Unit 4

Natural Monopoly

A natural monopoly is a type of monopoly that exists due to the high start-up costs or powerful economies of scale of conducting a business in a specific industry.

Firms with a natural monopoly might be the only provider of a good/service in an industry or geographic location. Natural monopolies can arise in industries that require unique raw materials, technology, or similar factors to operate.

Romantic Poetry Exemplars

Explore the ways in which childhood is presented in Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality and in one other poem. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (30 Marks)

Post-2000 Unseen Comparison Exemplars

Secularisation

Explanations of secularisation:
Weber

Gender and crime

Gender patterns in crime:

• ⅘ convicted offenders in England and Wales are male.

Some sociologists and criminologists argue that official statistics underestimate the number of females offending in comparison to males.

Chivalry thesis:

Pollak (1970) argues that criminal justice agents - such as police officers, magistrates and judges - are men, and men are socialised to act in a 'chivalrous' way towards women.

Growth Of New Religious Movements

Some may argue that new religious movements grew due to practical and pragmatic reasons. Barker argues that new religious movements alleviate people from the pressures of work and family life and can offer an alternative family structure.

Giddens argues that traditional religions have watered down their
beliefs to fit in a more secular world as people look to new religious movements to receive comfort and community which big traditional religions no longer offer. Bruce argues that there is a loss of faith in traditional religious leaders who are seen as out of touch and new religious movements provide a refuge for those seeking spiritual and firm beliefs in a secular society.

Postmodernism
Thinker: Lyotard and Bauman
Lyotard: there is a loss of faith in metanarratives and
what Berger referred to a ‘universes of meaning’ which
have created gaps which people look to NRM’s to fill.
Bauman: With so many conflicting ideologies & beliefs,
people experience a ‘Crisis of Meaning’ & as such
form & join NRMs to retain some control & normality.
Identify Formation: traditional forms of identity have
become fragmented so people turn to NRM’s to help
form their identity.

Globalisation and Media
Thinker: Baudrillard
Globalisation and mass media have opened up
access to new ideas and belief systems from around
the world. This is what Baudrillard refers to as a media
saturated society. He believes that this has allowed
NRM’s to grow as the media gives the group more of a
public profile and visibility in order to attract members.

Marginalisation
Thinker: Weber, Stark & Bainbridge
Weber argued that groups like world rejecting NRMs
are most likely to emerge among marginal. The NRMs
appeal by providing a ‘theodicy of disprivilege’
Stark and Bainbridge - World rejecting NRMs provide
access to a close knit group of members in a similar
position offering a sense of security, clear values and a
reward in heaven.

Protest
Thinker: Glock and Stark
Glock and Stark argue that NRMs emerge as a
form of religious or social protest; hence many
may appeal to those whose values are at
loggerheads with those of the society around
them, or of other religious groups.

Anomie and Social Change
Thinker: Wilson
Wilson stated that periods of sudden or rapid social
change can create ‘anomie’ as it undermines or
disrupts traditional norms and values and universes of
meaning. NRMs provide solutions to such periods of
uncertainty as they provide new and clearly defined
belief systems or a sense of certainty in an uncertain
world. The rise of NRMs then can be seen as a
response to the uncertainties generated by the rapid
social change that has occurred since the 1960s.

Relative Deprivation
Thinker: Stark and Bainbridge
Stark and Bainbridge argued that the ideas and
support derived from NRM membership may
help to overcome those suffering a subjective
feeling of being deprived or lacking something in
comparison to those in the social group with
which the individuals identify and compare
themselves.

Status Frustration
Thinker: Wallis and Barker
Wallis argues that marginality may cause status
frustration, Wallis believes NRMs appeal to the young
as membership can provide some support for an
identity and status independent of school or family
and so overcome the sense of status frustration.
Barker believes that young people lack the financial
and time commitments of mortgage/rent and
work/family which give them the

Feminist View Of Religion

Those who follow a feminist perspective towards religion would argue that the main function of religion is to maintain patriarchy and oppress women.

Daly argues that religions maintain patriarchy by portraying male domination over women. The narrative of the bible was determined by men as they controlled what was to be included. For example, access for women to reach top levels of the church were restricted, God has been portrayed as a man and women were depicted as bad influences or impure (which is evident as Eve is blamed for causing the fall from grace). Daly concludes that there cannot be equality in religion until there is acceptance the God could be a woman.


