3.12 Glossary
Authority: the justifiable right to exercise power and is considered legitimate power.
Bureaucracy: a formal organization that uses rules and efficiency to produce something or meet some need.
Charismatic authority: an inspiring personality, that alone convinces others to follow.
Dysfunctions: outcomes that are harmful either to the group itself or to other groups
Economic power: refers to control over financial resources.
Formal organizations: consist of rules, systems, and procedures designed to meet a particular outcome, most often taking the form of bureaucracies.
Functionalist perspective: focuses on the social needs a social institution meets and takes a macro approach to studying that institution.
Government: the social institution that decides who has power and the rules around what they can do with that power within a geographic region.
Groups: a social system where individuals regularly interact with each other.
Ideological power: (or cultural power) is the ability to influence ideas and is often obtained through charismatic authority.
In-groups: the groups that have the most power and are often the largest.
Iron cage of rationality: how social life becomes even more calculated when people apply more bureaucratic characteristics to a wider range of activities.
Iron law of oligarchy: the idea that, no matter what principles a large organization claims to follow, it will eventually be run by a small group of leaders who hold most of the power and keep it within their circle (Spear, 2023).
Legal-rational authority: authority is based on written rules (or laws) and is tied to the position rather than the person.
McDonaldization: the process developed by McDonald’s, which extends bureaucratic principles to include efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.
Military power: the ability to use violence or physical force to ensure people’s compliance with the law, norms, or decrees from leaders or officials.
Nepotism: hiring or promoting individuals based on their familiar or social connections, rather than their unique qualifications.
Networks: the connections, interactions, and influence between individuals and groups.
Out-groups: the groups that have the least power and may be persecuted by the in-group.
Pluralist model of power: many distinct groups, organizations, and institutions have access to power.
Political power: the power to make and enforce laws.
Political socialization: the process by which individuals develop values and beliefs related to politics and government.
Power: the ability to influence what others do or think.
Power elite: how the same individuals have overlapping power in the state (or government), the military, and the economy.
Primary group: typically a small group that involves one-on-one interaction.
Profane: the objects and ideas that are part of everyday life.
Religion: a belief system concerned with the sacred.
Religious socialization: how groups transmit religious norms to others.
Religious fundamentalism: strictly adhering to religious beliefs and in opposition to secularization.
Sacred: those things and ideas held as extraordinary, awe-inspiring, or otherworldly.
Secondary group: a formal group that is larger than a primary group, and not all members know one another.
Secularization: the acceptance of nonreligious cultural values.
Social category: a group of people who share a common characteristic, whether they are aware of one another or not.
Social institutions: patterned or organized ways of meeting a group’s social needs.
Traditional authority: based on custom or how things have always been done.
White Christian nationalism: an ideology that desires greater influence of Christianity in American government and everyday life.