1. CONTROVERSIAS DEL CONTROL SOCIAL: ENTRE EL CONSTREÑIMIENTO Y LA COOPERACIÓN.
- Author
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Ferreira, Lucía Cid Lopes F.
- Subjects
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CULTURAL pluralism , *SOCIAL control , *SOCIAL security , *SOCIAL context - Abstract
The increase in violent delinquency in Argentina, the activity of certain communications media and other resounding events placed "public security problems" among the principal problems affecting the inhabitants of large cities and has been reflected in electoral campaigns. The firmness and extension of police activity as a social control mechanism is promoted by western capitalist governments that presume to coercively confront the negative effects of this setback of the "benefactor state". The neo-conservative ideology that opposes democracy and social security also sustains the "Hobbesian" conviction that man in liberty is wolf in relation to other humans. This is what is expressed indirectly in the statement that "all democratic systems require higher levels of security. In some progressive circles the notions of "responsibility", "guilt", and "punishment" are evaluated separately from the social context that generates these conducts and they are given significance by considering the problem of delinquency as a limited personal problem of the individual in relation to the state or society. The questions is proposed as to whether democracy is contrary to effective social control that provides security for all. On the other hand, what kind of democracy are we referring to?. In the face of democracy from the viewpoint of a set of mechanisms destined to induce conformity with social norms, we propose an alternative notion based on the relationship between cooperation and reciprocity, which constitutes the essence of what is social. While the first notion tends towards uniformity and authority, the second tends towards tolerance of diversity of values, which taken to an extreme becomes radical democracy, as opposed to the formal democracy of current electoral systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2002