Table of Contents TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views on Social Issues Fifteenth Edition, Expanded Unit 1 Culture and Values - Issue 1. Is America in Moral Decline?
YES: Robert H. Bork, from Slouching Towards Gomorrah (Regan Books, 1996) NO: Kay S. Hymowitz, from Our Changing Culture, Current ( June 2004) Robert H. Bork, famous for being nominated for the Supreme Court but not confirmed by the Senate, argues that modern liberalism is responsible for the decline in morals. Journalist Kay S. Hymowitz argues that the permissive culture of the sixties, which led to less respect for authority, crime, sexual promiscuity, and other indicators of moral decline, is waning. The cultural pendulum is swinging back to a more traditional culture of commitment, moderation, and family values. - Issue 2. Does the News Media Have a Liberal Bias?
YES: Fred Barnes, from Is Mainstream Media Fair and Balanced? Imprimis (August 2006) NO: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., from Crimes Against Nature (HarperCollins, 2005) Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of The Weekly Standard, argues from first-hand experience that the mainstream media has a pronounced liberal bias that is reflected in their hiring and news stories. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., environmental and political activist, believes that the media have a conservative bias. Most people get much of their news and false information from conservative media. - Issue 3. Is Third World Immigration a Threat to Americas Way of Life?
YES: Patrick J. Buchanan, from Shields Up! The American Enterprise (March 2002) NO: Linda Chavez, from The Realities of Immigration, Commentary (July/August 2006) Political analyst Patrick Buchanan asserts that the large influx of legal and illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, threatens to undermine the cultural foundations of American unity. Linda Chavez, Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, argues that immigrants do not lower wages and take jobs from citizens, as evidenced by the strong economy and low unemployment rate. Immigrants are also very hard workers with considerable drive and strong family values. Unit 2 Sex Roles, Gender, and the Family - Issue 4. Does Divorce Have Long-Term Damaging Effects on Children?
YES: Elizabeth Marquardt, from The Bad Divorce, First Things (February 2005) NO: Constance Ahrons, from Were Still Family: What Grown Children Have to Say About Their Parents Divorce (Harper Collins, 2004) Elizabeth Marquardt, Director of the Center for Marriage and Families, draws on the literature to argue that divorce has devastating impacts on children and attacks Constance Ahrons counter-thesis. Constance Ahron, co-chair of the Council on Contemporary Families, found the opposite true in her research on the children of divorced parents. These children do quite well in later life and most think that they were not harmed by the divorce. - Issue 5. Should Mothers Stay Home with Their Children?
YES: Claudia Wallis, from The Case for Staying Home, Time (March 22, 2004) NO: Neil Gilbert, from What Do Women Really Want? The Public Interest (Winter 2005) Journalist Claudia Wallis reports that more and more mothers are choosing to quit work and stay home to care for their children. The work demands on professional women have increased to the point that very few can do both work and family. Forced to choose, growing numbers choose family. Neil Gilbert, Chernin Professor of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley, challenges Walliss thesis as resting on thin data. The real opt-out story is the growing number of professional women who are opting out of having children and, of those who do have children, most are using day-care services. - Issue 6. Should Same-Sex Marriages Be Legally Recognized?
YES: Human Rights Campaign, from Answers to Questions about Marriage Equality (HRCs FamilyNet Project, 2004) NO: Peter Sprigg, from Questions and Answers: Whats Wrong with Letting Same-Sex Couples Marry? (Family Research Council, 2004) Americas largest lesbian and gay organization, The Human Rights Campaign, presents many arguments for why same-sex couples should be able to marry. The main argument is fairness. Marriage confers many benefits that same-sex couples are deprived of. Researcher Peter Sprigg presents many arguments for why same-sex couples should not be able to marry. The main argument is that the state has the right and duty to specify who a person, whether straight or gay, can marry so no rights are violated. Unit 3 Stratification and Inequality - Issue 7. Is Increasing Economic Inequality a Serious Problem?
YES: James Kurth, from The Rich Get Richer, The American Conservative (September 25, 2006) NO: Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy, from The Upside of Income Inequality, The American (MayJune 2007) James Kurth, Claude Smith Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College, warns of very negative consequences for America of the growing income inequality. Consequences range from the potential of under-consumption and overproduction that can cause a recession, to biased political policies and increasing terrorist threats. Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy, both economists teaching at the University of Chicago and Senior Fellows at the Hoover Institute, point out the positive consequences of the growing income inequality. The main reason for the increasing inequality is the increasing returns to education, which in turn inspire greater efforts by young people to increase their social capital. - Issue 8. Has Feminism Benefited American Society?
