Social Institutions PDF

**Social Institutions** **Social Institutions** - refer to organized set of elements such as beliefs, rules, practices, and relationships that exist to attain social order. It also refers to well-established and structured relationships between groups of people that are considered fundamental compo...

**Social Institutions** **Social Institutions** - refer to organized set of elements such as beliefs, rules, practices, and relationships that exist to attain social order. It also refers to well-established and structured relationships between groups of people that are considered fundamental components of a society\'s culture. **Institutional Approach** - tells us that social Institutions are ordered set of rules, norms, beliefs, or values that organize human behavior. **Relational Approach** - focuses on social relations rather than rules, norms, beliefs, or values **SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS** **The Family, Marriage and Kinship** **Family** - is a group of people who are related by birth, marriage, and a shared residence. The family is considered as a vital social Institution for the continued survival of humanity because it nurtures offspring from childhood into adulthood. **Kinds of Families:** **Nuclear Family** - families that are composed of parents and children. **Extended Families** - are those that are of the nuclear family and other relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. **Reconstituted families** -- are composed of the spouses and their children from a previous marriage. The family is also a basis for kinship. **Kinship** -- is a social structure defined by relations among individuals linked by blood or marriage ties. Kinship has been found to have a significant influence in defining the social status of individuals in many societies. For example: In the Philippines, many of the noted personalities in politics trace their lineage to families who have help political power and social influence for many years in their respective communities. **Classifications of Kinship Based on Descent** **Matrilineal Kinship** -- means that one's descent is based on the female line **Patrilineal Kinship** -- opposite of Matrilineal kinship, it means that one's descent is based on the male line **Bilineal kinship** -- refers to a descent system based on both the male and female line Kinship ties can also be based on marriage or the formally recognized union of a man and a woman. **Kinship ties** can also be based on marriage. **Marriage** - formally recognized union of a man and a woman. Two Types of Marriage Marriages can either be monogamous or polygamous based on your culture. **Monogamous Marriage** - means that a person cannot have more than one spouse Ex. For Christian societies, a person cannot have more than one spouse. **Polygamous Marriage** - means that a person can have more than one spouse. Ex. Among Islamic societies, marriage can be polygamous which means that a person can have more than one spouse. The type of polygamy among Muslims is called polygyny, that is, a husband could take many wives. Another type of polygamy is called polyandry where a wife can have many husbands. It was prevalent in India during the ancient times **The Economy** **Economy** -- is an institution that addresses questions regarding limited resources of society. The economy must address some basic questions such as what should be produced? How are these products going to be produced? How much are these products? The answers to these questions determine how the members of the economy will behave. There are many views regarding how societies address these economic questions. According to **liberal economists**, the answers to the important questions regarding the resources of the society should be determined by the market. **Market** - according to Adam Smith, is a self-regulating mechanism. The laws and other processes of the market determine the number of goods that will be made available to the members of society, as well as their prices in the market. The consumers and suppliers are free to decide for themselves in participating in market activities, therefore, there is no need for state intervention in the economy. Free competition, which is vital to a market economy, will limit the greed of self-interested individuals **Socialists** - have a different point of view regarding the economy. They believe that the bourgeoisie or the social class that largely controls the means of production would have an overwhelming control over the free-market economy. According to them, only the bourgeoisie benefits from the free market system. The bourgeoisie is made up of those who are involved in the financial sector like bankers, industrialists, and owners of corporations. They comprise the minority of society. **Karl Marx** - because of the bourgeoisie, he argued that wealth is concentrated on the few The free market system for Marx has alienated the proletariats/laborers since they do not have the capital or resources to thrive in it unlike the bourgeoisie. - Private property, which is concentrated on the bourgeoisie, should be abolished and must be under the direction of the state to promote equal distribution of economic resources according to the needs of the people and regardless of class. Socialists believe that society can only be changed through a revolution that will bring about structural changes in society including the abolition of private property that will give way to communism. - According to Marx, communism is the solution to the alienation of man in a free market system and is an alternative to a free market system controlled by bankers and industrialists. **John Maynard Keynes** - argued that while the economy should be left with the so-called \"invisible hand of the market,\" there would be instances when the government must be ready to intervene to prevent market failures. **Market failures** - refer to cases when the market becomes inefficient due to imperfect competition, imperfect information, imperfect mobility, and the like. In such cases, the government should be allowed to intervene in the economy to resolve such issues. **Examples of government intervention** - is the regulation of companies that already control a sizeable part of the market resulting in effective monopoly. - Another example is the increase in government spending in times of recession. Government spending is seen as a pump-priming mechanism that would help the economy reach its optimal level. In the Philippine context, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program could be seen as a government intervention in the economy. It is a redistribution mechanism that provides indigent families with financial aid on the condition that they equip themselves in the aspects of education and health. **Liberal economics** - assume that the market is a level playing field, and that each individual is able to engage freely in economic activities. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Many remain poor and it may even reinforce the already unequal relations in the economic sphere. **EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH INSTITUTION** Two institution that upholds basic human rights are the educational and health Institution. They could be provided by either state or by private entities**. Health Institution** ensure that individuals have acess to health services to promote universal public health. **Educational Institution** ensure that individuals are functionally literate. **Educational Institutions-** like school do not only ensure a literature population but they also transmit culture. Beliefs, norms, values and practices of a society are taught in classroom. Also provides students with a sense of history. **Educational Institution-** feed the economy with skilled and competent individuals to ensure continuous economic productivity. The proponents of K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines argue that the program would better prepare students for the domestic and international market. **Marxists** - argue that schools should be agents for change to form critical -minded students who challenge exploitative measures and institutions. **Department of Education\'s Alternative Learning**(ALS)- ladderized, no -formal education program specifically catering to dropouts, out-of-school youth, and senior citizens. **Health Institution**- primarily established to ensure public health and provide universal health services. Different kinds of health systems: **Western health systems** - based on science and the skills of health workers are standardized and learned from health sciences schools. **Traditional or Alternative health systems**- these have been in existence even before the introduction of western health systems. Traditional health systems are also said to employ a holistic perspective in their method **For Filipinos, examples:** **Binat**- refers to the recurrence of the symptoms of a disease due to incomplete healing of a patient. **Pasma**-refers to the trembling hands or fingers. Religion **Religion -** is an institution that involves a set of beliefs and practices of a particular social group. The beliefs of religious groups affect the behavior of their members. It is important therefore to know how the beliefs of a religion affect the actions of its members. Religion may be organized into a group that has universal membership called a **church** or it could also be organized into an exclusive group called a **sect**. The church of a particular religion may be supported by the larger society and it also supports the beliefs of the larger society, while a sect usually challenges the norms of the larger society. **Classifications of Religions** **Monotheistic religions** -- refer to religions that believe in only one god Ex.. Christianity, Judaism, Islam **Polytheistic religions** -- refers to religions that believe in many gods are examples of monotheistic religions Ex. Hinduism, Taoism, Druidism **Animism** - meanwhile, is not considered a religion but rather a belief system that holds that both animate and inanimate things have a spiritual essence. It is different from monotheistic and polytheistic religions that limit spirituality to human beings and transcendental beings. As a result, animists venerate objects such as rocks, lakes, plants, and other natural elements. Shintoism and Jainism are examples of belief systems that contain elements of animism. According to **Karl Marx**, - religion reinforces social control and is the \"opiate of the masses.\" Its role is to justify the sufferings experienced by the proletariats or members of the lower social classes, particularly the wage-earners. It is part of society\'s superstructure and a product of society\'s economic realities. - Marx further argued that religion is used by the capitalists to further oppress the proletariat and a tool to dominate the less powerful. As such, he considered the abolition of religion as part of the socialist revolution that would pave the way for communism. **Max Weber** - in contrast, believed that religion is a factor for economic development. In the case of predominantly Protestant Christian societies, for instance, Weber argued that their emphasis on the values of frugality and hard work may translate into a more developed economy. Frugality and hard work could contribute to the accumulation of capital which is important toward industrialization. Weber\'s thesis shows how beliefs affect human behavior and how human behavior could affect society. **August Comte** -- - proposed Mysticism which states that the dominance of religion is part of the theological phase of the development of society. It then transitions to the metaphysical phase when man already possesses abstract ideas. - He believed that society will ultimately arrive at the scientific phase whereby science and rationality will dominate. Therefore, the scientific phase will mean the end of mysticism and the start of the secularization process. - The **secularization theory** predicts the decrease in the influence of religion and organized churches in social affairs. In many societies, there are constitutional provisions on the separation of the church and state. These provisions ensure the secular nature of the state especially in multicultural societies. The state, at the same time, ensures the right of its constituents to freely practice any religion according to their conscience. This is true in the case of the Philippines. However, there are societies where religion has considerable influence including Brunei and Iran. States with governments that are under the power of religious leaders are called **theocracies**. Other indicators of the secularization of society are the **decreasing church attendance** and the **replacement of the theological bases of public policies with more secular policies like human rights**. These could be observed in Europe and the rest of the West. However, it is argued that the secularization theory is also limited given the influence of **liberation theology** in South America, the influence of the Christian churches in the United States, and the continued influence of Islam in Asia and Africa. **Liberation theology**, for example, has been the basis for the Catholic Church to oppose dictators during the turbulent postwar period in South America. It also became the mission of the Catholic Church to be involved in addressing issues, most particularly poverty, in the social sphere. On the contrary, there are also many extremist groups that pervert the doctrines of certain religions like the Buddhist extremists in Myanmar and the Islamist extremists like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.