total institution

(noun)

It is an institution that controls almost all aspects of its members' lives. Boarding schools, orphanages, military branches, juvenile detention, and prisons are examples of total institutions.

Related Terms

Examples of total institution in the following topics:

  • Resocialization and Total Institutions

    • A total institution is a place where a group of people is cut off from the wider community and their needs are under bureaucratic control.
    • A total institution is a place of work and residence where a great number of similarly situated people, cut off from the wider community for a considerable time, lead an enclosed, formally administered life together.
    • Within a total institution, the basic needs of a entire bloc of people are under bureaucratic control.
    • The goal of total institutions is resocialization, the radical alteration of residents' personalities by deliberately manipulating their environment.
    • First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents' identities and independence.

  • Elements of Socialization

    • Depending on the degree of isolation and resocialization that takes place in a given institution, some of these institutions are labeled total institutions.
    • In his classic study of total institutions, Erving Goffman gives the following characteristics of total institutions:
    • The most common examples of total institutions include mental hospitals, prisons, and military boot camps, though there are numerous other institutions that could be considered total institutions as well.
    • The goal of total institutions is to facilitate a complete break with one's old life in order for the institution to resocialize the individual into a new life.Mortimer and Simmons note a difference in socialization methodologies in different types of institutions.
    • When the goal of an institution is socialization (primary or secondary), the institution tends to use normative pressures.

  • Changes in the Monetary Base

    • First, we list the Fed's total assets in Equation 2 and total liabilities in Equation 3.
    • Total Liabilities = Currency outstanding (C) + deposits by depository institutions (D) +
    • Next, we substitute the monetary base formula into Equation 3 because the monetary base equals deposits held by depository institutions plus currency in circulation, or B = D + C.
    • Total Liabilities = Monetary base (B) + U.S.
    • Finally, we substitute the total assets and total liabilities into the accounting identity, and we solve for the monetary base, which becomes Equation 6:

  • Current Issues in Finance

    • The financial crisis of 2007–2008 caused the near-total collapse of many large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world.
    • The financial institution crisis hit its peak in late 2008.
    • Several major institutions failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover, including Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, among several others.The crisis rapidly developed and spread into global economic shock, resulting in a number of European bank failures, economic crises in Iceland, declines in various stock indexes, and large reductions in the market value of equities and commodities.
    • Algorithmic trading, now widely used by pension funds, mutual funds, and other institutional traders, is the use of electronic platforms to enter trading orders with an algorithm that calculates aspects such as timing, price, and quantity.

  • The Reserve Requirement

    • The Federal Reserve is in charge of setting reserve requirements for all depository institutions in the country.
    • If a bank has deposits totalling $10 million, it must have 10% of that on reserve, so that's $1 million that the bank cannot lend out.
    • Depository institutions maintain a fraction of certain liabilities in reserve in specified assets.
    • Requiring depository institutions to hold a certain fraction of their deposits in reserve, either as cash in their vaults or as non-interest-bearing balances at the Federal Reserve, does impose a cost on the private sector.
    • The cost is equal to the amount of forgone interest on these funds—or at least on the portion of these funds that depository institutions hold only because of legal requirements and not to meet their customers' needs.

  • Chapter Questions

  • Thinking about Efficiency

    • An efficient market maximizes total consumer and producer surplus.
    • Governments can institute any number of policies that prevent markets from achieving the free market equilibrium price and quantity: taxes raise prices, quotas limit the quantity sold, and regulations affect the supply and demand curves.

  • Personal Income

    • Personal income is an individual's total earnings from wages, investment interest, and other sources.
    • Personal income is an individual's total earnings from wages, investment interest, and other sources.
    • Personal income also includes income received by nonprofit institutions serving households, by private non-insured welfare funds, and by private trust funds.

  • Other Measurements of the Money Supply

    • M0: The total of all physical currency including coinage.
    • MB is the total of all physical currency plus Federal Reserve Deposits (special deposits that only banks can have at the Fed).
    • M1: The total amount of M0 (cash/coin) outside of the private banking system plus the amount of demand deposits, travelers checks and other checkable deposits.
    • M3: M2 + all other certificates of deposit (large time deposits, institutional money market mutual fund balances), deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.

  • State and Local Party Organization

    • As of the U.S. gubernatorial elections of 2010, the Republican party holds an outright majority of approximately 440 with 3,890 seats (53% of total) compared to the Democrat party's number of 3,450 (47% of total) seats elected on a partisan ballot.
    • As of the U.S. gubernatorial elections of 2010, the Republican party holds an outright majority of approximately 440 with 3,890 seats (53% of total) compared to the Democrat party's number of 3,450 (47% of total) seats elected on a partisan ballot.
    • Due to the results of the 2010 elections, Republicans took control of an additional 19 state legislative chambers, giving them majority control of both chambers in 25 states versus the Democrats' majority control of both chambers in only 16 states, with 8 states having split or inconclusive control of both chambers (not including Nebraska); previous to the 2010 elections, it was Democrats who controlled both chambers in 27 states versus the Republican party having total control in only 14 states, with eight states divided and Nebraska being nonpartisan.
    • Linkage institutions provide a way for people to get involved in government and the political process.
    • They are not the only linkage institutions; others include blogs, non-partisan local governments, and school boards.