Sociology 2: Commanding Heights, Episode 1, Part 2

Instructions: Enjoy the video! But, also pay attention. Below are a list of important ideas, concepts, names, and events. I won’t ask you to memorize them all... but listen carefully when these topics come up.

A. Concepts to pay attention to (listed roughly in the order mentioned in the video):

The “Chicago School” of economics

Keynesian Consensus

30 Glorious Years

Stagflation

Wage controls / price controls

Strikes

Margaret Thatcher

Competition

Deregulation

Monetary contraction

Recession

Interest Rates

Reaganomics

Nationalized industries

Government subsidies

Note: “pit” = coal mine

Privatization

B. Remarks on Part 2:

1. Keynesianism and free-market capitalism both incorporate useful ideas and lessons from economics. But, both have also become at various times developed into general ideologies and incorporated into social movements. For instance, socialist coal miners were willing to fight for their “way of life”, and conservatives like Reagan and Thatcher were equally willing to fight for free markets. For some, belief in socialism or free markets has almost a religious quality.

As you watch the video, keep in mind the benefits and disadvantages of each type of system. For example, free markets seem best a generating rapid economic growth and wealth, at the cost of greater inequality and more “boom and bust” cycles. Planning and socialism tend to reduce inequality but may not produce wealth as efficiently.

Keynesianism and planning produced thirty years of prosperity. Free market capitalism has generated rapid growth since around 1980 – about 25 years. First: How confident can we be that one system works better than the other? Second: Is it possible that each system works better in some circumstances and worse in others? (For instance, wartime versus peacetime; in economic shocks or depressions versus “normal” circumstances, etc)