YES: Barbara Epstein, from The Successes and Failures of Feminism, Journal of Womens History (Summer 2002) NO: Kate OBeirne, from Women Who Make the World Worse (Sentinel, 2006) History professor Barbara Epstein argues that the feminist movement has been highly successful in changing the consciousness of Americans to an awareness of the inequality of women and a determination to resist it. She explains how feminists succeeded at the consciousness level but have declined as a movement for social change. Journalist Kate OBeirne argues that feminism is unpopular with women and is pushing an agenda that most women do not support. She claims that most women have concluded that the feminist movement is both socially destructive and personally disappointing. - Issue 9. Has Affirmative Action Outlived Its Usefulness?
YES: Curtis Crawford, from Racial Preference Versus Nondiscrimination, Society (March/April 2004) NO: Lawrence D. Bobo, from Inequalities That Endure, in Maria Krysan and Amanda E. Lewis, eds., The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity (Russell Sage Foundation, 2004) Curtis Crawford, editor of the Web site http://www.DebatingRacial Preference.org, explores all possible options for bettering the situation of disadvantaged minorities in a truly just manner. He argues that the right of everyone, including white males, to nondiscrimination is clearly superior to the right of minorities to affirmative action. Sociologist Lawrence D. Bobo demonstrates that racial prejudice still exists even though it has become a more subtle type of racism, which he calls laissez-faire racism. Though it is harder to identify, it has significant effects, as Bobo illustrates. In fact, it plays a big role in current politics. - Issue 10. Are Boys and Men Disadvantaged Relative to Girls and Women?
YES: Michelle Conlin, from The New Gender Gap, Business Week Online (May 26, 2003) NO: Joel Wendland, from Reversing the Gender Gap, Political Affairs (March 2004) Journalist Michelle Conlin reviews the many disadvantages of boys and men in school from kindergarten to grad school. Since education is the route to success, men will be less able to compete in the marketplace. Joel Wendland acknowledges the edge that females have over males today in education but argues that females are still disadvantaged in the marketplace. Unit 4 Political Economy and Institutions - Issue 11. Should Government Intervene in a Capitalist Economy?
YES: Eliot Spitzer and Andrew G. Celli, Jr., from Bull Run: Capitalism with a Democratic Face, The New Republic (March 22, 2004) NO: John Stossel, from The Real Costs of Regulation, Imprimis (May 2001) Attorneys Eliot Spitzer and Andrew G. Celli, Jr. argue that the government plays an essential role in enabling the market to work right. Capitalism runs amuck if it is not regulated to protect against abuse and ensure fairness. John Stossel, a TV news reporter and producer of one-hour news specials, argues that regulations have done immense damage and do not protect us as well as do market forces. - Issue 12. Has Welfare Reform Benefited the Poor?
YES: David Coates, from A Liberal Toolkit: Progressive Responses to Conservative Arguments (Praeger, 2007) NO: David Coates, from A Liberal Toolkit: Progressive Responses to Conservative Arguments (Praeger, 2007) David Coates presents the arguments for the welfare reform which is that most poverty is self-induced, the previous welfare program created poverty and many other problems, and that the reform reduces these problems. David Coates also presents the counter-arguments that most poverty is not self-induced, many of the old welfare programs worked fairly well, and welfare-to-work programs are hampered by extremely low wages. - Issue 13. Is Competition the Reform That Will Fix Education?
YES: Clint Bolick, from The Key to Closing the Minority Schooling Gap: School Choice, The American Enterprise (April/May 2003) NO: Ron Wolk, from Think the Unthinkable, Educational Horizons (Summer 2004) Clint Bolick, vice president of the Institute for Justice, presents the argument for school choice that competition leads to improvements and makes the case that minorities especially need school choice to improve their educational performance. Educator and businessman Ron Wolk argues that school choice and most other educational reforms can only be marginally effective because they do not get at the heart of the educational problem, which is the way students learn. Too much attention is directed to the way teachers teach when the attention should be placed on how to stimulate students to learn more. Wolk advocates giving students more responsibility for their education. - Issue 14. Should Biotechnology Be Used to Alter and Enhance Humans?
YES: Ronald Bailey, from Liberation Biology (Prometheus, 2006) NO: Michael J. Sandel, from The Case Against Perfectionism (Belknap Press, 2007) Ronald Bailey, science editor for Reason magazine, discusses and advocates all the beneficial things that biotechnology can do for humans. Political science professor Michael J. Sandel cautions against many uses of biotechnology to alter and enhance humans. He praises many other uses of biotechnology, but he condemns using biotechnology to alter and enhance humans. In these activities, humans play God and attempt to inappropriately remake nature. Unit 5 Crime and Social Control - Issue 15. Is Street Crime More Harmful Than White-Collar Crime?
