SECTION B: - ANSWERS

SECTION B: Write brief notes on fifteen (15) of the following (30 marks)

7. ECCLESIA AND DENOMINATION AS TWO FORMS OF CHURCH

Ecclesia Church is a type of religious organisation in which all people in the society are
members by birth. Ecclesiasts are also formally allied with the State and are structured,
bureaucratic organisation. These structures are usually long lived. They have trained officials
with considerable power. Ecclesiasts do not tolerate religious differences in the population, and
membership is a matter of law. For example, Roman Catholicism in the Roman Empire even
Spain; Confucianism was the state religion in China; Anglican official church for England;
Islam – Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iran. Denomination on the other hand is a well-established
religious organisation in which a substantial portion of the population are members. Usually
independent of the State, for example, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. Like Ecclesia,
denominations are formal bureaucratic organisation with trained officials, also long lived.
Tolerant of other religious affiliations but hold strongly to their own beliefs.

8. EDUCATION AND ITS FUNCTIONS

Education is a social institution through which a society‟s children are taught basic academic
knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms. Education also refers to the transmission of
particular attitudes, knowledge and skills to their members through formal systematic training.
Therefore, education is the transmission of roles, norms, knowledge, values patterns, skills and
mores from one generation to another in order to control the behaviour through formal,
informal, and non-formal systems. Sociologists have divided the functions of education into two
categories and these are; manifest functions and latent functions.

Manifest Functions

(i) Transmission of culture through the process of socialisation adherence ensures

survival of society, i.e. it reproduces norms and values so as to ensure survival of
society.
(ii) Tracking/Principle of Meritocracy: This is the sorting out pupils or students or
assignment of pupils to different educational programmes, e.g. vocational training,

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 college/university, carpenters and mechanism, lawyers and doctors, development
planners etc.
(iii) Maintaining of Social Control: Through education, children are introduced to
standards of proper conduct, so that they are prepared to lead productive and orderly
lives as adults by introducing them to norms and values of larger society; acceptance
to it produces citizens who share a common set of values.
(iv) Social Change: Education can stimulate desired change by promoting new ideas
through intellectual inquiry and critical thinking, e.g. through university academic
staff, new insights and people‟s attitudes.
(v) Social Integration: Education works to forge a mass of people into a unified whole.
This function is of particular importance in nations with pronounced social diversity
with various cultures which are at times even hostile to each other. One way in which
this integration is done is through the establishing of a common language, for
example, English in Zambia.
Latent Functions

(i) Help keep youths off the street.

(ii) Serve as a market place for marriage partners, sugar daddies not take you anywhere,
potential marriage among class mates and within the university.
(iii) Broaden relationships from nearly at each level; primary, secondary, university, new
friends.

9. RESOCIALISATION

Re-socialization is the process of learning a new different set of attitudes, values and behaviours
from those in one‟s background and previous experience. It is a replacement of established
attitudes and behaviour patterns. Re-socialisation may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary
socialization happens when people assume a new status of our own free will. These would
involve things such as becoming a religious convert, an employee or a retiree. Involuntary re-
socialization on the other hand occurs against a person‟s wishes and generally takes place
within a total institution. A total institution is a place where people are isolated from the rest of
society for a set period of time and come under the control of the officials who run the
institution. Military boot camps, jails and prisons, concentrated camps, mental hospitals and
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some orphanages are total institutions. Involuntary re-socialisation is a two-step process: firstly
people are totally stripped off their former selves or depersonalized through a degrading
ceremony. Their official identity becomes a number and not a name. The second step occurs
when the staffs at an institution attempts to build a more compliant person. A system of rewards
and punishments is introduced to encourage conformity to institutional norms. The assumed
purpose of involuntary socialization is to reform persons so that they will conform to societal
standards of conduct after their release.

10. FUNCTIONS OF DEVIANCE

Deviance is any behaviour that violates cultural norms. It is a failure to conform to culturally
reinforced norms. The following are the functions of deviance; (1) It affirms cultural values and
norms through punishing deviants thereby promoting conformity, (2) It clarifies moral
boundaries by instilling fear to would be deviants by imposing negative sanctions which act as
constraints to certain behaviours, (3) It promotes social unity by creating an us/them dichotomy,
(4) It encourages social change for example riots and revolutions can lead to social
transformation, and (5) It provides jobs to control deviance for example the police service.

11. DEPENDENCY THEORY

This is a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in
terms of the historical exploitation of poor societies by rich ones. Dependency theory says
the poverty of poor nations stems from their colonization by European nations, which exploited
the poor nations‟ resources and either enslaved their populations or used them as cheap labour.
The colonized nations were thus unable to develop a professional and business class that would
have enabled them to enter the industrial age and to otherwise develop their economies.
Dependency comes from this link: The exploitation of various regions for their raw materials
and labour impoverished them and made them depend on the West. They are dependent on the
west for economic, financial, political, social and cultural aspects. Advocates of dependency see
rich countries as the main obstacle to the wellbeing of poor countries. The main causes of
underdevelopment are external to poor countries and there are unequal and exploitative center-
periphery-relations condemning poor countries into further poverty. In summary, the

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dependency theory blamed the external factors for the persistent poverty of the developing
nations and these factors are; (i) colonialism, (ii) imperialism, (iii) slave and conquest, (iv)
foreign aid, and (v) imbalance in trade. The proponents of the dependency theory suggested that
poor countries should attempt to pursue policies of self-reliance in order to end their poverty,
contrary to modernization model endorsed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World
Bank. There must be controlled interaction with the world economy.

12. TYPES OF AUTHORITY ACCORDING TO MAX WEBER

Max Weber defines authority as the power that people perceive as legitimate rather than
coercive. That is, power exercised in a normative way. The source of authority, according to
Weber differs according to a society‟s economy. Max Weber identified three sources or types of
authority and these are: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority. Traditional
authority is the type of authority based on traditional beliefs and practices. Positions are
inherited through appointment by belonging to a particular lineage. Traditional authority,
preindustrial societies, said Weber, rely on traditional authority, power legitimized by respect
for long-established cultural patterns. Woven into a population‟s collective memory, traditional
authority means that people accept a system, usually one of hereditary leadership, simply
because it has always been that way. Rational-legal authority is the common authority as
written by law and the authority lies with the office not the person. Weber defined rational-legal
authority (sometimes called bureaucratic authority) as power legitimized by legally enacted
rules and regulations. Rational-legal authority is power legitimized in the operation of lawful
government. Instead of looking to the past, members of today‟s high –income societies seek
justice through formally enacted rules of law. Rationally enacted rules also guide the use of
power in everyday life. The authority of deans and classroom teachers, for example, rests on the
offices they hold in bureaucratic colleges and universities. The police, too, depend on rational-
legal authority. In contrast to traditional authority, rational-legal authority comes not from
family background but from a position in government organization. Charismatic authority is the
type of authority defined by a leader‟s outstanding qualities and accomplishments. In other
words, charismatic authority is power legitimized by extraordinary personal abilities that
inspire devotion and obedience. Unlike traditional and rational-legal authority, charismatic
authority depends less on a person‟s ancestry or office and more on personality. Charismatic

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leaders have surfaced throughout history, using their personal skills to turn an audience into
followers. Often they make their own rules and challenge the status quo. Examples of
charismatic leaders can be as different as Jesus of Nazareth and Adolf Hitler. The fact that they
and others, such as India‟s liberator, Mahatma Gandhi, and the U.S. civil rights leader Martin
Luther King succeeded in transforming the society around them explains why charismatics are
almost always highly controversial and why few of them die of old age.

13. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH CIVIL SOCIETIES

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from
birth until death. They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe or how you
choose to live your life. They can never be taken away, although they can sometimes be
restricted – for example if a person breaks the law, or in the interests of national security. These
basic rights are based on shared values like dignity, fairness, equality, respect and
independence. These values are defined and protected by law. The term civil society refers to the
wide array of non-government and non-profit organizations that have a presence in public life,
expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural,
political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. Civil society provides a critical
foundation for holding governments accountable, ensuring good governance, and promoting all
human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights. Citizens, activists, organizations,
congregations, writers, journalists and reporters each play a vital role in encouraging
governments to respect human rights. In short, civil society is a key player in creating the
conditions for the realization of human rights. It promotes human rights discourse that validates
rights norms, particularly by including devalued and invisible groups.

14. DEMOCRACY, DICTATORSHIP AND TOTALITARIANISM

Democracy
Democracy is a political system in which power is exercised by the people as a whole. Through
the system of representative democracy authority is placed in the hands of elected leaders
accountable to the people. Economic development and democratic government go together
because both depend on a literate populace. In democratic political systems legitimization of
power gives way to rational – legal authority, as leaders are placed in offices through a rational
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election process regulated by law. Furthermore democratic political systems are built on
extensive bureaucracy because of need to carry out a wide range of government activities
undertaken by democratic societies. As government grows it slowly takes on a life of its own,
revealing an inherent antagonism between democracy and bureaucracy. Most everyday decision
making is carried out by career bureaucrats not directly accountable to the people.

Dictatorship

Dictatorship is a mixed type of political regime characterised by state leaders who direct and
regulate society without being accountable to citizens. There are no competitive elections.
Citizens are denied the right to criticise officials, the government, the regime, the socio-
economic order, and the prevailing ideology. Citizens who express such political views run the
risk of severe punishment by the security forces of the state. Alternative sources of information
for citizens do not exist or are not officially allowed. Secrecy in the affairs of state is routine.
Independent associations or organisations critical to the state are not allowed to form and
develop, and if those that exist speak of or act contrary to the wishes of the state they are
suppressed.

Totalitarianism
The most restrictive political form and it refers to a political system that extensively regulates
people‟s lives. It was the development of technological means for rigid regulation of a populace
that spurred the emergence of totalitarian regimes. For example, the North Korean government
utilizes surveillance equipment and sophisticated computers to store vast amounts of information
on its citizenry and thereby manipulate an entire population. Totalitarian governments represent
total concentrations of power and prohibit organised opposition of any kind. By denying the
populace the right to assemble for political purposes and controlling access to information, these
regimes thrive in an environment of fear and social atomization. Socialization is intensely
political as schools and mass media present only official versions of events. Totalitarian
governments span the political spectrum from the far right to the far left. Totalitarian
government is bureaucratic and procedure-oriented; a totalitarian state is an impressive edifice
of unjust laws. Political murder is a feature of totalitarian justified by some demented ideology,
for instance South Africa under apartheid.

