Deck 13: Social Inequality and Social Movements

Question 1

American beliefs in individualism, small government, a work ethic, the sanctity of private property, free markets and free labor, have inhibited the development of the labor movement. What makes this problematic?

A) This frustrates the development of political and economic alternative sources of power of organized groups.
B) It has conditioned people to see labor unions as anti-individual.
C) These beliefs are essentially antisocial and inimical in that they sanction exploitation and inequality.
D) They are the rhetoric of scientific management.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

How did industry move from the arbitrary, personal control of the foreman to incorporating control into the very process of manufacture?

A) technical control (e.g., assembly lines, automation) and hierarchical bureaucratic methods (assistant manager, manager, etc.)
B) technological divisions of labor and authority
C) scientific management (e.g. Taylorism)
D) unskilled labor and extreme specialization

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What made welfare capitalism such an effective way to compete with the unions?

A) Welfare capitalism tries to address all labor demands with substitutes so that worker loyalty, and thereby control, are assumed by management.
B) It made unions an unnecessary rival.
C) Workers did not like paying union dues because it did not make them a stakeholder in their place of employment.
D) Unions offered only very limited benefits and only during strike actions.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The role of unions is complex, but two major roles can be picked out, one being an accommodating role, the other being_____?

A) revolutionary
B) Marxian
C) syndicalist
D) social organization

Question 5

Similar to capitalists, labor also expanded with the ever-changing and expanding immigrant workforce. What problem(s) did this cause labor?

A) The heterogeneous nature of the immigrant working classes created divisions that hindered solidarity.
B) Language barriers prevented unions from communicating to the workers.
C) Immigrants, given their fragile status, could not risk confrontations with their employers.
D) Immigrants often had far more radical background, far more radical than American unions could control.

Question 6

As unions grew in importance and influence during the early years of the twentieth century, what was the most striking difference from their counterparts in Europe?

A) American workers were less interested in changing the economic system from capitalism to socialism.
B) American workers saw their utopia in the middle class.
C) American workers insisted on real world issues.
D) American workers were fundamentally conservative.

Question 7

How did the Great Depression provide the labor movement with an opportunity to grow, especially in its political influence?

A) The economic fragility and emergency status facilitated closer relationships between management, labor, and government.
B) It resulted in the passage of the Wagner Act.
C) Capitalism, mortally wounded by the Depression, was forced to make compromises with the unions.
D) American labor unions suppressed their leftist elements to make them more acceptable to industry and government.

Question 8

As with the labor movement, the origins of the civil rights movement resulted from what economic change?

A) The decline in the centrality of agriculture and the rise of industrialization.
B) The need for cheap labor.
C) The use of strikes in labor protests and Black strikebreakers.
D) The onset of new oppressive conditions caused by mechanization and bureaucratic controls.

Question 9

The White patronage that the civil rights movement enjoyed during its nonviolent protest phase of the early 1960s had mixed motivations.

A) Yes, the support was also intended to encourage and direct the nonviolent aspect of the early civil rights protests.
B) This is true of the early support and later "radical chic" support the movement received after the death of Dr. King.
C) No, because the numbers of White college students who participated often worked directly under Black civil rights leaders.
D) No, since the influence of Black and White civil rights supporters was a "two-way" street.

Question 10

Like the labor movement, the civil rights movement enjoyed an increase in its political power. What allowed for this?

A) The demographic shift of migration to the north and the resulting "Black vote" in urban centers.
B) The passage of voting rights laws in the South.
C) The political gains of the New Deal.
D) The integration of the American Armed forces during World War II.

Question 11

Brown v. Board of Education was marked by gradualism. In what way did it, the desegregation of the armed forces, and other incremental measures make the inequality they were intended to alleviate problematic?

A) Gradualism in American civil rights has always allowed counter-response that entails setbacks, too.
B) Like "three-fifths of a person," it had all the defects of previous half-measures.
C) Once again, in U.S. history, what could have been a sweeping decision was not made to the detriment of American society.
D) It facilitated a patient, nonmilitant approach that would later feed the riots of the late 1960s and the radical Black Power movement.

Question 12

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at first thought that logic and reason would be enough to end racism. What did he eventually believe?

A) That the cause of institutionalized racism was one of power relationships; inequality serves to maintain one group's status over another.
B) White racism was, essentially, a defensive mechanism.
C) Racism is connected with economics, which he exploited with his successful boycott strategy.
D) That a nonviolent strategy, like that used by Gandhi, would embarrass those in power and test their own values.

Question 13

How have the goals of parity with men and the desire to be treated differently shaped the general course of the women's movement?

A) It has allowed for the definition and redefinition of women's rights depending on the beliefs and goals.
B) It has resulted in conflicted goals and setbacks.
C) Opponents have used these two goals to justify reverse sexism.
D) It is one of the key differences the women's movement has with the civil rights and labor movements.

Question 14

Why was the women's movement in the 19th century so often marginalized by those who would seem natural allies-the labor, anti-slavery, and early civil rights movements?

A) The social environment that accepted the inequality of women was still prevalent in these movements.
B) These other movements wanted to prioritize their main objectives-women's rights was seen as a distraction.
C) The women's movement (especially their leaders) was seen as a rival.
D) People during this time, who were by and large religious, believed that the natural and supernatural orders were being violated by the nascent women's movement.

Question 15

The Black Lives Matter movement differs from other race-based social movements in that:

A) It addresses the intersection of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and sexual expression.
B) If focused on very visible leaders.
C) It is a very centralized, organized movement.
D) The leaders are primarily men.