YES: David A. Anderson, from The Aggregate Burden of Crime, Journal of Law and Economics XLII (2) (October 1999) NO: Jeffrey Reiman, from The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice, 5th edition (Allyn & Bacon, 1998) David A. Anderson estimates the total annual cost of crime including law enforcement and security services. The costs exceed one trillion dollars, with fraud (mostly white collar crime) causing about one-fifth of the total. His calculations of the full costs of the loss of life and injury comes to about half of the total costs. It is right, therefore, to view personal and violent crime as the big crime problem. Professor of philosophy Jeffrey Reiman argues that the dangers posed by negligent corporations and white-collar criminals are a greater menace to society than are the activities of typical street criminals. - Issue 16. Should Marijuana Be Legalized?
YES: Ethan A. Nadelmann, from An End to Marijuana Prohibition, National Review (July 12, 2004) NO: John P. Walters, from No Surrender, National Review (July 12, 2004) Ethan A. Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research institute, argues that marijuana should be legalized but treated like alcohol (i.e., illegal for children and regulated for adults). It is not nearly as harmful as a number of legal substances, so why is so much energy and money wasted in enforcing this unpopular law? John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, argues that marijuana has many harmful effects. Its legalization would greatly increase addiction to it. - Issue 17. Does the Threat of Terrorism Warrant the Curtailment of Civil Liberties?
YES: Robert H. Bork, from Liberty and Terrorism: Avoiding a Police State, Current (December 2003) NO: Larry Cox, from The War on Human Rights, Vital Speeches of the Day (April 2007) Robert H. Bork, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, recognizes that the values of security and civil rights must be balanced while we war against terrorism, but he is concerned that some commentators would hamstring security forces in order to protect nonessential civil rights. For example, to not use ethnic profiling of Muslim or Arab persons would reduce the effectiveness of security forces, while holding suspected terrorists without filing charges or allowing them council would increase their effectiveness. Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, sees the U.S. as converting from a strong civil rights advocate to a civil rights violator. The record of U.S. rights abuses includes torture and degrading treatment, suspension of habeas corpus, denial of legal representation, and secret detention. Unit 6 The Future: Population/Environment/Society - Issue 18. Is Humankind Dangerously Harming the Environment?
YES: Lester R. Brown, from Pushing Beyond the Earths Limits, The Futurist (May/June 2005) NO: Bjorn Lomborg, from The Truth About the Environment, The Economist (August 2001) Lester R. Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and now president of the Earth Policy Institute, argues the population growth and economic development are placing increasing harmful demands on the environment for resources and to grow food for improving diets. Bjorn Lomborg, a statistician at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, presents evidence that population growth is slowing down, natural resources are not running out, species are disappearing very slowly, the environment is improving in some ways, and assertions about environmental decline are exaggerated. - Issue 19. Is Globalization Good for Humankind?
YES: Johan Norberg, from Three Cheers for Global Capitalism, The American Enterprise (June 2004) NO: Martin Hart-Landsberg, from Neoliberalism: Myths and Reality, Monthly Review (April 2006) Author Johan Norberg argues that globalization is overwhelmingly good. Consumers throughout the world get better-quality goods at lower prices as the competition forces producers to be more creative, efficient, and responsive to consumers demands. Even most poor people benefit greatly. Martin Hart-Landsberg, Professor of Economics at Lewis and Clark College, argues that globalization has served the capitalists well but has hurt the workers and the environment and may lead to economic instability. - Issue 20. Is America Dominated by Big Business?
YES: G. William Domhoff, from Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change, 5th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2006) NO: Sheldon Kamieniecki, from Corporate America and Environmental Policy (Stanford University Press, 2006) Political sociologist G. William Domhoff argues that the owners and top-level managers in large income-producing properties are far and away the dominant power figures in the United States and that they have inordinate influence in the federal government. Political scientist Sheldon Kamienieckis research finds that business interests do not participate at a high rate in policy issues that affect them, and when they do, they have mixed success in influencing policy outcomes. In fact, environmental and other groups often have considerable influence vis-à-vis business interests. - Issue 21. Are Barriers to Womens Success as Leaders Due to Societal Obstacles?
YES: Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli, from Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership, Harvard Business Review (September 2007) NO: Kingsley R. Browne, from Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual Equality (Rutgers University Press, 2002) Alice Eagly and Linda Carli argue that women seldom reach the highest levels of corporate America because they face obstacles at every stage of their career that decrease the woman/man ratio at each step upward. Kingsley Browne argues that biological differences between men and women account for many differences in their behaviors and choices that make women and men better suited for different types of jobs and differences in the way that they handle the same jobs. - Issue 22. Is the World a Victim of American Cultural Imperialism?
YES: Julia Galeota, from Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition, The Humanist (2004) NO: Philippe Legrain, from In Defense of Globalization, The International Economy (Summer 2003) Julia Galeota interprets the flooding of the rest of the world with American products and images as cultural imperialism. She argues that multinational corporations strategy is to impose American values and ideals on the world community and to advance American culture at the expense of other cultures. Philippe Legrain examines the idea of American cultural imperialism and concludes that it is a myth. Furthermore, the advance of globalization and whatever cultural attachments that go with it are positive, not negative, developments. |