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 15. SCIENCE AND MYTH

A myth is defined as a story without an author that is passed along and is usually intended to
teach a lesson or something that is untrue. A myth is also defined as a legendary or a traditional
story that usually concerns an event or a hero, with or without using factual or real
explanations. These particularly concern demigods or deities, and describe some rites, practices,
and natural phenomenon. Typically, a myth involves historical events and supernatural beings.
The sociological function of myths is based on the belief that mythology served the important
role of establishing society‟s rules and norms. Mythology taught people how to act and treat
each other. Becoming mythic means becoming a role model for others and we show them how to
thrive in culture. We show them a model of someone who has learned to live peacefully inside
society‟s machine, but also someone who knows when to strike off in the other direction. An
example of a myth is the saying that “pregnant women should not eat eggs to avoid giving birth
to babies without hair”. While on the other hand, Science is a body of systematically arranged
knowledge that shows the operation of general laws. The term also refers to the logical,
systematic methods by which that knowledge is obtained. Science is guided by scientific methods
which uses systematic and specific procedures to test experiments and without any subjectivity or
personal biases or prejudices towards the issue or event or occurrences being studied.

16. ETHNOCENTRISM AND ITS EFFECTS

Ethnocentrism is judging another culture based upon the values and standards set in one‟s own
culture. It is based on an assumption that one‟s own way of life is superior to all others. To a
Zambian for example, those who eat dogs, snakes and row fish are considered to be weird and
homosexuality is abominable to most Zambians. Everyone is ethnocentric in one way or another.
Things like tribalism and nepotism for example are more to do with people‟s ethnocentric nature
than anything else. Ethnocentrism exists mainly because our society has only introduced us to
certain aspects of life and we consider only those aspects to be introduced to us to be normal.
Advantages of Ethnocentrism: (i) It encourages group solidarity, patriotism and nationalism
because it brings about pride of existence, (ii) It makes greater conformity within groups
because it gives pressure on those who want to deviate from the cultural norms and values of the
group, and (iii) It also serves as protection against unwanted change by advocating for the
preservation of the status quo. Disadvantages of ethnocentrism: (i) It can be an obstacle to
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cross-cultural understanding, (ii) It makes it difficult for individuals to work in alien of different
cultures, (iii) It can be an obstacle to inter-group or intercultural relationships, (iv) All cultures
have developed through borrowing ideas from other cultures. Ethnocentrism can lead to a
rejection of such ideas and can hence retard development. It can inhibit innovations because
outside ideas are looked upon with suspicion and as wrong, (v) It can also be a threat to
international good will, and (vi) It is a threat to national survival. Ethnic wars in Rwanda
Burundi and other Countries are good examples.

17. CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Culture is the entire way of life of people. It includes knowledge, language, beliefs, values,
norms, behavior and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next. Culture
has a number of characteristics and these include; (i) culture is learned, (ii) culture is
transmitted through language symbols, (iii) culture is shared through learning from other
people, and (iv) culture is normative as it involves the dos and don‟ts. It states the goals we
should follow and how we should follow them, the values we should have. It stipulates what is
moral, sinful, shameful and embarrassing. While on the other hand, a society refers to a group of
people who share a defined territory and a culture. Society is often understood as the basic
structure and interactions of a group of people or the network of relationships between entities.
A distinction is made between society and culture in sociology.

18. TYPES OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is divided into three different types and these are; pure or basic sociology, applied
sociology and clinical sociology. (i) Pure or Basic Sociology is a type of sociology which is
based on acquisition or search for knowledge, without primary concern for its practical use. (ii)
Applied Sociology is the use of sociological theory, methods, skills and research in order to
resolve particular issues in real-world settings. Applied Sociology uses sociological knowledge
and research skills to gain empirically based knowledge to inform decision makers, clients and
the general public about social problems, issues, processes and conditions so that they might
make informed choices. (iii) Clinical Sociology is an applied practice that focuses on health
intervention, such as working with medical practitioners, community health services, social

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policy and public health campaigns. Clinical sociologists work in hospitals and they deliver
community services, often carrying out social work. Their jobs might involve drawing up
physical rehabilitation plans; they provide wellbeing and self-help coaching; they provide crisis
housing and trauma services; and administrate group therapy. They will work on public health
campaigns; they mediate conflict; they facilitate local council policies; they work on issues of
sustainability; and they carry out action research (research that involves participants in every
step of the journey, including commenting and editing drafts).

19. SUICIDE AND ITS CAUSES ACCORDING TO E. DURKHEIM

Durkheim defined suicide as every case of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive
or negative act performed by the victim himself which strives to produce these results. In short, it
is the act of taking one’s own life. Suicide is caused by some power which is over and above the
individual or super individual. According to Durkheim, suicide is not an individual act nor a
personal action. To Durkheim, suicide is the result of social disorganisation or lack of social
integration or social solidarity. This means that suicide is caused by two factors namely social
integration and social regulation. Social integration refers to the degree of social attachments
people have to social groups or societies as a whole. Societies with high or low levels of social
integration will more likely experience suicide. While on the other hand, Social regulations are
the rules that guide people’s behaviour in society. Societies with high or low levels of social
regulations/integration will more likely experience suicide.

20. WHY THERE ARE NO SCIENTIFIC LAWS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

A scientific law is a statement based on repeated experimental observations that describes some
aspect of the world. A scientific law always applies under the same conditions, and implies that
there is a causal relationship involving its elements. The laws or theories of physics are valid,
they enable scientists to predict the future. The special and general theories of relativity continue
to be verified by observers, and they enable scientists to predict, for example, how much energy
will be released in an atomic explosion with a given element and how space travel will affect
space voyagers. In effect, physical scientists are really dealing with a deterministic universe
wherein light always travels at the same speed and water is always the end product of the

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combining of one atom of hydrogen and two atoms of oxygen. The world of physics as a body of
knowledge would collapse if, for example, the speed of light were to vary in unpredictable ways.

Such is not the case in the social sciences. There are many phenomena in the social sciences that
are subject to empirical observation and measurement. In politics, votes can be counted; in
economics, incomes can be measured; and in sociology the demographic characteristics of the
population can be described and measured. These measurements can rarely be made with the
same precision as in the physical sciences, but statistical concepts enable us to get a handle on
the degree of accuracy or inaccuracy in a given series of measurements. But the most
unbridgeable gap between the physical and social sciences appears in their respective abilities
to predict the future. The social sciences have little or no ability to do so simply because they are
not dealing with a deterministic environment. Human beings have free will and can choose to
repeat their behavior in a given situation, modify it or abandon it. Human beings also have
values and goals that give meaning to their lives and influence their behavior. Social scientists
are simply unable to cope with goals and values in any scientifically predictable way. Nor can
they use scientific method to determine which goals or values are better or worse. Hence, the
reasons why there is no scinetific laws in social sciences.

SECTION C

Answer any two (2) questions from the following (40 marks)

QUESTION ONE: Give a descriptive explanation of the emergence of sociology and the
role played by the Classical Sociologists associated with the emergence
of sociology such as Auguste Comte and others. What problems are
faced by sociology as a science?

Answers

(a) Definition of sociology

Sociology is a science; it is defined as the scientific study of human social life, groups and
society. Sociology is also defined as a social science which studies the processes and patterns of
human individual and group interaction, the forms of organization of social groups, the

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relationship among them, and group influences on individual behavior and the interaction
between one social group and another.

(b) A Description on the Emergency of Sociology as science of Society

There were basically four major reasons that contributed to the emergence of sociology as a
science of society and these are: (i) the industrial revolution, (ii) the French Revolution, (iii)
Renaissance/the Enlightenment period (new ideas about democracy and political rights), and
(iv) Failure of Religion to provide explanations to certain social phenomenon/events. These
factors are discussed more in details below:

1. Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the changes in manufacturing, agriculture,
transportation, and mining that transformed virtually every aspect of society from the 1300s on.
The defining feature of the Industrial Revolution was mechanization, the process of replacing
human and animal muscle as a source of power with external sources of power derived from
burning wood, coal, oil, and natural gas. The new energy sources eventually replaced hand tools
with power tools, sailboats with freighters, and horse-drawn carriages with trains.
Mechanization changed how goods were produced and how people worked. It turned workshops
into factories, skilled workers into machine operators, and handmade goods into machine-made
products. This changes from agriculture to factory production brought violent changes to
people‟s lives. Masses (crowds, multitudes) of people were forced off the land. They moved to the
cities in search of work where they were met with anonymity, crowding, filth (rudeness, dirt),
and poverty. Their ties to the land, to the generations that had lived there before them and to
their way of life were shortly broken. The city greeted them with horrible working conditions:
low pay; low, exhausting hours; dangerous work; bad ventilation; and much noise. To survive,
families had to permit their children to work in these same conditions, some of them even
chained to factory machines to make certain goods and they did not run away. Rural-urban
migration meant the establishment of shanty compounds in cities, high unemployment levels,
disease, prostitution, poor sanitation and housing among others. The roles of the youth also
changed as well as those of the women. Industrialization also led to the emergence of new
political ideologies like capitalism, socialism and nationalism resulting from the concentration
of people in urban areas.

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However, all these problems experienced during the industrial revolution were supposed to be
resolved by the religious leaders (the priests). But when the social scientists went to ask the
religious leaders on the solutions to the problems posed by the industrial revolution, they failed
to provide answers to the scientists. These problems and challenges posed by the industrial
revolution needed a science of society that people could use to understand and solve them. This
science some social scientists were looking for was sociology.

2. Political Events In France (The French Revolution)

People in the Middle Ages viewed society as an expression of God‟s will: From the royalty to the
serfs, each person up and down the social ladder played a part in the holy plan. As cities grew,
tradition came under spirited attack. In the new political climate, philosophers spoke of personal
liberty and individual rights. Echoing these sentiments, our own Declaration of Independence
states that every person has “certain unalienable rights,” including “life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.” There was a lot of suffering associated with political disturbances in France. The
period was characterized by a lot of bloodshed and chaos (i.e. complete disorder and confusion).

People were divided into groups; one supporting Monarchy and another one supporting
democracy. Since advocates of democracy clashed with those who felt that the king of France
should continue to rule, these events were largely a reflection of two opposing ideas: „popular
sovereignty‟; and „sovereignty of the King‟. It was mainly dealing with movement from a
monarchy to a democracy where the French needed political freedoms as opposed to rule by the
King. Conflicts and clashes between supporters of the monarch and supporters of democracy
made the French society unstable and people lived in fear.

Some of the other pertinent causes of the revolution were; (i) the French participation in the
American Civil war of independence (ii) French bankruptcy because of being at war with
England and other countries which led to huge national debt (iii) inflation which came as a
result of disturbances in the operation of the French economy (iv) over-taxation and increases in
unemployment and finally (v) injustices between commoners and the monarchy which only
benefited a few elites.

