Social Studies 10

Humans establish various kinds of organizations to systematically meet their needs and wants; social organizations deal with the basic assumptions of ordered social life.

Every organization must decide on some means of decision making and some way of resolving differences so a collective course of action can be carried out.

Economics is the study of how a society decides about the goods and services it will produce to meet the wants of its citizens; standard of living measures the quantity and quality of those goods and services.

A society's beliefs and values shape its social and political organization, which in turn shapes its economic organization, supported by an infrastructure of institutions.

A pluralistic society is one in which diverse cultural traditions, with different norms and values, are accepted; societies accept some claims to power as legitimate and reject others.

Societies are made up of competing interest groups and conflicting ideologies, and the political process is needed to resolve differences over the basis on which decisions are made.

Every nation has a specific set of resources that lets it produce certain commodities more efficiently, and specialization lets individuals or regions concentrate on what they do best.

International trade lets nations export surpluses and import scarce goods, but governments also want to protect their citizens' interests and the security of the state.

The traditional function of a state is to organize and arm society with the power to protect the social order from internal disruption and external attack, and its autonomy depends on the national power it can use.

National sovereignty is in constant tension with global interdependence; weaker nations often ally with others to balance a more powerful rival, and there is an ongoing search for moral alternatives to war.