Quiz

Answer these multiple-choice questions, based on the required reading.

udy Materials

Required

Parenti, C. (2000). From Crisis to Rollback. In Lockdown America: Police and prisons in the age of crisis. London: Verso. (pp. 29-44) (16 pages).File

Volscho, T. (2017). The Revenge of the Capitalist Class: Crisis, the Legitimacy of Capitalism and the Restoration of Finance from the 1970s to Present. Critical Sociology, 43(2), 249–266. (18 pages)File

Slides

Homework

Required

RQ#5Quiz

Not completed: RQ#5

Due Tuesday before start of class

Answer these multiple-choice questions, based on the required readings.

The quiz will not close on you, there is no time limit either. Feel free to leave the quiz open as you study the readings.

You have two (2) attempts, and your grade will be the average between both attempts.

1). In the secion titled, "Labor and the crisis", parenti (2008) argues that workers (aka "labor") were in a very strong economic position in the 1960s. Which of the following reasons does paernti provided in order to support the claim that US workers were doing well during this peirod?

Select on or more

A) The unemployment rate was lower (down to 3.8% in 1966), and workers experienced shorter periods of unemployment (as low as 7.8 weeks in 1969).

😎. Workers wages and benefits were rising, growing as fast as 6.8% per year.

C). With changes in employment and pay, workers had a relatively stronger position in relationship to their employers. This is evident in the ratios of quits to layoffs (2:1), the increasing rate of strike activity(with up to 40% of workers going on strike between 1966 to 1973), and the multiple forms of insubordination by workers on the shop floor.

Parenti (2008) argues that corporate profits declined during the late 1960s and early 1970s - from 10% in 1965 down to 6% in the second half of the 1970s (36). The decline in profits for the capitalist class during the period was, in part, due increasing government regulation of capitalism. For example, social movements pressured President Nixon to create the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Consumer Safety Administration- all of which regulate corporate activity to protect the environment, workers and consumers, respectively.

Select one:

True

False

3). In the section titled, ": Riot of the Rich", Parenti (2008) argues that elites worked to weaken the political-economic power of workers and restore political- economic power to elites just before and during Ronald Reagan's presidential administration. Which of the following reasons does parenti provide in order to support this claim?

Select one or more:

Regain's administration undermined worker wages and protections by started to hire temp workerss to work below union wages within the federal government, and by legalizing homwework, which created an opportunity for employers to bypass regulations.

Reagan's administration cut social spending for: welfare, child nutrition, school milk programs, education, and workers training, among other programs.

Paul Volcker, who was appointed by President James Carter as Chairmen of the Federal Reserve and who stated "the standard of living of the average American has to decline", created an economic recession by increasing interest rates up to 16.4% in 1981. By 1982, Unemployment increased, wages dropped, and the power of unions weakened.

Regan's administration eliminated Nxion's Environmental protection Agency (EPA), and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which allows corporations to pollute air, soil, and water from Canada, the US, and down to Mexico support unionized workers.

Ronald Reagan, as president, issued an executive order firing all 11,000 professional air traffic controllers during their strike, which signaled that his administration would not support unionized workers.

4). Vin the section titled, "Power to the Rich!",Parenti (2008) argues that the political and economic power of elites had been restored by the 1990s. Which of the following reasons does parenti provide in order to support this claim?

Select one or more:

a) US cities saw their tax base decrease as factories were relocated to Mexico, and as whiter, wealthier residents leave for the suburbs, resulting in the formation of large ghettos in the US Norgheast and Midwest (aka the "rust belt").

b) Reagan's administraion shifted the tax burden-away from the rich who saw a tax cut of approximately 25% onto the poorest workers who experienced a 20% tax increase.

c) Corporations started to relocate their factories away from US workers, to "South of the border" where corporations could exploit cheaper labor and weaker regulation; some 1,800 plants, and up to 2.3 million jobs (42), left the US from 1965 to 1992. This increased profits for corporations, while US workers experienced increased un-and under-employment

d) Immigration from Latin America and Asia increased as people were fleeing the consequences of structural adjustment programs in their home countries, this grew the size of the working-class in US cities.

e) The fall of the USSR eliminated the hopes that a social political-economy could work, which, alongside the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), Weakened social movements in the US and abroad.

f) While high-wage, unionized jobs in factories left the US, low-wage work in the service industry proliferation. This occurred alongside an increase of racial discrimination against African-Americans.