The revolutionary idea of democracy posed a number of intellectual problems. One of these was
how to determine the will of the people in a situation where from time immemorial the King
ruled without consulting the masses. A related problem was how to bring the masses into a

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decision-making process. At that time, these were challenging intellectual issues. These caused
many intellectual challenges and required intellectual solutions. This is so because the
revolution changed the way society was organized and therefore needed a scientific
understanding and explanation as the social world was greatly affected by the revolution. The
revolutionary quest for democracy raised many more problems like poverty, death, suicide
among others for which intellectual solutions had to be found.

3. The ‘Renaissance’/ The Enlightenment Period

The „Renaissance‟ was an intellectual revolution that occurred around the 13th and 14th
Centuries. It originally started in Northern Italy and spread into the whole of Europe. The
Renaissance literally means„re-birth‟. It was an intellectual revolution that lasted a few
centuries.

Some writers call it the „Enlightenment‟ or coming of new ideas. In a sense, it was indeed a
rebirth for Western Europe where by the 15th century the civilization of the middle Ages had
grown stale and new ideas were needed to revitalize and develop it. New ideas began to drift into
Europe during the 14th century, from Greece, particularly from the centres of Constantinople
and Syria where these ideas were reserved. The invention of printing under the industrial
revolution made the spread of this knowledge easier.

The new „Renaissance‟ knowledge was in two main forms: Firstly, new ideas moved into Europe
in the form of speculative philosophy that had risen mainly in the Greek Centres of
Constantinople and Syria. This type of philosophy stimulated curiosity, a passion of wanting to
know more.

Secondly, Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…9, 0) entered Europe to replace the Roman Scheme in which
numbers were written as letters. The new Arabic numerals, by facilitating calculations, promoted
growth and success of natural sciences. Consequently, many people begun to admire the
achievements of natural science in providing explanations concerning operations of the natural
world. The growth of natural sciences was greatly admired and therefore stimulated the
development of social sciences that could be used to explain the social world. That science was
sociology and hence a science of society was therefore inevitable.

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 4. Failure of Religion To Provide Explanations To Social Events

The emergence of natural and social sciences was at the end of the dark ages following the fall
of the Roman Empire. The period before and during the dark ages, there was a dominance of
providing explanations of social and natural events using religion. Scholars often describe the
eighteenth century as the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, because during this time Western
culture emerged into a new era of social thought. Over several centuries, and as a result of much
struggle, the dominant way of explaining social events shifted from theological to scientific.
Rather than attribute human Behaviour and social conditions to supernatural forces, people
searched for logical, rational, and cause-and-effect explanations. As a result, universities
replaced the church as the primary source of knowledge. As time went by, the relevance of
religion in providing explanations to events was questioned and was falling out of favour.
Religion could no longer provide answers to the events that rocked the European society. This
meant there was a great need to find other means that could be used to understand the social
world. This therefore also contributed to the emergence of sociology as a science of society.

Finally, the new discipline of sociology was born in England, France, and Germany-precisely
where the changes were greatest. And so it was that the French social thinker Auguste Comte
(1798-1857) coined the term sociology in 1838 to describe a new way of looking at society. This
makes sociology one of the youngest academic disciplines-i-far newer than history, physics, or
economics, for example.

(c) An explanation on the contributions made by August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl
Marx and Emile Durkheim to the development of Sociology

(i) AUGUSTE COMTE

He was a French philosopher who was born in 1798 and died in 1857. He is usually considered
the founder of sociology. The title of founder is given to Comte because he was the first person to
use the term sociology to describe the study of society.

Like most French scholars of his day, Comte was concerned with finding solutions to the chaos
created by the French Revolution. He believed that his philosophy of society was the key to
bringing stability to the world. Heavily influenced by the scientific methods of the natural

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sciences, Comte argued that sociologists could use similar methods to uncover the laws that
govern the operation of society.

He defined sociology as the scientific study of social dynamics and social static. He argued that
sociology can and should study society and social phenomena following the pattern and
procedures of the natural science.

The law of three stages

Since Comte was concerned with explaining laws governing the social world, he came up with a
number of theories. Among them is the theory of the theory of the law of three stages. Comte,
not unlike other enlightenment thinkers, believed society developed in stages. This law states that
each branch of knowledge passes through three periods of development;

The first was the theological (fictitious) stage; during this stage, phenomena are interpreted in
terms of supernatural power. This is where people took a religious view of society. This is where
people took a religious view of society. Comte saw that for a long time human beings interpreted
life around them in terms of objects which were worshiped and thought to have powers over
people and nature. These objects or fetishes were many. In due course, the multiplicity of fetishes
was found to be confusing and this, somehow, gave way to the birth of polytheism (worship of
many gods). The resulting gods represented different aspects of life. There was a god of love,
god of hate, god of wind etc. Later, according to Comte, the existence of too many gods
produced contradictory interpretations among the believers. In this way, polytheism became
mentally unsatisfactory and worship of only one god, the God Almighty, developed. This worship
which came to be known as monotheism marked the climax of the theological type of thinking.

The second was the metaphysical stage; this is where people understood society as natural (not
supernatural). People began to lose faith in religious explanations. Many of them started to feel
that blind faith in those explanations was not appropriate for understanding social and natural
phenomena. So, they increasingly emphasized questioning and reasoning. It was the increasing
emphasis on rationalism that brought about the metaphysical stage of thinking. Phenomena
came to be explained in terms of non-religious forces which were assumed to exist in nature and
human society.

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The last stage was the scientific/positivist stage; later, metaphysical thinking too became
unsatisfactory. Reliance on pure reasoning appeared unsatisfactory. More and more people
called for concrete proof of support explanations arising out reasoning. The final result was
birth of the scientific or positive stage of thinking which he believed to be the pinnacle of social
development. In the scientific stage, society would be governed by reliable knowledge and would
be understood in light of the knowledge produced by science, primarily sociology.

(ii) HERBERT SPENCER

He was a British who was born in 1820 and died in 1903. Spencer was strongly influenced by the
views of Charles Darwin, the 19th century evolutionist. The influence of Darwin led Spencer to
adopt a biological model of society. In a living organism, the biological systems work together to
maintain the health of the organism. Spencer attributed a similar process to society, viewing
society as a set of interdependent parts that work together to maintain the system over time.

Spencer also used Darwin‟s notion of the biological organisms to describe the nature of society.
He considered social change and unrest to be natural occurrences in a society‟s evolution
towards stability and perfection. Because he believed that the best aspects of society would
survive over time, Spencer thought that no steps should be taken to correct social ills. Although it
is often credited to Charles Darwin, the phrase “survival of the fittest” was coined by Herbert
Spencer in reference to this weeding-out process. Spencer also believed that the fittest societies
would survive over time, leading to a general upgrading of the world as a whole. Because of the
strong evolutionary orientation of Spencer‟s brand of sociology, it came to be known as social
Darwinism. Social Darwinism is the attempt to apply by analogy the evolutionary theories of
plant and animal development to the explanation of human society and social phenomena.

Under survival of the fittest, Spencer claimed that the rich and powerful were better adapted to
the social and economic climate of their time. He further argued that it was natural, normal and
proper for the powerful/rich to thrive and prosper at the expense of the weak/poor. To him
survival of the fittest was morally correct. He argued that the weak/poor in society should not be
prevented from dying out and that they form a very dangerous class in society. To him diseases
were a punishment to the poor/weak imposed by society for them to die out and nothing should
be done to help the poor. He also argued that the weak members inherited traits of laziness;

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stupidity and immorality form their predecessors while the rich inherited traits of
industriousness, strong desire to own property and ability to accumulate wealth.

Spencer went on to say that this beneficial process of natural selection would be distorted if
governments are allowed to move away from their appropriate roles. He identified only two
roles of the government; these roles are to: protect rights of the individual from interference
from other individuals; and protect the society from external enemies. Otherwise, the state
should leave individuals free to pursue their private interests. They should even be left free to
enter into contracts with each other and do business. According to Spencer, when governments
take on roles that go against the freedom of the individual, intellectual progress is adversely
affected and a progressive deterioration of the human race may set in.

Herbert Spencer, like Comte, refused to read the writings of scholar whose ideas differed from
his own. As a result he disregarded the rules of careful scholarship and made unproven claims
about the workings of the world. As social problems grew more severe during the 19th century,
Spencer‟s social Darwinism fell out of favour.

(iii) KARL MARX

Karl Marx was born in Germany to middle-class parents in 1818 and died in 1883. Marx
introduced key concepts in sociology like social class, social class conflict, social oppression,
alienation, etc. Marx, like Comte, argued that people should make active efforts to bring about
societal reforms. According to Marx, economic forces are the keys to underestimating society
and social change. Although Marx devoted much attention to the changing nature of social
relations throughout history, he was most interested in capitalist society. Marx was deeply
troubled by the social conditions produced by the capitalist system of his day. These social
conditions included long working hours, low pay, and harsh working conditions. Karl Marx lived
in Europe during the early period of industrialization, when the overwhelming majority of people
in such societies were poor. The rural poor moved to cities where employment was available in
the factories and workshops of the new industrial economies.

Those who owned the factories exploited the masses who worked for them. Even children, some
as young as five or six years old, worked twelve-hour days, six and seven days a week and

17
received barely enough money to survive. The rural poor became the urban poor. Meanwhile,
the owners achieved great wealth, power, and prestige.

Marx wanted to understand why society produced such inequities, and he looked for a way to
improve the human condition. Marx believed the entire history of human societies could be seen
as the history of class conflict the-conflict between the bourgeoisie, who owned and controlled
the means of production (capitalists), and the proletariat, who made up the mass of workers-the
exploiters and the exploited. He believed the capitalists controlled wealth, power, and even ideas
in society. They influenced the political, educational, and religious institutions in their society as
well.

According to Marx, capitalists make and enforce laws that serve their interests and act against
the interests of workers. Marx predicted that capitalist society eventually would be split into two
broad classes: the capitalists and the increasingly impoverished workers. Intellectuals like him
would show the workers that the capitalist institutions were the source of exploitation and
poverty. Gradually, the workers would become unified and organized and then take over control
of the economy. Marx did not think this change would come about peacefully. Violent revolution
would be necessary because those in power would not give up power voluntarily. The socialist
system Marx envisioned would also require what he called “a dictatorship of the proletariat”-a
temporary government in which the needs of the workers were protected. Eventually, this would
lead to a true socialist society. The means of production would then be owned and controlled by
the people in a workers‟ socialist state. After the capitalist elements of all societies had been
eliminated, the governments would wither away. New societies would develop in which people
could work according to their abilities and take according to their needs. The seeds of societal
conflict and social change would then come to an end because the factories were no longer
privately owned.

He introduced two concepts to explain how from capitalism to communism would occur. The
concepts are: (i) class-in-itself; and (ii) class-for-itself. A class-in-itself is one whose members
are not conscious with common social economic fate that they share. These in short haven‟t
developed a sense of belonging. A class-for-itself is one that has become conscious in sharing
this common social economic fate and starts fighting another group of people to improve its lot.