However, Woodhead argues that women use religion as a way to gain greater freedom and respect. She explains how the Hijab which is seen in the west as a form of oppression can also be a
form of liberation as it allows them to enter the public sphere without fear of being considered immodest.

De Beauvoir argues that religion tricks women into believing they are equal to men and will be rewarded for their suffering in the afterlife when in reality they are second class and inferior to men. She also believes that girls are socialised into worshipping a male god and therefore are unconsciously encouraged to see men as
superior.

However, in liberal protestant movements such as the Quakers and the Unitarians, there is a commitment to gender equality. For example, approximately ⅓ of Unitarian ministers are female and
in the Church of England over ⅕ of the priests are female.

Armstrong argues that women are often blocked from progressing to the top positions of the hierarchy in mainstream churches - she called this the “stained glass ceiling”. This is evident as the vote to allow female Bishops in the Church of England was strongly opposed by traditionalists who were very vocal in their opposition.

However, El Saadawi suggests that is religion is not patriarchal but it is the cultures that they appear in. For example in Arab culture men hold all the powerful positions which mean that they are able to interpret the Qur’an to support their views.

Sociology Papers/Exemplars/Mark Schemes

Beliefs in society exemplars

Theme 4: A Global Perspective (Exemplars)

10 Mark Exemplars:

Discuss the likely microeconomic and macroeconomic effects of the reversal of globalisation on the world economy (10 Marks)
A microeconomic effect of deglobalisation could be the reduction in a firm's supernormal profits. Due to globalisation, firms based in developed countries like the United States, have been able to offshore production using the spatial division of labour to countries like China, where there is a cheap and large labour pool as well as low corporate taxation. Consequently, transnational corporations like Apple, operate manufacturing in China and are able to decrease their average costs so they can earn a supernormal profit of P¹ABC.

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However, due to deglobalisation, China could theoretically increase protectionism through tariffs and quotas (as seen by the ongoing trade war between the countries), forcing Apple to reshore production or outsource to countries with higher labour costs and taxes. As a result, supernormal profit will fall to P²DEF and could lead to Apple being competed away by competitors with lower prices.

A macroeconomic effect of deglobalisation could be an increase in unemployment. Using the example above, if foreign multinational corporations were to reshore production from developing countries, this would leave large masses unemployed with Apple alone employing approximately 100,000 people in China. Therefore, a negative multiplier effect would occur in the world economy since the disposable incomes of workers would fall, thus decreasing their marginal propensity to consume. This means there would be less injections into the global circular flow of income and could possibly cause a demand deficient recession which would reverse the positive effects that globalisation has had in reducing worldwide absolute poverty by 21% in 18 years, henceforth increasing mortality rates, reducing the supply of labour, causing a leftward shift in the long-run aggregate supply and global real output to fall.

Total word count: 278
Marks: 10/10

Discuss the likely microeconomic and macroeconomic effects of the reversal of globalisation on the world economy (10 Marks)
If deglobalisation were to occur, it would have a variety of impacts on the world economy. This is because deglobalisation would mean a reduction in world trade and fewer goods and services being transported. Consequently, the productive potential of firms would fall, leading to an increase in average costs and a reduction in the availability of economies of scale due to increased protectionist measures because of the fear of globalisation. This is evident, as the trade war between the United States and China shows the negative impact of increased tariffs and higher barriers to entry which would likely lead to higher prices for goods and services /////. With increased protectionist measures, this would cause the cost of production to rise and thus the average cost would shift upwards from AC to AC¹.
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Despite this, deglobalisation may allow the demand for domestic products to increase and thus, AC to fall to AC³ if resources are available in the country.

Another effect of deglobalisation would be the reindustrialisation of developed countries to boost their domestic economies. This is apparent in the United States as Trump wants to bring back jobs to the US  manufacturing industry to boost its economy. This would likely reduce the number of structurally unemployed workers and increase tax revenue for the government to invest in the economy including increased investment in infrastructure and healthcare. Through increasing government spending on supply-side policies, this would cause aggregate demand to shift from AD to AD¹. This, in turn, would result in economic growth as government spending is an injection and could furthermore lead to a positive multiplier effect.
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However, deglobalisation with the intent to become more independent may be difficult, as evident in the United States as bringing back factories is costly and would increase the national budget deficit which could require contractionary fiscal policies to rectify the issue. This may have a negative impact and cause AD to shift to AD¹ and real output to fall.

