Survival Always Trumps Ideology - Essay Example

SURVIVAL ALWAYS TRUMPS IDEOLOGY: A CASE STUDY Summary Democracy started to spread in Chile in the 1080s. This paper describes the political, social and economical observations of extremely poor families and how these affects this spread of democracy. It expresses the views of the people about certain features of a democratic government like for instance economic development, civil rights and the voting procedure. Poor families were selected because they keep track of changes in the political, economical and social sectors of the country. A couple of assumptions were made regarding the nature of humans. Firstly, it was assumed that we humans are political at heart and secondly, we take political interest in areas where we can benefit from. The longitudinal case study was conducted from 2003 to 2005 and it involved having quarterly, in-depth interviews with 44 poor families living in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. The aim of these interviews was to gather information on the amount of political knowledge these people had, how these families perceived the changes that were going on and how these families would try and benefit from this. The time period in which the case study was carried out was very critical as the municipal elections took place during this time period and candidates for presidents also started campaigning for the presidential elections. Mostly qualitative data was collected and a software called ‘atlas’ was used for analysis of this data. The results showed that people had a lot of knowledge regarding the economic, social and political scene of their country. These people were frustrated with the system. They felt like they were forced to vote as registration was compulsory and after this if someone did not vote, he was fined. In order to get more personal insight about how these families were feeling, conversations between families were taken into consideration. Most of them agreed that even if they voted, they were not going to be listened to and that their votes did not change anything as they were poor. The people did not trust the political system of their country so that was a reason for not having interest in voting. The researchers found out that the knowledge that these people possessed was based on what media showed them and interaction with family and friends etc. They also found out that one thing which was largely considered before selecting a candidate to vote for was the precious record of the candidate. This included how he had tried to help the poor previously and how he put in effort to improve the country’s current situation. This was the criteria they applied when selecting who to vote for in the municipal elections. The people were also ready to have a woman as their president as they felt that she might put in more effort to help the poor. Everyone agreed on one aspect where Chile had improved. They felt that since democracy was introduced, people got individual rights. These included women rights, right to express and children rights. When they talked about social rights, they meant right for education. These families were satisfied with the education system of their country till high school. But since after this, these people were expected to pay for college and university, it was impossible for them to continue with their education. This was again of course because of financial problems that they were facing. One other place where the people felt they were not getting their rights was employment right. People felt that unemployment was a very major problem they were facing. Either these people were too old or their education and experience did not match with the job requirements. As there were very few jobs for these people, they felt that they had no other way to survive than to get involved in illegal acts. These families were aware of the economic conditions of their country. They were familiar with the recent privatizations and its effects and debt conditions of their country. Other than this, they also felt that the poor suffered the most when Chile tries to improve itself in the global economy. Goods were exported and this led to an increase in the prices for these good. And secondly, this also led to less good available for consumption for these people. According to them, the free trade agreement was one of the worst choices made by Chile. The researcher concludes by saying that the people do not clearly understand what the real definition of democracy is so democracy is threatened as there is lack of devotion. Families realize their position in the society and are willing to do whatever it takes but since they have very little opportunities, nothing is there that can be done. In terms of governability, the poor have no channel through which they can participate and change the social structure and policy. They have the knowledge and everything required to take actions but all that is missing is a path which they can take. Chile managed to give Individual rights to its people but because of the culture of inequality, social rights which include employments opportunities and salary differences etc. could not be removed. Democracy cannot expand in a country with poverty and inequality no matter how well it does in other indicators of democracy. But this might increase opportunities for the different divisions of the society to come together and negotiate. Lastly, the political imperfections should not be confused with absence of democratic value, political disinterest and ignorance on behalf of the population. This would only go against the natural order of existence in which survival always triumphs ideology Critical Analysis Interviews were used as a source of collecting information. This enabled the researchers to get in-depth information of the people’s attitudes, opinions, behaviors and beliefs. Since interviews are usually one on one, people might be more comfortable with expressing their personal and sensitive feelings in contrast with focus groups. For example, the families were probably more open about their feelings towards the government in a one to one interview. Lastly, the information obtained from these was first hand and any sort of ambiguities can easily be cleared out at the spot. (Machell, n.d.) On the other hand, an interview also has its disadvantages. The interviews can be very time and money consuming (Machell, n.d.). Secondly, the results that are obtained may not be the most accurate results as the experimenter bias might occur. The approach that the case study has used is studying the relationship between the situation and events in the real world and the subjective representation of this in the people’s minds therefore, it’s not all very clear. This is when an experimenter sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants to hear and the qualitative data is taken in any sense (Wainwright, 1997) (Opdenakker, 2006). Since his expectations affect how he interprets the interviewee’s answers, this in turn leads to mistaken results. The interviewee may feel like he is being evaluated and whatever he says would be used against him, therefore he would become conscious and less willing to open up. This would again result in inaccurate results. But because of multiple contacts between the family and the interviewer were made, the families started to feel comfortable and could easily express their opinions. This can be solved only if the interviewer is skilled enough to know how make the interviewee feel relaxed. The interviewee must be very careful to not ask leading questions so that the results would show what the families were actually feeling. Another aspect that can be critiqued is that the piece of research cannot be generalized but the vale of generalization is very little as this world is constantly changing. (Wainwright, 1997) (Opdenakker, 2006) Evaluation The case study ‘Survival Always Trumps ideology’ is a very extensively researched case study. For something to be considered as valid, the conclusion drawn from the research must be relevant with the focus of the research (Hucker, n.d.). The main aim was to describe how the people living in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile felt about the economical, social and political happenings in the country and how this affected the spread of democracy their. What matters the most to a researcher in a qualitative research method is to gain an understanding about the participants of the case study (Wainwright, 1997) (Opdenakker, 2006). And this one has managed to understand how the people felt about the changes that are happening in their country and this information can also help them in making inferences regarding how this will affect democracy there in the given future. Since Chile is a poor country, the sample of the case study included only the poor people and the views of people who were well off were not taken into consideration so only one side of the story is looked upon. However, tt has managed to answer a lot of common societal problems, like for instance reasons for increase in crime rate and how people felt about different issues that are going on. Considering all these points, in my opinion, this case study was somewhat a valid piece of research. WORK CITED 1. Matt Machell, Evalued, April, 2008 2. David Wainwright, “Can Sociological Research Be Qualitative, Critical and Valid?” July, 1997 3. Karen Hucker, Research Methods in Health, Care and Early Years, 2001 4. Raymond Opdenakker, Forum: Qualitative Social Learning, 2006 Read More