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With this clarification, the proletariat, bourgeoisie, and land owners were initially seen as
“classes-in-themselves” rather than “classes-for-themselves”. Later, the proletariat would
become a class-for-itself. It would fight the bourgeoisie. He argued that the proletariat would
increasingly develop a sense of class-consciousness and unity of its members. Class
consciousness simply is the awareness of the existence of an exploiting class. Proletariats would
be transformed into a class-for-itself because of the following facilitating factors: (i)
concentration of masses of people; (ii) a network of communication among the people; (iii)
existence of a perceived common enemy; and (iv) formation of an organization to champion the
interest of the proletariat.

This means that workers making up proletariat class would be concentrated in certain places of
work where eventually they would be able to communicate about their work conditions. The
communication, in turn, would enable them to overcome initial competitiveness among
themselves for better wages and conditions of service to form some kind of organization for
combined action. In the process, the bourgeois would be seen as their real enemy. Those workers
would then wage a successful revolution that would see an end of capitalism and usher in
classless communism.

Another important concept of Marx‟s overall theory on social classes is that of alienation. This
concept implies separation. In capitalism, Marx saw that alienation in the sphere of work is
fourfold. Each worker is separated from: (i) the objects produced by his or her labour; (ii) the
production process itself; (iii) himself or herself; and (iv) the community of fellow human beings.
In many capitalist societies today, regulatory mechanisms have been introduced to prevent some
of the excesses of capitalism. Unions have been integrated into the capitalist economy and the
political system, giving workers a legal, legitimate means through which they can benefit from
the capitalist system.

(iv) EMILE DURKHEIM

He was a Frenchman who was born in 1858 and died 1917. He defined sociology as the study of
social facts. According to him, social facts are the patterns of behavior that characterize a social
group in a given society. They should be studied objectively. The job of a sociologist, is to
uncover social facts and then to explain them using other social facts.

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In his theories, Durkheim observed that a society is composed of various kinds of segments, such
as different kin groups, classes, and political and religious units. Still, these separate units stay
together and are structured to become one coherent society. What is it that binds these different
segments? In short, Durkheim wished to understand what elements held a society. Durkheim
presented his answer by developing the concept of solidarity, which is a force to integrate
separate segments in a society. This force is the result of a shared system of beliefs and values,
which unites members of the society and controls individuals‟ behavior.

Durkheim compared many societies in the world and came up with two types; simple or primitive
society and modern society. He concluded that there are two different types of force that
integrate separate segments of a society. According to him, simple societies are characterized by
what he called “mechanical solidarity” while modern societies were characterized by “organic
solidarity.” Mechanical solidarity applies to societies in which all members have common and
shared social experiences, and special subdivisions within a society are either absent or weak. It
is solidarity based on resemblance. Because of this homogeneity, each individual is directly and
equally attached to the society. An example of a mechanical solidarity society is a hunting and
gathering society, which is small and simple enough to keep the similarity among individuals of
the group.

Organic solidarity is a kind of solidarity based on differences and is found in advanced societies.
Societies, here are formed by a system of different organs, each of which has a specific role.
Members of such societies belong to some of these organs and fulfill their specific tasks. Because
individuals‟ tasks do not cover all aspects of their survival, they need to depend on each other to
live in the society. They are held together to each other by one central organ which controls the
rest of the organism. For example, institutions in an industrialized society are interrelated under
the legal system from the central government. Each institution, such as corporations, marriages,
and families, non-profit organizations, and political offices, is separate and different. However,
all institutions are subordinate to the rule of law which keeps them functioning in harmony.
Organic solidarity occurs because of division of labour which brings about interdependence.

Durkheim extended this analysis to the evolution of societies. In mechanical (relatively primitive)
societies, cohesion is achieved because of the minimization of individual differences. In organic
(modern) societies differences resulting from a division of labour lead to integrated activities,

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thus cohesion of societies. The distinction between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity
are so clear that one society cannot have both aspects at the same time. This means that only
after mechanical solidarity declines, organic solidarity develops as a new system. Historically,
this change occurs systematically. First, innovations in the economy happen. Second, these
innovations affect human population density. Finally, the increased population density leads to
the division of labour.

iii) Anomie

In order to hold desires, society imposes external control otherwise it would turn into chaos.
When social relations breakdown, social control it has on individuals breaks down and is no
longer effective and individuals are left to their own desires in pursuit of their own interests. This
is called anomie, which is a condition of relative normlessness which can be on a whole society
or some parts of it. Anomie is present during times of sudden social changes for example during
rapid economic progress or downturn because of loss of moral certainty and customary
expectations. This is so because social networks break down.

(iv) Suicide

Durkheim was the first sociologist to systematically apply the methods of science to the study of
society. Durkheim defined suicide as every case of death resulting directly or indirectly from a
positive or negative act performed by the victim himself which strives to produce these results. In
short, it is the act of taking one‟s own life. Durkheim was concerned with why certain societies
have high suicide rates than others. The variations were explained by levels of social integration
and regulation. Suicide can also be direct or indirect. Direct suicide is one where for example
one shoots him/herself while indirect suicide can involve for instance refusing treatment.

To Durkheim, suicide results from social integration and social regulation. Social integration
refers to the degree of social attachments people have to social groups or societies as a whole.
Societies with high or low levels of social integration will more likely experience suicide.
Durkheim therefore came up with four types of suicide;

1. Egoistic suicide; this is a type of suicide that results from too little social support or
integration. It occurs when people become detached from society and the bonds which previously

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tied them to other members of society become loose. It is common among the unmarried and
widowed. These feel that their death will not affect society in any way as they feel helpless and
hopeless.

2. Altruistic Suicide; this result from too much integration. It is the opposite of egoistic suicide.
This is where an individual puts interests of the group or community first and feels that his/her
death will benefit society. It is practiced by for instance Islamic suicide bombers.

3. Anomic Suicide; this results when the norms regulating individual conduct are relaxed and as
a result fail to control and guide human desires. This type of suicide is common during sudden
socio-economic changes like during an economic boom or down turn or during a war or natural
disasters like earthquakes. During such periods people tend to commit suicide because the rules
regulating human conduct cease to apply and control people‟s actions.

4. Fatalistic Suicide; this is a rear type of suicide which occurs in situations of excessive
regulations to the extent that individuals feel oppressed. This may involve for example someone
killing him/herself after committing a grave offence to avoid severe punishment. It is commonly
practiced by slaves, prisoners, childless married women and to a less extent by young husbands.

(d) An explanation of the difficulties faced by Sociology as a science of Society

In sociological research there are some problems which weaken its status as science. These are:

(i) The problem of objectivity: The objection which is raised to question the claim of sociology
being called a science is that an unbiased and objective study cannot be made in sociology.
When a phenomenon is observed in its true form without being affected by researcher‟s own
views it may be termed as objective observation. Objectivity should ensure that “the conclusions
arrived at the result of inquiry and investigation is independent of the race, colour, creed,
occupation, nationality, religion, moral preferences, and political predisposition of the
investigator.” It is argued that objectivity is more difficult to be achieved in case of sociology. A
sociologist cannot maintain complete objectivity with the objects of his experiment as a physicist
does. Man has his own prejudice and bias. It is very difficult that sociologists may visualize
abstract and subjective things like custom, attitude etc. in the same manner.

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(ii) The problem of accuracy and reliability: Since the entire world and its people are subject of
sociological research, it is argued that such research cannot be totally accurate or reliable.
Responses differ from person to person, from place to place and from time to time. Response of
an individual may also differ over a period of time or at different intervals. Therefore, reliability
and accuracy of sociological studies comes under scrutiny.

(iii) The problem of predictability: Human behaviour is too complex to allow sociologists to
predict precisely any individual‟s action. Each individual in the society has his own
individualistic approach towards society, which is spontaneous and can be impulsive. This
human character or nature makes it difficult for sociologists to predict future responses.

(iv) The lack of laboratory research: Sociological studies suffer from complete lack of
laboratory research. The laboratory method is only one general procedure of accurate
observation. Besides the whole social setting is the laboratory of the sociologists. They study on
various aspects of people in society. So, laboratory research like natural sciences is difficult in
sociology. The physical sciences can have laboratory tests under specified conditions. In this
regard, sociology completely lacks such facility. We cannot put human beings to laboratory tests.
Society is so complex and variable that it is not possible to separate and analyze its different
elements as it is possible in case of physical sciences.

(v) The problem of ex-activity: Sociology cannot be called a real science because various
reasons are responsible for this. Firstly, its laws and conclusions cannot be expressed in precise
terms. Secondly, its findings are often limited in time and space, owing to the fact that social
phenomenon is too vast and human motivations are too complex.

(vi) The lack of experimentation: The term science as used for physical sciences includes the
twin processes of experiment and prediction. But it is argued that the universally accepted
scientific method of observation and experiment cannot be applied in the study of society. It does
not possess the instruments like the microscope and the thermometer to measure human
behaviour.

(vii) The lack of measurement: It is further argued that sociology is not a science because it
cannot measure its subject matter. In physics or chemistry the subject matter is exhaustively
measured by instruments. Sociology does not possess instruments to measure urbanization,

23
cultural assimilation quantitatively. On the basis of above argument it can be said that sociology
is not a science.

8. The problem of unpredictability: It has been pointed out that one of the characteristics of
science is its predictability. In case of physical sciences a remarkable degree of predictability
has been achieved. But it is not so in case of social phenomena. Social behaviour is sufficiently
irregular and unpredictable. Hence, sociology cannot make predictions.

9. The problem of generalization: Sociologists have not been successful in arriving at law like
generalization through their studies. The reason for this failure lies in the very nature of the
subject matter of the sociology. Human behaviour does not follow recurrent patterns like
physical objects. The positivistic program advocated by Comte aimed at removing sociology
from the realm of speculation and establishing it as an objective of research science. The
argument against the scientific character of sociology is that sociologists have not yet produced
anything resembling a natural law. The two virtues of natural laws are precision and generality
of scope. The sociological laws lack these virtues.

10. The problem of terminology: Sociology also suffers from exact and clear terminology in the
sense that same words convey different meanings to different persons. It has not developed an
adequate set of scientific terms.

QUESTION TWO: Discuss the manner and extent to which the demographic variables of
fertility, mortality and migration affect the socio-economic development
of a nation.

