Sociological Analysis of the Presidential Election of 2012 from a Structural Functionalist Perspective and a Conflict Perspective.
As the presidential election draws closer, we could vividly view our society from social conflict and structural functionalist perspectives. The democratic process helps us to ask why do we accept and embrace democracy, how does it influence our social patterns and functions; and how does democracy really work for the stability of our society. In this essay, I will analyze the presidential election of 2012 using sociological perspective with emphasis on manifest and latent functions, class, race and gender conflicts.

It is a known fact that democracy and demography are like Siamese twins that cannot be
Another conflict is race; it is not surprising that the political parties are trying to woo the ethnic group with the highest population. The Democrats are trying to lure the Hispanic with immigration reform while the Republicans are trying to solidify their White base with a promise of deportation of illegal immigrants. Both sides are aggressively marketing their ideas to each race for votes. According to US Catholics News, “these problems have led to family division, causing a heavy toll on children and families of Hispanic community’. The Hispanics are not the only group suffering from this political division, The African- American, the Asian-American, the Indian-Americans and all other minorities are all struggling to fit into the social structure. For all of these, one can easily see both the minorities and the majority voting along their party line. The minority ethnic groups tend to vote for Democrats while the majority ethnic group votes Republican.

Another well observed social conflict can be seen in gender. The gender issue has brought out many social issues. From woman’s health, contraceptives and abortion, parenthood and womanhood, the list goes on and women are taking their stands on issues that concern them. The women are the largest electorate in US. LA Progress, an online News Journal, after series of research, simply concludes that “Women will decide 2012 Presidential Election”. For this