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Strength of social capital
Strengths and weaknesses of social capital theory
Theory of social capital
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Strength of social capital
Strengths and weaknesses of social capital theory
Theory of social capital
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Strength of social capital
Milton Rakove’s “Don’t Make No Waves… Don’t Back No Losers,” takes an in-depth look at Chicago’s political structure and claims that Chicago’s political machine is not only a model example of successful politics, but also despite criticism, the “durability of the machine, it’s efficiency, and its ability to survive and prosper, despite the urban crisis, cannot be challenged,” (Rakove 3). Rakove’s title of the book emphasizes the simplistic nature of the machine’s design. As detailed in the text, in order to be successful and preserve the hierarchy chosen for the machine cannot make waves and the political party backing the machine cannot back any losers.
At the beginning of The Outcasts of Poker Flat, the character John Oakhurst is introduced as a gambler, who has a calm tone and handsome face, with a compassionate, generous, honorable attitude, along with valuable leadership skills. Throughout the story, John Oakhurst shows qualities of being the strongest and then the weakest character. He shows his noble side when he returns money to Tom Simson, also known as “The Innocent”, after he won a gamble. Mr. Oakhurst considered it to be an unfair match due to Tom’s little experience with gambling and returned his money to Tom and told him to not gamble. However, the town of Poker Flat “a secret committee” gets rid of the improper citizens and Mr. Oakhurst was designated as one of them due to strong and lucky gambling skills.
Both social order and economic security have been weakened. The political system shows little awareness of these problems and is, in any case, ill equipped to deal with them. Levin’s concerns are widely shared among social thinkers, although their exact diagnoses and conclusions vary. Robert Putnam, a Harvard academic, has bemoaned the decline of social capital in US society. Bill Bishop, a prominent journalist, has used demographic data to show Americans increasingly choose to live with like-minded neighbours.
John Daniel Barry, an American novelist, once said, “Society is the mother of us all.” The article “What Unites These States?” by Phillip Caputo, the “Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address” given by President Bill Clinton, and “The Gettysburg Address” speech spoken by Abraham Lincoln all have one thing in common. The works all support the idea that the unity of men is more powerful than individualism. Society can get more work done in a timely manner than an individual during a crisis. Caputo writes, “A coordinator at the volunteer center told us that more than 14,000 people from every state in the union pitched in.”
He argues that the american elite class “molded laboring-class opinion… into action” by shaping their behavior. The rich saw that in order to have a successful revolutionary movement that they would need the support of the lower class because they made up the majority of the American population. He gives two examples of things that helped to influence the lower class’s opinion: the popular pamphlet called “Common Sense”, and the Declaration of Independence. Common Sense was a popular pamphlet that emphasized a central government.
After becoming an adult, serving in the revolutionary war, and realizing how little say people in his class had, Manning made a distinction about how society was structured to benefit some more than most. He then began to write, The Key of Liberty, about this disparity calling himself and other workers “the many” and elite, rich businessmen “the few,” distinguishing between total populations of each group. Manning introduced the concept of “the few” possessing more power and influence over politicians than “the many” who voted for them. With an educational, economical and influential advantage, Manning could only wonder: “How could the well-being of the Many be secured constitutionally against the self-interested manipulations of the Few” (Manning, p. 58). Manning knew the laws in early America were heavily against protections for workers and helped businesses rake in record profits.
Thus, it is better to improve the social determinants of a community as a whole instead of one person in that community bettering themselves. Working together to fix the aspects of said society that are negatively affecting an area along with everyone doing what they can to add to the improvement of life
The political system that the community of Walden Two is establishing is one that values what is ideal for the success of the community as a whole over the individual belief systems of each member. Although members of Walden Two were able to submit to being told the right way to vote on communal issues, this type of conditioning would not be effective in Scituate because of the strong-willed opinions and beliefs that members of the town frequently express. Frazier explains to the group that politics is only used to discuss certain matters where, “We all vote but we don’t all take an interest” (183). Walden Two is centered around the goal of creating a united, positive community that is free of stress, jealousy, and competition. With this objective
Differing forms of government size and involvement in public affairs has shaped many eras in America’s history. Expanding the government has usually led to the creation of the programs and specific offices dealing with niche interests or offices targeted at helping specific demographics of citizens. When these programs are used to the benefit the disenfranchised and disadvantaged is when democratic government starts to become a better system for all instead of only benefitting those with power. In the following eras the government of the United States was altered in some manner; Progressivism, The Great Society, and social movements in the 1960s and 70s all impacted the existing ideals held by political leaders and constituents.
Journal #2 The purpose of the article,“What Colleges Want to See on Your Application” by Emily Driscoll, is to discuss what would differentiate future college applicants in a pool of indistinguishable applications and to aid them in their quest for higher education. This article does have bias in that the author fails to consider Seniors, or students about to graduate from high school, who have neither challenged themselves nor engaged in their neighborhood. Driscoll assumes that their audience has been through every step from community service to recommendations, or has the opportunity to make up for lost time. In the article “What Colleges Want to See on Your Application,” Emily Driscoll discusses the contents the best application must display.
Being Human Requires Being Humble Humans are all individuals, but in America, we all unite as one. All us individuals can come together and find common ground. In “Making the Future Better, Together” and “A Quilt of a County”, it is shown how individuals come together with real life experiences. Patel and Quindlen both show finding common ground by describing how our country is hopeful of change, and people that would never be thought to help each other did. Patel and Quindlen are hopeful of our country, and believe that we unite under causes where we are all hurt, no matter our differences.
Current speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, was quoted saying, “every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together”. I disagree with his statement because individuals striving for true excellence do not need the complications infused in group work. The critique of others gets in the way of ideas when both sides do not agree, convoluting an individual's path to success. Time and time again, people hear of “self-made” billionaires and intellectuals who attained these assets by their own accord.
Those that do wish to participate should be professionals well-versed in normal operations, which include the reluctance to implement new programs unless the public demands it. The practice of important decisions being made by state officials is seen as if through two unconnected eyes- disagreeable as the favor system must be far less pervasive, but affable as efficiency is heightened. State governments under this system may be reminiscent of the golden age of corruption- as in Chicago’s heavily robber-baron-influenced city government beginning in the late 1800s. Some aspects of this apply to parts of the United States- in many North Dakotan places, “politics” can be heard as worse than a cuss word. Parties may be strongly polarized in the greater United States, but on the North Dakota scale, the state
Individual Choice and the Unity of Common Good While communitarians generally argue that members of a community share the same set of values and the same vision of the substantive good, to which new members are socialized, liberals tend to “construe this as equivalent to the rejection of individual diversity in relation to human goods” (Nederman, 1992, p. 977). In particular, liberal theorists largely seem to assume that any conception of the communal good that exceeds minimal consensus on tolerance and public order “imposes an ‘exclusivist,’ quasi-totalitarian conception of a common life upon individuals, who are thereby prevented from choosing their own life plans” (ibid.). In the effort to strengthen the communitarian argument and to fend
Besides, they may have to forgo individual rewards and disregard personal welfare to advance a collective objective (Olson, 1965). Adding to this, Hume’s (1854) parable essentially captures the free-rider problem inherent in groups and society at large, as well as the looming tragedy of the commons, which Olson (1965) further expanded upon (Hardin, 1968; Hume, 1854). However, the example also accentuates another vital point: society is a collective effort. Notwithstanding that individuals form groups and states based on shared interests (i.e. social, economic, and