Answers

(a) Definition of Demography and Development

(i) Demograpghy: The word „Demography‟ is a combination of two Greek words,

„Demos‟ meaning people and „Graphy‟ meaning science. Thus demography is the
science of people. Demography is the branch of social sciences concerned with the
study of human populations, their structure and change (through births, deaths, and
migration), and their relationship with the natural environment and with social and
economic change. Demography analyses the size and composition of a population as
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 well as how people move from place to place. The discipline also asks crucial
questions about the effects of population growth and its control. Demographic
indicators could include population size, population growth rate, crude birth rate,
crude death rate, total fertility rate, life expectancy and infant mortality. The
following are the basic demographic concepts.

(ii) Development: The word development is defined as a process of improving the

wellbeing of people, raising the standards of living of people, improving their
education and health and also opening out to them new and equal opportunities for a
richer and more varied life.

(b) The effects of demographic variables on social and economic development of society

(i) FERTILITY

Fertility is the incidence of child bearing in a country‟s population while mortality is the
incidence of death in a country‟s population.

The study of human population begins with knowing how many people are born and this
associated with fertility. Fertility is the incidence of childbearing in a country‟s population. The
fecundity of a normal woman is more than twenty children, but this is sharply reduced in
practice by cultural norms, finances and personal choice. However, in demography fertility is
measured using the crude birth rate, which is the number of live births in a given year for every
thousand people in a population. The crude birth rate is calculated by dividing the number of
live births in a year by society‟s total population and multiplying the result by 1000. The birth
rate is „crude‟ because it is based on the entire population and not just women in their
childbearing years.

Sen argues that women in many third world countries are deprived by high birth frequency of the
freedom to do other things in life, not to mention the medical dangers of repeated pregnancy,
which are both characteristic of many developing countries. It is thus not surprising that
reductions in birth rates have been typically associated with improvement of women‟s status and
their ability to make their voices heard. In essence, fertility-reduction accords women greater
opportunities to be educated, to participate in the labour force and earn income, greater

25
opportunities for social participation and access to information and women‟s empowerment in
general which are all factors that contribute toward development in the country. This affirms
Galor and Weil who reported that lower fertility levels are associated with higher investments in
human capital as another important production factor. Moreover, lower fertility means that
women‟s time spent on bearing and caring for children declines and may translate into a higher
female labour participation rate, which independently contributes to the economic development
of the country.

For example, Joshi and Schultz carried out a study in Bangladesh and found that reduced
fertility produced persistent and significant positive results on the health, earnings, and
household assets of women, and on the health and earnings of children. Additionally, Miller
reports that in Colombia, an eleven to twelve percent fertility reduction in 2011 increased access
to higher education as well as independence for women.

On the other hand, high fertility rate impacts negatively on development in a number of ways.
Wolpin asserts that high fertility is associated with short birth spacing, and with bearing
children at relatively young age. This means that early childbearing does to greater degree
foreclose a teenager‟s ability to pursue educational or job opportunities. This in turn has
negative implications on the development of the country because if there is a high rate of
teenagers giving birth at a tender age, there will be high poverty levels in the country as the
majority of the teenagers will grow up to be uneducated adults who are unable to engage in
decent and gainful formal employment and thus they will be trapped in the cycle of poverty
which in most cases gets to be passed on to the future generations. In addition to this, teenage
mothers are more likely to suffer from pregnancy and delivery complications than older mothers,
resulting in higher morbidity and mortality for both themselves and their children thereby
putting more pressure on the country‟s financial resources as more funds have to be allocated to
the health sector in order to recruit more health workers and pay their salaries as well as
building more hospitals, health centers and clinics so as to address the problem.

In terms of education, high fertility rate results in high enrolment rate especially in primary
schools compared to the number of pupils under the declining-fertility scenario. This rapid
increase in enrolments results in high student-to-teacher ratio and many teachers must work
extra shifts. For this problem to be addressed, there are economic implications involved. As
pinpointed by the Ministry of Education, high fertility not only creates a challenge for the
26
government to recruit skilled teachers and spend more money on their salaries, but it also has
implications for infrastructure development. For example, it is argued that Zambia in 2010
averaged about 374 students per primary school and it is said that if high fertility continues into
the future, Zambia would need about 22,100 schools in 2037 or about two and a half more times
the number of schools that existed in 2010 which would indeed impact negatively on Zambia‟s
Development as there would be need to allocate more funds to the education sector at the
expense of other economic sectors thereby slowing down the development process.

(ii) MORTALITY

Mortality is one of the demographic variables and it means the incidence of death in a country‟s
population. The common demographic measures of mortality include: crude death rate which is
the number of deaths in a population. The crude death rate calculated by taking the number of
deaths in a year, divide by the total population, and multiplying the result by one thousand. The
second widely used demographic measure of mortality is the infant mortality rate, which is the
number of deaths among infants under one year of age for each thousand live births in a given
year. This is calculated by dividing the number of deaths of children under one year of age by
the number of live births during the same year and multiplying the result by one thousand. The
third measure of mortality is life expectance, which is the number of years which an individual at
a given age is expect to live at present mortality rates.

Human capital investment is an important aspect of development as accumulation of human

capital is the prime engine for economic growth. Owing to this, lower mortality implies a higher
rate of return to education, and thus declining child and youth mortality provides an important
incentive to increase investment in the education thereby enhancing human capital. The positive
impact of mortality decline on development is evident from what happened in Mexico. Meltzer
reports that mortality decline in Mexico from 1920 to 1965 resulted in a 9.2% increase in the
rate of return, which in turn increased the enrolment rates in schools by 20 percent, thereby
reducing illiteracy levels which is an important aspect of the development process.

(iii) MIGRATION

Migration can be permanent, if a person never return to his or her place of origin, or long term
if a person moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at
27
least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new
country of usual residence. A short-term migrant is defined as a person moving to a country
other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least 3 months but less than a year
(12 months), and often is the status of a person who moves from one region to another in
accordance with the seasons. Migration is also based on direction such as; rural-rural
migration, rural-urban migration, urban-rural migration, and urban-urban migration. However,
if a person moves to a new country for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends and
relatives, business, medical treatment, or religious pilgrimages, he or she is not considered a
migrant.

Migration may be involuntary such as the forced expulsion of refugees across borders and it may
also be voluntary usually a result of „push‟ and „pull‟ factors. He added that people‟s movement
into a territory is called immigration and is measured as an in-migration rate or the number of
people entering an area for every thousand people in the population. In contrast, emigration is
the movement of people out of a territory measured by out-migration rate or number leaving for
every thousand people.

Migration as a demographic feature also has an impact on development regardless of its form
which can either be local or international. Taking on international migration as an example
where people move from one country to another in search of employment, it is argued that its
most direct effect include the increase in the welfare of the migrant households, as migrants
bring back remittances and savings from abroad thereby improving the standards of living of the
family. A very good example in this regard is that of Albania. In 2001, an estimate of 600,000
people was believed to have migrated to other countries in search of employment and most of
them migrated to Greece. These Albanian migrants working abroad were estimated to remit
anywhere between $300 million and $1 billion each year, making remittances the country‟s
largest source of external income after aid. Migration is thus seen by most Albanians as the most
effective way of coping with the country‟s difficult economic conditions, in which over 780,000
individuals which is nearly a quarter of the population, were below the poverty line in 2000
prior to the concept of remittances. This indeed is a positive contribution toward social and
economic development as it helps the recipients of remittances to be able to access basic social
services such as health and education thereby having improved standards of living which is one
of the characteristics of development in the country.

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Although migration has a positive impact on development, there still exist the negative effects of
it. Ratha and Mohapatra highlight that most internal and international migrants move to the
urban centers of developing countries because of employment opportunities there, with many
working in the informal segments of the business, transport, crafts and services sector. In most
instances, living space for migrant and non-migrant service providers is not allocated in urban
planning in many cities especially in Africa and Asia and as a result, both migrants and locals
from poorer backgrounds tend to reside in urban slums. For instance, Srivastava notes that in
India most poor internal migrants live in urban slums under unhygienic conditions and that they
lack access to adequate basic social services such as clean water and good sanitation. These
living conditions lead to health problems which in turn force the government to spend lots of
money in an event that there is an outbreak of a pandemic such as cholera and this is a cost on
the development process as money meant for other developmental projects is diverted in order to
address the emergent problem.

Furthermore, vulnerability to HIV/AIDS has also been identified as a major concern for certain
types of mobile population in Africa. For example, female labour migration to the Free Trade
Zone (FTZ) in Sri Lanka was said to have increased migrants‟ risk of sexually transmitted
diseases and caused a rise in unwanted pregnancies. Another study conducted in the Krobo area
in the Eastern Region of Ghana also found a positive association between migration and the
spread of HIV. These findings indicate that migration increases the risk of ill health and deadly
diseases thereby forcing people back into, poverty which they initially escaped. Thus, migration
in this context is said to have a negative impact on development of the host country especially as
more money has to be channelled toward the purchasing of Anti-Retroviral Drugs and at the
same time, the informal sector tends to suffer as those infected and affected tend not to engage in
regular economic activities because they are at times chronically ill or caring for the sick and
thus hindering their contribution toward economic growth.

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QUESTION THREE: With the help of theories, give a descriptive explanation of deviance
and indicate how it can be mitigated.

Answers

(i) Definition of Deviance

Deviance is any behavior that violates cultural norms. It is a failure to conform to culturally
reinforced norms. Social norms in one culture are different in another. Deviance can vary quite
dramatically from culture to culture. A deviant act in one society therefore may not be
considered so in another because of differences in norms for instance homosexuality in other
societies is considered normal but in others like Zambia it is a taboo and attracts stiff
punishment.

Deviance is often divided into two types of deviant activities. The first, crime is the violation of
formally enacted laws and is referred to as formal deviance. Examples of formal deviance would
include: robbery, theft, rape, murder, and assault, just to name a few. The second type of deviant
behavior refers to violations of informal social norms, norms that have not been codified into
law, and is referred to as informal deviance. Examples of informal deviance might include:
picking one‟s nose, belching loudly (in some cultures), or standing too close to another
unnecessarily (again, in some cultures).

Viewing deviance as a violation of social norms, sociologists have defined it as any thought,
feeling or action that members of a social group judge to be a violation of the norms of a society
or group. It is conduct that violates definitions of appropriate and inappropriate conduct shared
by the members of a social system.

(ii) Explanation on the occurrence of deviance in society

Different sociological theories have different views on the causes of deviance. Sociologists try to
find the explanatory factors for crime outside the individual deviant. According to sociologists
the act of deviance is relative; what is deviance in one group may not be so in another group;
what is deviancy today may not be considered as deviancy at another time. With the change in
circumstances and needs of time, the definitions of crime may change. There is nothing constant
within the society to account for behaviour that is conforming in one society and deviant in

30
another. There is variation in social influences and there is the resultant variation in behaviour.
The behaviour of an individual, whether it is conformist or it is deviant, is the product of external
influences, which may come from the variations in socialization patterns, subculture of the
people, and the differences in social class. As part of the sociological explanations, sociologists
have proposed number of theories explaining the occurrences of deviance and these are
explained below.

