from competition, competition often ends up with domination of fewer enterprises controlling the market. When four or fewer companies control more than 40% of a particular market, we can no longer talk about competition: oligopoly: when several companies control a sector or industry. Weber assumed that in modern capitalist societies rational-legal authority would prevail. Role of state in capitalist society: pluralist approach: the state mediates between these groups to reach a consensus to maintain order in the society.