Politics in Social Organizations

Table of Content

• Politics in family• Politics in local government

structure• Politics in community• Politics using religion

Political Anthropology

Political Anthropologists address the area of human behavior and thought related to power

Who has it; who doesn’t

Degrees of power

Bases of power

Abuses of powerPolitical and religious power

Governments

Social conflict and social control

Morality and Law

Politics in FamilyClass Dimension

• Politics exists in various layers of the family

• We have already seen politics in family in terms of gender

• Now we shall look at politics in family in terms of class

Politics in FamilyClass Dimension

• Politics can be defined as: “activities aimed at improving someone's status or increasing power within an organization”

• If the organization is family, the way one tries to improve one’s status or increase one’s power within this organization will vary across social classes

Politics in FamilyClass Dimension

We can categorize social class into three broad segments:

- Upper class- Middle class - Lower class

Upper class• With wealth comes economic independence, and with economic independence

one’s ability to voice his own will becomes stronger as they can take major life decisions on the basis of their own earning

• Upper class families will have a stronger economic independence overall regardless of who the earning member is, since there is sufficient wealth to meet most of the needs and wants of all the family members

• So, although the main earner of the family will always have the strongest say in the major family decisions, due to greater economic independence the demands of most members can be fulfilled

• Also upper class families are better able to educate their children and with education, people become better aware of their rights. So these conscious educated family members are better able to voice their opinions and create a stronger position for themselves in the family

• Also with better education, eventually all members of the family can secure respected positions in the society and thereby improve their personal status first within the family and later in the society

Middle class• Middle class societies often have both fewer earning members (often the man of

the house, sometimes also the woman or the elder son) who usually have to bear the responsibility of the rest of the family members as well as have a lower total income than the upper class families do

• Usually these earning members possess the highest position of power within the family and their say is usually the final say in terms of major family decisions

• However, the younger members of these families often engage in small/ part-time jobs to earn themselves pocket money. Hence, due to their individual economic independence, the younger generation of the middle class families may have a better position of power within the family than the younger members of the upper class families have

• Education is the key for the members of these families to break out of their middle class status and eventually to rise to higher positions in the society and be better able to voice their opinions

Lower class• Usually one bread-earner with meager income (usually the father or the

mother in case of single-parent households)

• The bread-earner’s own income is so low that they themselves have a very low status in the society and are barely able to voice their own opinions in society

• Given the main bread earner himself has little say in the society, his family members barely have a chance to voice their own opinions and therefore have little power even within the family

• Higher or good education is hard to afford for these family’s members and therefore climbing out of the cycle of poverty and creating a position of respect and power within the society is extremely difficult for them

Common trends• Regardless of a family’ social class, it is usually the earning member/s who are

most likely to have a greater political power within the family (by voicing their opinions and hence improving their status within the family)

• Although if the family belongs to the higher class, there are more chances of all members’ decisions being taken into account due to greater economic independence and flexibility overall- however, they are still subject to the ultimate vetting by the earning members

• In a third world society such as Bangladesh, it is usually the father who is the earning member of the family, often replaced by the son with time. Therefore, again regardless of social class, mostly women’s decisions remain suppressed.

• However, this scenario is fast changing with more and more women entering the workforce across all social classes. With their increased economic independence, their position in the family is being strengthened and they are being to voice their opinion better

Politics in Family: Gender Perspective

Bangladesh is a highly patriarchal Muslim dominated society. According to Hartmann, patriarchy is defined as a “set of

social relations in which there are hierarchical relations among men which enable them in turn to dominate women.”

Men hold the status of family head and enjoy the most power in the family.

The material base of power in the family is men’s absolute control over means of production i.e., land.

Men make household decisions and have absolute rights on property.

Politics in Family: Gender Perspective

Both Islam and Hinduism have discriminatory inheritence laws against women. Asian women have only 1% of wealth in the world (Wong, 2002)

Men abuse their power in family relationship and deny women equal rights.

Men are maintaining their patriarchal hegemony through moral authority.

Women in the family are expected to uphold the perpetuated cultural symbols which are related to family honour and prestige.

Women internalize the patriarchal values and that decides their actions in the family.

Women submit to the authority of their husbands and teach their daughters to assume the traditional role.

Politics in Family: Gender Perspective

“Son Preference” Sons are seen as essential to carry on the family lineage. The main productive assets are passed through the sons. Daughters become the property of their husbands. Names of the sons and grandsons are written in the traditional

family genogram. Women are recorded only as the wives. Sons provide labor and economic supports to their parents as

they grow old Parents see education of sons as more important than daughters;

adult literacy rate 15+ M-56.6%, F- 47.9% (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2008).