(i) Theory of Differential Association by Edwin Sutherland

Sutherland stressed that people learn deviance. He coined the term differential association to
indicate that learning to deviate or to conform to society‟s norms is influenced most by the
people with whom they associate. Learning deviance is like learning anything else, and this
approach goes directly against the thinking that deviance is biological or due to deep personality
needs. The main idea is that the different groups to which we belong (our differential
association) give us messages about conformity or deviance. We may receive mixed messages,
but we end up with more of one than the other (an excess of definitions that are
favourable/unfavourable). Consequently our attitudes favour conformity or deviance, and our
behaviour follows. Families, friends, neighbourhoods, sub-cultures, and mafia groups all
provide its members the learning situations and socialize them in accordance with their cultural
norms. In this way the groups we join are crucial for making our behaviour as deviant or
conformist.

(ii) Relative Deprivation Theory by Clifford Shaw

Clifford Shaw presented an ecological theory that looks at deviance at the neighbourhood level.
He wanted to know why despite the American society being one of the richest but it experienced
high crime rates. He generally found out that neighbourhoods with high poverty levels, frequent
residential mobility and family disruption like divorce, have higher crime rates. He therefore
came up with the concept of relative deprivation to explain this. He argued that societies or
communities which were relatively poor as compared to their neighbours were more likely to
engage in crime than their counterparts. This was so because that was the only means they can
move out of poverty and thus, it led to an increase in deviance.

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 (iii) Strain Theory by Robert K. Merton

Functionalists argue that crime is a natural part of society. Some crime represents values that lie
at the very core of society. To be employed is a social value and thereby it can be a culturally
approved goal of every youth. To achieve the goal a society also specifies the culturally
approved means. The acceptance of goals and the non-availability of culturally approved means
to achieve the goals can create strain, and can lead to the deviation from the norms. The
ineffectiveness of the norms to control behaviour is a situation of anomie or norm-less-ness. As
anomie increases, the amount of deviance rises to dysfunctional levels.

Robert K. Merton pointed out that the people who experience strain are likely to feel anomie, a
sense of norm-less-ness. Because the dominant norms (for example work, education) don‟t seem
to be getting them anywhere, they have difficult time identifying with them. They may even feel
wronged by the system, and its rules may seem illegitimate. Matching culturally approved goals
to culturally approved means creates strain and people deviate from the norms. So whenever
people perceive that they cannot attain their life goals through the use of legitimate (normative,
culturally permissible) means available they use illegitimate (culturally not approved) means.

Robert K. Merton, in his discussion of deviance, proposed a typology of deviant behavior. A

typology is a classification scheme designed to facilitate understanding. In this case, Merton was
proposing a typology of deviance based upon two criteria: (1) a person‟s motivations or her
adherence to cultural goals; (2) a person‟s belief in how to attain her goal.

Access to the approved means to achieve the material success varies by the social class
structure. It creates stress especially for the lower class youth. As part of the survival youth will
look for success in getting work through legitimate or illegitimate means because “success
(goal) is more important than how (means) success is achieved.” For this purpose they could
adopt different ways, and Merton called these as modes of adaptation.

According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria and these are
explained below:

(i) Conformity involve the acceptance of the cultural goals and means of attaining those
goals (e.g., a banker)

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 (ii) Innovation involves the acceptance of the goals of a culture but the rejection of the
traditional and/or legitimate means of attaining those goals (e.g., a member of the
mafia values wealth but employs alternative means of attaining her wealth).
(iii) Ritualism involves the rejection of cultural goals but the reutilized acceptance of the
means for achieving the goals (e.g., a disillusioned bureaucrat who goes to work
every day because it is what he does, but does not share the goal of the company of
making lots of money).
(iv) Retreatism involves the rejection of both the cultural goals and the traditional means
of achieving those goals (e.g., a homeless person who is homeless more by choice
than by force or circumstance)
(v) Rebellion is a special case wherein the individual rejects both the cultural goals and
traditional means of achieving them but actively attempts to replace both elements of
the society with different goals and means (e.g., a communist revolution)

To Merton, he states that deviance results from stress or frustration that arises from a
disconnection between goals and means to achieve those goals.

(iii) Measures of curbing (controlling) deviance in society

Social control refers to the various means used by a society to bring its members back into line
with cultural norms. There are two general types of social control:

 Formal social control refers to components of society that are designed for the re-
socialization of individuals who break formal rules; examples would include prisons and
mental health institutions. The formal social control uses the criminal justice system and
other formal measures to control deviance in society as follows:
- equal distribution of resources
- proper and good socialization of individuals
- treatment of psychiatric conditions and others that cause deviance in individuals
- Introduction of strong justice systems.
- The Criminal Justice System refers to the system of law enforcement that is directly
involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those
who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. The criminal justice system is

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 made up of three (3) major components namely; police, courts, and prisons or
corrections which prevent or deter crime by apprehending, trying, and punishing
offenders. Police departments: are public agencies whose purposes are to maintain
order, enforce the criminal law, and provide services. Police officers operate in the
community to prevent and control crime. They cooperate with prosecutors in criminal
investigations, gathering evidence necessary to obtain convictions in the courts.
Courts: are tribunals where persons accused of violating criminal law come to have
their criminal responsibility determined by judges. The purposes of the courts are to
seek justice and to discover the truth. The primary actors in the courts are the
prosecutors, defense lawyer, and judges. Prisons: include probation, jail,
imprisonment, and a variety of new community-based sanctions, such as house arrest.
The purposes of prisons are to punish, to rehabilitate, and to ensure public safety.
 Informal social control refers to elements of society that are designed to reinforce
informal cultural norms; examples might include parental reminders to children not to
pick their nose and the mob justice.

QUESTION FOUR: Compare and contrast the Capitalist and Socialist modes of
production and critically indicate their effects on the growth and
development of society. Which one of the two is better placed for social
and economic development of a nation.

Answers

(a) Definition of Socialism and Capitalism

(i) Capitalism: This is an economic and political system in which a country‟s trade and industry
are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. The private sector includes
private individuals and business firms.

(ii) Socialism: This is as an economic system where the means of production are in the hands of
the state. In other words it is an economic system in which raw materials and the means of
producing and distributing goods and services are collectively owned.

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 (b) Description of Socialism and Capitalism

The socialist system is one of the development strategies and it is the opposite of the capitalist
development strategy. The socialist economy has the following main tenets or ideologies:

(i) Collective ownership of means of production: In a Socialist economy means of production

are owned by the government on behalf of the people. The institution of private property is
abolished and no individual is allowed to own any production unit and accumulate wealth and
transfer it to their heirs. However, people may own some durable consumer goods for their
personal use. It maintains that humans can achieve their political, social and economic
objectives more effectively through collective action than through individual effort. Collectivism
also implies that society can only be transformed by collective endeavour.

(ii) Social welfare objective and central planning: The decisions are taken by the government at
macro level with the objective of maximization of social welfare in mind rather than
maximization of individual profit. The forces of demand and supply do not play any important
role. Careful decisions are taken with the welfare objectives in mind. In addition, economic
planning is an essential feature of a socialist economy. The Central Planning Authority keeping
the national priorities and availability of resources in mind allocates resources. Government
takes all economic decisions regarding production, consumption and investments keeping in
mind the present and future needs. The planning authorities fix targets for various sectors and
ensure efficient utilization of resources.

(iii) Reduction in Inequalities: The institutions of private property and inheritance are at the
root of inequalities of income and wealth in a capitalist economy. By abolishing these twin
institutions a socialist economic system is able to reduce the inequalities of incomes. It is
important to note that perfect equality in income and wealth is neither desirable nor practicable.
The central argument in the socialist economy is about economic equality and the role of
government. Socialists believe that economic inequality is bad for society and the government is
responsible for reducing it through programs that benefit the poor. For example, free public
education, free or subsidized healthcare, social security for the elderly, higher taxes on the rich.
In contrast, capitalists believe that government does not use economic resources as efficiently as
private enterprise and therefore society is better off with the free market determining economic
winners and losers.

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In the same way, the capitalist system is also a development strategy. In the capitalist or free
enterprise economy the following are the main tenets or ideologies;

(i) Private property: Capitalist economic system is based on private ownership of the means of
production and their operation for profit. This implies that in a capitalism system all the
individuals have the right to own property. An individual can acquire property and use it for the
benefit of his own family. There is no restriction on the ownership of land, machines, mines,
factories and to earn profit and accumulate wealth. After the death of a person the property or
wealth is transferred to the legal heirs.

(ii) Profit Motive: Capitalism is characterized by the pursuit of material self-interest under
freedom and it rests on a foundation of the cultural influence of reason. Based on its foundations
and essential nature, capitalism is further characterized by saving and capital accumulation,
exchange and money, financial self-interest and the profit motive the freedoms of economic
competition and economic inequality, the price system, economic progress, and a harmony of
material self-interest of all individuals who participate in it. Self-interest is the guiding principle
in capitalism. Entrepreneurs know that they will own the profit or loss after the payment to all
other factors of production. Therefore they are always motivated to maximize their residual
profit by minimizing cost and maximizing revenue. This makes the capitalist economy an efficient
and self-regulated economy.

(iii) Freedom of enterprise: This tenet holds that the government does not coordinate production
decisions of the citizens. Individuals are free to choose any occupation. Adam Smith confirms
this by stating that a capitalist economy works by means of the “Invisible Hand”. The theory of
the “Invisible Hand” states that within a free market enterprise, products are exchanged at a
price solely determined by the mutual consent of buyers and sellers. Demands by consumers for
products direct the allocation of resources to achieve consumers‟ utility maximization. Profit is
financial (material) incentive to produce goods. This economic system ensures that shortages
and surpluses do not last for long. When there is excess demand (shortage) prices in the market
are likely to rise, as each buyer would now be willing to overpay the other for the scarce good
demanded by many. At higher prices, suppliers are likely to increase their supply and thus
equilibrium will be achieved in the market. Situations may also exist in the market where there is
excess supply (surplus). The tendency here is for prices to fall as each supplier will attempt to

36
win over customers from their rival firms. At these lower prices, consumers are likely to demand
more. Therefore, equilibrium in the market is restored.

(iv) Importance of markets and prices: Capitalists believe that free markets are the best way to
organize a society. It is argued that economic freedom is a necessary condition for political
freedom. In a free enterprise or capitalist economy the price system plays an important role of
coordinating agent. Government intervention and support is not required. The role of
government is to help in free and efficient functioning of the markets. Capitalism is essentially a
market economy where every commodity has a price. According to Adam Smith, labourers are fit
to work as much as possible to come up with the optimum production, wages are distributed
according to the demand and supply of the labour itself, capital is accumulated and saved, and
technology is crucial for economic growth and development based on living standards. The
forces of demand and supply in an industry determine this price. Firms which are able to adjust
at a given price earn normal profit and those who fail to do so often quit the industry. A
producer will produce those goods, which give him more profit.