Total word count: 326
Marks: 10/10

12 Mark Exemplars:

Assess the view that the benefits of globalisation outweigh the costs (12 Marks)
One benefit to globalisation could be increased employment in developing countries which is evident as FDI inflows to developing economies increased by 7.5% from 2011 to 2012. FDI is when a firm or transnational corporation invests in production in another country; this has been caused by globalisation due to a lack of protectionism in countries such as China who implemented an open-door policy during the 1970s. FDI means that firms in developing countries have greater investment to increase their scale of production of efficiency. Consequently, when firms expand, they demand more labour which is evident in China as employment has increased massively and has lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty between 1990 and 2008. If there is an increase in employment, a positive multiplier effect will occur since workers have a larger marginal propensity to consume and therefore will cause injections into the circular flow of income - increasing AD¹ to AD² and real output to Y² - as a result creating economic growth due to globalisation.
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On the other hand, this economic growth can cause negative externalities due to increased export production in developing countries like China, incentivised by FDI, there has been a lack of government intervention regarding the negative externalities of pollution produced by increased production and economic growth. In the long term, this means the productive workers would face health issues making them unemployable, decreasing the amount of labour supplied. This is especially applicable in China where 36% of pollution is as a result of exports. This would cause AS to shift to AS¹, decreasing long term supply and reducing future economic growth due to the negative externalities of globalisation.

However, another positive impact of economic growth could be increased government tax revenue Whereas transnational corporations which utilise the spatial division of labour have managerial positions and headquarters in their home countries (for example Apple based in California) Hence when they benefit from economies of scale from offshoring manual labour to China, their average cost decreases due to lower regulations and labour costs. Henceforth supernormal profits increase. Consequently, the US government receives high corporate taxation receipts from larger transnational companies like Apple. This can improve the fiscal deficit that the US carries and used for the implementations of supply-side policies in encouraging future economic growth.

However, this has also cause deindustrialisation in the United States as seen by the Rust Belt in the midwest due to Chinese and Mexican outsourcing hence American and other workers in developed countries are subject to structural unemployment causing a demand deficient recession as a consequence to globalisation.
Total word count: 278
Marks: 12/12

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Strategies influencing growth and development

Market-Orientated Strategies:

These are measures which make the economy freer, with minimum government intervention.

1) Trade liberalisation:
Through the growth of free trade (the act of trading between nations without protectionist barriers, such as tariffs, quotas or regulations) countries can aim for export led-growth. World GDP can be increased using free trade, since output increases when countries specialise.

• If firms are able to compete globally, living standards might increase and there could be more economic growth which will allow firms to grow as they can export more.
• However, if firms are unable to compete globally, they will collapse. This will cause a loss of jobs and limit development and growth.

2) Promotion of FDI:
FDI is an investment by a firm/individual in one country into business interests located in another country and generally takes place when an investor establishes foreign business operations or acquires foreign business assets in a foreign company.

• Firms tend to undertake FDI because production costs are lower in developing countries (BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), because it helps promote long term sustainable growth and enables them access to a new market as the innovation of technology is encouraged.
• For developing countries, more job creation will occur and this leads to the positive multiplier effect since labour productivity increases and results in higher wages. It also provides them with funds to invest and develop, helping to overcome the savings gap (Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have benefitted from this method and as a result became developed countries).
• The transfer of knowledge will occur, with firms bringing staff training and production and management techniques which will benefit the country as labour productivity improves.
• However, there is often repatriation of profits and workers from developing countries are exploited with low wages and poor working conditions.
• Countries will also lose some sovereignty and become dependent on another firm. Difficulties may arise for local competition as it becomes harder to set up and compete and the best jobs often go to imported labour, leaving only low skilled jobs for locals.
• Environmental damage and exploitation of natural resources tend to become greater issues.

Examples:

• India: the Make In India initiative liberalised FDI policy and led to a 48% increase in FDI in a range of sectors (including pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and railways).
• Vietnam: Samsung's investment in Vietnam has been crucial. Many local firms are now a part of their supply chain and other businesses have set up around their factories, for example, hotels and restaurants.  

3) Removal of government subsidies

Government subsidies could distort price signals by distorting the free market mechanism and a free-market economist would argue that this could lead to government failure. There could be an inefficient allocation of resources because the market mechanism is unable to act freely. It also has a negative effect on the government budget and could cause excessive debts.