12-1 Contrast democracy and dictatorship.

12-2 Explain how globalization affects war and terrorism, geopolitics, and the nation-state.

12-3 Describe the U.S. economy’s transition from industrialization to deindustrialization.

12-4 Discuss your relationship to employment, unemployment and underemployment, and consumption.

12-5 Describe the effects of globalization on the world economy.

Politics is one way to advance a given position or policy through the use of, or by putting pressure on, the state. Democracy is a political system in which people within a given state vote to choose their leaders and, in some cases, to approve leg­islation. This is in contrast to dictatorships, which are usually totalitarian governments operating without the consent of the governed.

The question of who rules the United States is a source of con­tinuing debate. In analyzing politics, structural-functionalists emphasize pluralism, while conflict theorists focus on power elite theory.

Global politics is dominated by geopolitics, the nation-state and threats to it, war, and terrorism. Terrorism involves nongovern­mental actors engaging in violence targeting noncombatants, property, or military personnel.

Sociologists define the economy as the social system that ensures the production and distribution of goods and services. In the last 200 years, the capitalist U.S. economy has transitioned from the Industrial Revolution to industrialization to deindustrialization. Communism is an economic system oriented to the collective, and socialism, which followed it historically, is characterized by a soci­ety’s efforts to plan and organize production consciously and ratio­nally. The United States has some social welfare programs but still lags far behind more developed welfare states in what it provides.

In addition to general shifts in the U.S. economy, there have been dramatic changes in the nation’s labor force. Deindustrialization and the decline of labor unions, as well as the growth of service jobs and an increasing focus on con­sumption, set the stage for a postindustrial society, in which the focus on the manufacture of goods has been replaced by an increase in service work.

Consumption is generally considered to be the hallmark of post­modern society. Consumerism is an obsession with consumption. Cathedrals of consumption show that consumption has in many ways become today’s religion. The postmodern world is also associated with hyperconsumption and hyperdebt.

Capitalism has become increasingly global in that transnational, not national, economic practices predominate. The eurozone has faced, and may again confront, a euro crisis that threatens to destabilize the EU and possibly the world.