(vi) Competition: Competition, properly understood, means free competition, which means
unrestrained by government interference in economic life. In a capitalist system, economic
competition is the pursuit of economic values, whether dollars or resources or market share, by
business firms or individuals. In a capitalist system of the economy, there are no restrictions on
the entry and exit of firms in a capitalism system. The large numbers of producers are available
to supply a particular good or service and therefore no firm can earn more than normal profit.
Competition is the fundamental feature of capitalist economy and essential to safeguard against
consumer‟s exploitation. Although due to large-size and product distinction monopolistic
tendencies have grown these days still the competition can be seen among a large number of
firms.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of capitalism and socialism. Perhaps the biggest
apparent advantage of socialism is that it promotes a rapid and balanced economic
development. This is attributed to the fact that under a socialist economy, there is a central
authority in charge of planning for the use of resources and making quick decisions. Resources
are used fully and there is minimal wastage. This leads to fast economic growth of socialist
states. A good example of this is the development that was made by Russia in its early years.
With the economic planning that is central to socialism, development can be carried out in a
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balanced manner within the entire country. Instead of having development focused on certain
areas, economic planning ensures that all regions are developed, including backward areas.
Similarly, planning ensures that all sectors of the economy develop at par with each other.

For instance, after independence the Zambian nationalist leadership adopted social welfare
policies to redress the imbalances created by colonialism and also as a wider socialist
ideological orientation of the new government. This prompted the nationalization of private
property and provision of social welfare services such as education and health to all Zambians.
As a result, by the end of 1979, over 80 percent of the Zambian economy was under state control
and during this period, the country experienced rapid economic growth. The country had huge
foreign reserves because copper prices were high and stable and the foreign exchange receipts
were high while the trade balance was positive. This was the time when infrastructure
development took place. The construction of roads, schools, government buildings and bridges
took place during that time while unemployment rate, inequality and poverty levels where low.

Another advantage of socialism is that the government spreads wealth to everyone, eradicating
class distinctions. The government also manages the means of production which helps to ensure
private enterprises cannot exploit these means for personal gain. This implies that socialism
caters for the needs of all members of society. All the basic needs of an individual are catered for
by the state. Imagine a situation where the state provides you with food, a house, clothing,
healthcare, education and employment. If you get involved in an accident while performing your
duties, the state cares and provides for your family as you recover. In such an economy, people
can dedicate themselves to work without a lot of worry about tomorrow, which leads to
increased productivity. This is compared to the capitalist societies where a person might be
employed yet doesn‟t earn enough to get house to sleep at night or to pay for healthcare when he
falls sick.

Furthermore, most socialists believe that government bears primary responsibility for improving
the lives of its citizens. To this end, state ownership of the means of production is favoured. For
example, the state typically provides certain public goods that are commonly available, such as
physical infrastructure (e.g., roads) and social infrastructure (e.g., schools, public health and
welfare organizations, and an air traffic control agency). It might also provide more specific
types of social infrastructure in the form of academies to train police, mental health workers, or
other regulators. States invest in physical and social infrastructure because the private sector
38
typically under-invests in such goods and services; they require large investments and/or
continuing expenditures, are designed for wide availability, and their very nature makes it
difficult to exclude potential users and thus difficult to recover costs plus an appropriate return
through decentralized markets.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of capitalism is the fact it promotes innovation and creativity in
society. This is evident in that capitalism makes people to turn their skills into ways to make
money, self-regulation, and limited government spending. Also, trade between and among
nations can generate competition in their domestic markets and consequently foster innovation
and creativity among economic units in their domestic economies. Competition has been
described as the incentive to do better and this is beneficial to a country‟s economy in many
ways. For example, it gives suppliers the incentive to be efficient in order to satisfy the changing
and divergent needs and expectations of consumers. Specifically, competition in economic
settings leads to lower prices, high-quality products, and a greater variety and abundance of
products. Moreover, competition generally cures the problem of black markets since it entices
suppliers to increase their outputs in order to benefit from economies of scale, thereby saturating
their domestic market with a wide range of products, while maintaining a portion of their outputs
for export markets.

(c) Explanation of the Best Economic Model for Socioeconomic Development

From the analysis; it has been noted that both Capitalism and Socialism are useful and valid in
the sense that they both give a vivid explanation on economic growth and development. Based on
these facts, the stance of this essay is that capitalism is more valid and useful in explaining social
and economic development. Capitalism is more realistic in its approach to understanding society
and the following are the reasons why this essay has taken this stance.

Individualism and competition are fundamental to capitalism and as such in a purely capitalist
society; individuals are responsible for protecting their own interests in the marketplace and
within their communities. The potential success of each individual is also valued. People are
encouraged to direct their talents in a way that benefits themselves, such as by starting a
business or entering a highly profitable profession.

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However, capitalism relies on a system of checks and balances brought about through
competition. Individuals who own capital can compete with others to provide goods and services
to the marketplace; those who produce and effectively market goods that are in demand and at a
price that people want to pay are likely to succeed. Similarly, businesses that treat their workers
well and pay good wages are most likely to attract good employees, which is more likely to mean
success for the business. Those who offer inferior service or fail to attract good workers will
eventually fail and leave the marketplace.

Moreover, low taxes are generally a goal of capitalistic governments. In addition, government
funding for public services, like social service benefits, is generally kept to a minimum. Health
care systems may also be primarily funded by the private sector, requiring citizens to purchase
their own health insurance or rely on an employer to provide insurance.

In conclusion, socialism is characterised by collective ownership of means of production, social

welfare objective, central planning, and reduction in inequalities. Whereas, capitalist system is
characterised by private property, freedom of enterprise, profit motive, competition, and free
markets and prices. However, capitalism has created great wealth for society, it also
increase productivity by promoting rapid development of science and technology and has greatly
changed the quality of human‟s culture and social value. But it also brings some disadvantages
to us such as, environment problem cause financial crisis.

QUESTION FIVE: Describe the features of poverty in underdeveloped countries and with
the help of theories, explain the causes of such poverty and the possible
ways and means of significantly alleviating or reducing it.

Answers

(a) Definition of Poverty

The term poverty has no universally accepted definition because it may mean different things to
different people. Despite this however, scholars and teams of experts have endeavoured to give
different definitions. People are in poverty if they do not have the resources to physically
maintain human life. The concept „absolute poverty‟ usually involves a judgment of basic human
needs and is measured in terms of the resources required to maintain health and physical
40
efficiency. Absolute poverty is often known as subsistence poverty since it is based on
assessments of minimum subsistence requirements. The second definition of poverty is based
upon identifying those households whose income falls well below the average for households
with the same composition that is, the same number of adults and children. In addition, absolute
poverty is when people fall below the level when they cannot house, clothe or feed themselves.
This implies that people who are in absolute poverty have a high level of dependency on others
to meet their daily needs.

(b) Description of the features of Poverty

Some scholars have argued that poverty must not only be viewed in absolute terms but also in
relative terms. Thus, relative poverty on the other hand has been defined as an expression of
poverty of one entity in relation to another entity, for example, in relation to South Africa;
Zambia is poor; in relation to the United States of America, South Africa is the poorest.
Buckingham elaborates on this by saying that relative poverty is about being poor in comparison
to the standard of living of others, and about being unable to do things that are generally
accepted. This can be understood primarily in terms of inequality; namely, where goods and
services are less than available to most members of the community struggling to maintain the
prevalent norm of living. Arguably then, under relative poverty people have access to the
important basic needs but what they lack may simply be luxuries that other people may have.

Another way in which poverty has been understood is by looking at its genesis. Alcock argues
that poverty can be traced back to the period of gradual replacement of feudalism by capitalism
as the modern economy began to develop in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is
because during that period, many were separated from land, and depended on wages from paid
labour, but those who could not work for wages could not support themselves and thus were
destitute or poverty stricken especially in Britain. This means that overtime, poverty has
historically been defined in monetary terms, using income or consumption levels world over. In
order to be able to compare poverty levels across countries and over time, those that live below
a given level of income of the poverty line are classified as poor. For instance, in developing
countries the World Bank has the internationally accepted poverty line stipulation of US $1 per
day, meaning that anyone or any household living on less than a dollar per day can be said to be
poverty stricken.
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One thing to note however that understanding poverty from a monetary point of view is that only
gives a partial understanding of the many dimensions of poverty. This is evident from what
Ikejiaku said that for instance, the conversion rate for US $1 in Nigeria is around N130 and can
only afford one average good meal in a day and is therefore quite insufficient for overcoming
absolute poverty. This means that understanding poverty in terms of income or consumption
levels ignores important elements such as discrimination, exclusion, insecurity, violence, lack of
voice and control, low education, bad housing conditions, shame and disempowerment. All these
deprivations have an impact in people‟s lives. Exclusion of a particular group of people has
implications on poverty. For instance, between 1991 and 2006, reports show that there was a
decline of 7.5 percent in extreme poverty at a national level. However, evidence indicates that
despite this decline in poverty levels at national level, rural poverty increased from 78 percent in
2004 to 80 percent in 2006 with Western province experiencing the highest level of poverty
which stood at 84 percent. Among the reasons given for high poverty levels in rural areas is that
of policies of trade liberalization, foreign investments and the sale of government housing which
mostly favoured urban areas and did little too encourage growth in agriculture which is the
main source of income in rural areas. Therefore, when it comes to understanding the concept of
poverty, these elements have in the recent past been included as they are seen to be very
important.

Leading anti-poverty researchers also demonstrate that existing measures of poverty often
underplay the significance of more qualitative elements such as powerlessness, stigma,
discrimination and isolation and women are said to be among the powerless, stigmatized and
discriminated groups in society. For instance, levels of inequality in employment have still
persisted in Zambia as evident from the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) where male
employment was reported to have accounted for 71 percent compared to 29 percent for females
in 2008. This goes to show that men are given more preference in terms of employment than
women thereby hindering most women from earning an income in order to have access to basic
needs. It is on the basis of this that poverty is said to have taken on a female face hence,
feminization of poverty has emerged as another way in which poverty has been understood as
most female headed households are poor. By definition, feminization of poverty refers to the
growing female share of the population living under the poverty line. Therefore, it is more
reason that women‟s empowerment programs have in the recent past emerged as a way to fight
against poverty because it has been argued that when a woman is poor, she has no say in public,
42
she feels inferior. She has no food, which implies that there is famine in her house, no clothing,
and no progress in her family generally.