Politics in Family: Gender Perspective

Women are dependent upon their male family members throughout their life cycle.

Politics among women members to be close to the male head of the family

Women become their own adversaries.

Son

Mother

SisterWife

• 64 districts Zila parishad – District level

• 488 upazillasUpazila Parishad – Sub-

district level

• 4550 unionsUnion Parishad – Union level

Evolution | local government structure

• Village Panchayet Pre-Mughal era

• Sarkar/Chakla, ParaganaMughal era

• Civil and criminal law courtsBritish Raj

• Union councilPakistan regime

• Union ParishadBangladesh

Evolution | local government structure

• Local union parishad members and chairmen holds informal power • Alternate dispute resolution methods are mostly adopted, ie, informal

justice • Majority of the complaints never reach the formal justice system• Women are often vilified and punished as victim shaming is commonplace• Most of the powerful men has ascribed status

Evolution | local political environment

• Patriarchal system where men hold the power: out of twelve UP seats, three are reserved for women

• Rich local elites control the informal justice system and holds a powerful position in the society as seen in other cultures, eg, Big Man system

Evolution | local political environment

Patron Client Relationship

The Best Patron is one you never see.You give him gifts; he gives you protection

A good exchange for peaceand security of mind and pocket.

Patron Client Relationship

• In a patron-client system the wealthy and powerful are the patrons

and people who supported and depended on the patrons are the

clients

• The powerful patron offers protection and access to resources such

as land, jobs to the client; the client in turn provides support and

services such as labour, votes, and loyalty to patrons.

Community• A community is a group of individuals with something in common:

nationality, neighborhood, religion, work, workplace, victimization, hobbies and mutual interest, etc.

• The most important and strongly felt communities are usually the smallest and most immediate. Thus, for many people the family is the most powerfully felt community and the quality of its relationships most instrumental in deter-mining feelings of happiness, security and well-being.

• People establish personal identities in relation to the communities to which they feel they belong.

Importance of understanding Community Politics

• The Role of Community Politics

• What sort of general interests exist in the community? Do they serve the interests of the mass public or inclusive sectors within the community

• Who ought to make the key decisions? Is it a senior community individual, a competent individual, local opinion leader,etc.?

• What are the social conflicts and probable solutions

Importance of understanding Community Politics

• What are the socio-economic dynamics? Cultural and religious values of the concerned community

• Finding a balance between the statistical data and the sense of mystery

• Microscopic view on the obstacles to change

• Changing Community Politics due to technology

Politics in community• Politics is concerned with the exercise of power throughout communities

whether it be through informal structures

• The essence of politics is power (elderly members of community).

• All people have an equal right to take part in the process by which-decisions that affect their lives are taken. The greatest threat to that right is the concentration of power. Democracy is dependent as much on the dissemination, distribution and control of power as it is upon the ballot.

Politics in community• Politics in pre conceived social roles• Politics in transfer of power• Family politics

Politics using religion in family level• A women’s heaven is beneath her husband’s feet

• Religious interpreters also provided men with the jurisdiction to chastise wives for disobedience and bring them back to so-called correct path

Women as subservient in Hinduism

This is a mythActually, one attribute that differentiates Hinduism from say,

Christianity or Islam, is that it recognizes forms of god as feminine.

Hindus revere Shakti, or the personification of God's energy through a

female figure.Some of the most commonly worshipped goddesses are Parvati, a

primary form of Shakti; Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom; and

Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity.Women may not be equal with men but again, that is not because of

religion but culture and people using religion to keep women down.

“Pati Parmeshwar”

Hindu women consider their husband as God.

A women's primary duty is to help her husband in performing the

obligatory duties and enable him continues his family tradition. Her

primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them.Women can never be controlled by force, and only wives

themselves can guard their own virtue(Manusmriti 9.12)

Politics in Community Level under the pretext of religionReligion also being used in community level for violence

Hindu Caste System

A caste is a division of society based on occupation and family lineage Brahmins– priestly casteKshatriyas- warrior class Vaisyas- merchant and pleasant Shudras- Labour classChandalas- lowest of Shudra

Upper classes get advantages from all sectors Exploitation of the weak Disunity and division of loyalty Foreign domination Preferential Treatment Instrument of oppression Impure and non-touchable Caste system also in conflict with democracy