Answer only ONE, comprehensively. Explain everything. Chapter 14/15 (pages 950-1071) in the pdf provided
- Compare and contrast the theoretical perspectives on the transition to capitalism of two of the following: Adam Smith, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. How are they similar? How are they different? Which of the two you selected do you believe provides the most useful framework for understanding capitalism, and why?
- One of the most important changes in the American economy is the creation of the service sector. What is the service sector? What are two important challenges that service workers face, and how are the challenges linked to the nature of the service sector?
- Corporations can dominate the market by offering the lowest prices, thereby attracting the most buyers. List and describe three strategies that corporations use to maximize profits. How is this ability related to Marxs theory that the rate of profit tends to fall which produces crises, and his theory that capital tends to centralize?
- Explain the concept of alienation according to Karl Marx. List and describe two of the four forms of alienation that Marx identified. In addition, explain his theory of why the rate of profit tends to fall, creating economic crises. How do each of these processes immiserate the working class
- 5. Discuss the elite pluralist theory of politics. How is it used to justify the American political system as one where ordinary people can have influence over political decision-making. What is the Marxist theory that capital tends to centralize? How does it cast doubt on pluralist theory?
- Discuss the theories of Erich Fromm and Antonio Gramsci on how ordinary people in capitalist society are encouraged to accept and obey the authority of the State, which serves the capitalists and not ordinary people.