Another way in which poverty has been understood is the capabilities approach. Thus in line
with the capabilities approach, Lister describes poverty as a denial of choices and opportunities
for living a tolerable life. The capabilities approach provides a framework for analyzing poverty,
which prioritizes capabilities (ends) over resources (means) and adopts a broad focus on the
constraints that may restrict human, lives. It focuses on deprivation in capabilities, which is to a
large degree the result of lack of opportunities. Denial of opportunities in turn prevents people
from realizing their full potential in that for instance, if people are denied access to education, it
means they will not be able to have access to a decent job that can allow them to earn an
income. The end result is that they will not be able to afford basic necessities such as education
and health among others and when they lack access to these it implies that they are as well
classified to be among those people living in poverty.

However, poverty has many dimensions and manifestations. It always means a reduced for
complete lack of access to material economic, social, political or cultural resources needed to
satisfy basic needs. For instance, in its final declaration, the World Summit for Social
Development concluded that poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and
productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods, hunger and malnutrition, ill
health, limited or lack of access to education and other basic services, increased morbidity and
mortality from illness, homelessness and inadequate housing, unsafe environments and social
discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by a lack of participation in decision
making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries: as mass poverty in many
developing countries, pockets of poverty amid wealth in developed countries, loss of livelihoods
as a result of economic recession, sudden poverty as a result of disaster or conflict, the poverty
of low-wage workers, and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems,
social institutions and safety nets. Women bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, and
children growing up in poverty are often permanently disadvantaged. Older people, people with
disabilities, indigenous people, refugees and internally displaced persons are also particularly
vulnerable to poverty. Furthermore, poverty in its various forms represents a barrier to
communication and access to services, as well as a major health risk, and people living in
poverty are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of disasters and conflicts.

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 (c) The causes of povert by development theories

There are different theories underpinning the evolution and development of the concept of
poverty. Paradigms of poverty form a strong basis on which theories of poverty evolve. These
theories form a good basis for developing appropriate solutions to the problem of poverty.
Theories of poverty can be classified into different categories and these categories are: Culture
of poverty theory, Situational theory of poverty, Modernization theory of development, and the
Dependency theory of underdevelopment.

Culture of poverty theory

Cultural theories are generally based on what has been called a “culture of poverty” portrayed
by poor persons which is a common thread in the Critical Marxist and social Darwinist
paradigms. Cultural theories assert that people are poor because they have a distinctive
culturally predetermined way of life which largely explains why there is an occurrence and
persistence of poverty among households. These culturally predetermined ways that cause
poverty are what the cultural theories refer to as a defective culture. The aspects of this defective
culture include a limited time horizon, impulsive need for gratification, low aspirations, and
psychological self-doubt. These aspects, when taken together, change the world view of poor
people which help them to cope with pervasive hopelessness, despair and state of poverty. Poor
families and communities then socialize their young with these values and norms, and
consequently limit or obstruct their successful participation in mainstream institutions. The
resulting underclass‟ thus becomes permanent and locked into its own unique, but maladaptive
culture.

Cultural theories mainly focus on the individual. These theories contend that to be poor is an
individual‟s own making and not as a result of other causes. Scholars such as Shulman and
Jones maintain that this theory blame the victims for their poverty yet poverty is caused by not
only factors within but also beyond the control of a poor person such as economic fundamentals
and market forces. These criticisms are the causes of the continued search for the meaning of the
concept of poverty. Nonetheless, cultural theories provide a good insight into understanding
poverty at the household level.

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Situational theory of poverty

This theory explains why the poor people tend to portray fatalism and immediate gratification.
Jones says that this behaviour is a rational response to deprived circumstances. This behaviour
derives from opportunity structure facing the poor rather than from distinctive cultural values.
The interpretation is that the poor reflect impulsive behaviour as a utility maximization effort
aimed at ensuring livelihood. The poor do not work because of hopelessness resulting from lack
of hope and lack of commensurate result between efforts expended by the poor and the resulting
benefits. The situation the poor find themselves in is one that does not allow them to gain much
from hard work and a long term view of issues. For example, consider a child in a slum trying to
study. Lack of supportive factors and an enabling environment such as school fees, career
counselling, text books and the like will lead the child to give up and engage in immediate
gratification such as street vending, theft, commercial sex activities and the like in order to
satisfy immediate daily demands of food, shelter and clothing.

Modernization theory of development

Modernization is an economic theory that is rooted in capitalism during the 1950s and 1960s.
The theory incorporates the full spectrum of the transition and drastic transformation that a
traditional society has to undergo in order to become modern. Modernization theory is one of the
theories that explains pathway to development and gains fame in the 1950s. The theory emerged
in the 1950s as an explanation of how the industrial societies of North America and Western
Europe developed. This theory presents the idea that development depends primarily on the
importation of technology as well as a number of other political and social changes believed to
come about as a result. These involves introducing modern western life styles of living,
materialist and individualistic culture, individual motivation and achievement, modern methods
in technology, agricultural production and industrialisation, the underdeveloped countries will
be able to develop their economies. It is about factors that can lead to the advancement of
society. It is about a movement from values, institutions, practices, lifestyles that are considered
traditional to those that are seen as important for the advancement of society.

According to modernization theories, internal factors in the countries, such as traditional,

illiteracy, the traditional attitude of the population, agrarian structure, the low division of
labour, the lack of communication and infrastructure, etc., are the major causes of poverty and

45
underdevelopment in developing countries of the world. Differences in structure and historical
origin are considered of little importance; international dependencies are not taken into
account. The proponents of this theory felt that the rest of the world needed to look to the
western model of modernity and align their societies like west in order to progress. Western
capitalist values and practices are the basis for modernizing third world countries and helping
them become self-sustaining. Development process is viewed as the promotion of rapid and
aggregate growth. What is needed for society to develop is the right mix of savings, investments
and foreign aid from developed countries. For poor countries to develop there is need for the
dissolution of traditional values so that they are replaced with more modern ones. The
constraints to development and personal advancement are internal and lie within a country
itself.

Dependency theory of underdevelopment

The dependency theory emerged as a critique to modernization theory of development.

Dependency is defined as a situation in which a certain number of countries have their economy
conditioned by the development and expansion of another. Dependency theory holds that the
condition of underdevelopment is precisely the result of the incorporation of the Third World
economies into the capitalist world system which is dominated by the West and North America.
This school of thought regarding development and underdevelopment discourse emerged in the
1960s with the influence of Andre Gunder Frank. In his classical piece titled- the development of
underdevelopment, he postulates that the underdevelopment of undeveloped countries or part of
the world is a ramification of the unequal and unfavourable conditions they found themselves in,
in the world capitalist system.

The proponents argue that the origins of persistent global poverty is based on the division of the
world nations into a core of wealthy nations which dominate the poor nations whose main
function in the system is to provide cheap labour and raw materials to the core. It held also that
the benefits of this system of relationship accrue almost entirely to the rich nations, which
become progressively richer and more developed, while the poor nations, which continually have
their surpluses drained away to the core do not advance, rather they are impoverished. The
underdeveloped nations have become and remain underdeveloped because they are
economically dominated by developed capitalist nations that have continually been extracting
wealth from them. Frank has called this process the development of underdevelopment. In this
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view, the development of the rich nations and the underdevelopment of the poor ones are but two
sides of the same coin as underdevelopment of some nations has made development for other
nations possible and the development of other nations made the underdevelopment of other
nations possible. Dependency equates modernization with western imperialism and capitalism.
Modernization has caused the underdevelopment of poor societies rather than contributing to
their development. Modernization has disrupted traditional social relationships, created poverty
where it did not exist and caused significant environmental damage.

Dependency comes from this link that the exploitation of various regions for their raw materials
and labour impoverished them and made them depend on the West. They are dependent on the
west for economic, financial, political, social and cultural aspects. Advocates of dependency see
rich countries as the main obstacle to the wellbeing of poor countries. The main causes of
underdevelopment and poverty are external to poor countries and there are unequal and
exploitative center-periphery-relations condemning poor countries into further poverty.
Proponents suggest poor countries should attempt to pursue policies of self-reliance, contrary to
modernization model endorsed by IMF and World Bank. There must be controlled interaction
with the world economy.

(d) The possible ways and means of significantly alleviating or reducing Poverty

The reduction and eradication of poverty requires integrated strategies that give poor people the
opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and attain sustainable livelihoods. They must be
enabled to access natural resources. The principle of equality should be the basis of all poverty
eradication programmes, nationally and internationally.

From a culture of poverty perspective, if the theoretical reason for poverty lies in values and
beliefs, transmitted and reinforced in subcultures of disadvantaged persons, then local anti-
poverty efforts need to intervene to help change the culture. This is socialization as policy. This
may work in several ways, based on Valentine‟s suggestion of different models of cultural
theories of poverty. The first suggestion is that if one thinks of the culture of the poor as a
dysfunctional system of beliefs and knowledge, the approach will be to replace that culture with
a more functional culture that supports rather than undermines productive work, investment, and
social responsibility. Innovative prisoner release programs, for example, may try to relocate

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prisoners from the environment where they got in trouble and assure that they adopt new values
appropriate for work. A number of experiments have tried with mixed results relocating poor
from ghetto housing projects into suburbs with the hope that the new culture will help the family
emerge from poverty.

The second suggestion of eradicating poverty from the modernization and dependency theirs are
that change can occur through the policy process. The ranges of government and social policies
that can be adjusted to accomplish poverty reduction include providing jobs, raising wages,
expanding the safety net, assuring effective access to medical care, and coordinating social
insurance programs. In order to protect these programs in an era of governmental retrenchment,
it is increasingly clear that the poor and their advocates need to be more politically mobilized.
Legal changes to enforce civil rights of the poor and to protect minority groups are needed. For
example, the American Disability Act has established many gains for otherwise able persons who
happen to be blind, deaf, or with limited mobility. One of the boldest policy moves is suggested
by Quigley and others who advocate a constitutional amendment to guarantee a job to anyone
who wants one and to guarantee that anyone working full time would be able to earn a living
wage.

In conclusion, it can be said that poverty has been understood in different ways by people in that
some understand it in relative and absolute terms, others understand it as not only a lack of
income but also other factors such as discrimination, exclusion, insecurity, violence, lack of
voice and control, low education, bad housing conditions, shame and disempowerment. Yet
others understand it as a denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life. However,
different theories underpinning the evolution and development of the concept of poverty and
these theories include; cultural theory, situational theory, modernization theory, and the
dependency theory of underdevelopment. All these different ways in which poverty has been
understood point to the fact that poverty is a multi-dimensional concept which involves not only
economic aspects but also the social, political and cultural implications hence the need to take a
multi-sectoral approach when addressing it.

END OF EXAMINATION!

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