5) In the opening pages of the articles, "The Reveng of the Capitalist Class", Volscho (2017), Provides a set of quotes. Once is by Supreme court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. which described how, according to Volscho, the capitalist class felt in the 1960s and 1970s and the other quote is a rom "Plutonomy" memos form Citigroup.

match select quote that describes:

The US capitalist class threatened by "the many headed hydra" in the 1960s: and,

The US capitalist class re-asserting their political and economic power via neoliberal reforms.

"These economies have seen the rich take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth and spending in these countries...favorable treatment by market-friendly government have allowed the rich to prosper and become a greater share of the economy in pluotonomy countries .... "Volscho (2017) provides indicators of social movements from below , by defining and quantifying social movement into three of kinds of actions: protests, riots, and political strikes.

Choose...

The capitalist class feeling like the "battle is over and capital has won"

The capitalist class threatened by many headed hydr.

The capitalist class accepting defeat.

"the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued....the most disquieting voices joining chorus of the criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: form the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary jourals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians... the wisdom, ingenuity, and resources of American business to be marshaled against those who would destroy it"

Choose....

The capitalist class feeling like the "battle is over and capitalist has won"

The capitalist class threatened by many headed hydra

The capitalist class accepting defeat

6) Volscho (2017) provides indicators of social movements from below, by defining and quantifying social movement into three kind of actions: protests, riots, and political strikes.

Match each form of action to the statement that best describe it.

These are work stoppages by industrial employees or a stoppage of academic life by students to protest leaders' actions and policies. These increased after the other two forms of action allowed down, with a peak in 1970 of just under 90.

Choose...

Political Strikes

Roots

Protests

These are distinguished from other forms of action by the presence of violence. Violence implies the destruction of property or force used against people such as the use of riot control equipment by the police and other authorities and the use of violence by people. These reached a high of approximately 200 just after 1965.

Choose...

Political Strikes

Roots

Pe

Protesrs

These are non-violent gathering of people with the aim of protesting a regime, government, or one of its leaders, ideologies, policies, and previous or intend actions. These reached a high of 211 such actions in 1965.

Choose...

Political Strikes

Roots

Protests

7) Volscho quotes Dumenil& Levy define neoliberalism "as a set of institutional transformations designed to restore the revenue of the capitalist class" (251).

Select one:

True

False

😎Volscho (2017) argues that while members of the capitalist class maybe divided over their immediate interests, they are united over their fundamental interests, especially in the face of a crisis. Which of the following are examples that he provide to support this claim?

Select one or more:

LemuelBoulare, a mentor to Ronald Reagan, once stated that the attacks on them, as business person, are just challenges to them individually, but an attack, on the entirety of private property.

Samuel Huntington wrote the book, Clash Civilizations, where he argued that cultural and religious identities were the fundamental source of conflict

President of company argued that capitalists need to fight to save "the free enterprise religious identities were the fundamental sources of conflict.

Richard Lester, president of the US Chamber of Commerce in 1975, delivered a speech titled, "Can Capitalist Survive", which he shared that he met large numbers of business persons from around teh US who concerned the survival of the capitalist system.

😎 According to Volscho (2017), once the capitalist class started to mobilize in the 1970s , their goal was to REDUCE the rate of profit by INCREASING government regulations and INCREASING taxation.

Select one:

True

False

10) Volscho (2017) argues that the capitalist class mobilized in the 1970s to advance their class interests. Which of the following are examples that Volscho provides to support this claim?

Select one or more:

a) Corporate political action committees (PACs) grew substantially in the late 1970s, going from 114 in 1970, to 11,000 by 1980. In fact, there was 4 corporate PACs for every 1 labor PAC. This meant that corporations were able to pool their resources through PACs and influence elected government officials, much more ethan workers

b) From 1978 to 1982, corporations took OFFENSIVE political action, by working to develop and pass neoliberal economic policies that would cut taxes, reduce regulations, and reduce welfare expenditures.

c) Theof number of corporations that joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an influential organization that lobbies on behalf of corporations, increased from 1952 to 1980, especially in the 1970s, where it reached over 70,000 members by working to block legislation sponsored by labor and liberal groups.

e) From 1, to 1982 corporations took DEFENSIVE political action, by working to develop and pass neoliberal economic policies that would cut taxes, reduce regulations, and reduce welfare expenditures.

f) Lewis F. Powell Jr. 1971 memo encouraged corporations to mobilize to increase the rate of profit, not as individual corporations because that would produce too much political blowback, but as a collection of or corporations over a long-range period of time.

g) From 1974 to 1978, corporations took DEFENSIVE political action, by working to block legislation sponsored by labor and liberal groups.