Chan Shum 1

Kevin Chan Shum

Professor Lookholder
Sociology 001
September 27 2015
Project 1: Parks and Recreation
(Filibuster) Season 6 Episode 5
The popular television show, Parks and Recreation, involves a group of individuals who
work for the parks and recreation department of their city of Pawnee, Indiana. Leslie, the main
character is a passionate deputy director of her team of 5 employees. Along with those people,
are Ron Swanson, Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt who run the departments. In the episode,
Filibuster, Leslie performs a filibuster which is a prolonged speech that obstructs progress in
a legislative assembly while not technically contravening the required procedures
(Dictionary.com). She tries to go against the ideas of Councilman Jamm, who is trying to allow
only a particular group of townspeople to vote for the upcoming recall election, because they do
not have faith in Leslies ideals. This episode consists of an assembly of townspeople and
councilmen who decide whether everyone should get a chance to vote or not. I believe this
episode depicts two types of paradigms, which are the functionalist perspective and also the
interactionist perspective.
Leslie believes that everyone should have a chance to vote in her town, and resents the
fact that Councilman Jamm only approves of one half of the citizens. In order to perform the
filibuster, she has to stand in front of the crowd of townspeople and persuade the councilmen for
several hours. Since Councilman Jamms ideals would not be beneficial for the community,
Emile Durkheim (French sociologist) would believe that Leslie is trying to keep the society
stable. She wants everyone to have an equal chance, which connects with the concept of

Chan Shum 2
functionalism. Functionalism is a theory that states that people or institutions in the society
contribute to its stability (Hurst). In this case, Leslie is trying to keep her town stable by going
through with the filibuster and making sure that Councilman Jamms ideas do not persist.
Within this season of the show, Pawnees neighboring town Eagleton was in a bit of a
budget crisis. The Eagletonians looked to the Pawneeans for help, and most if not all of the
Eagleton citizens moved to Pawnee. During this time Leslie had helped out the Eagletonians
despite the competitive history between them. Usually, Eagletonians and Pawneeans did not get
along due to the differences in wealth (Eagleton was rich and Pawnee was poor). In this
situation, Karl Marx (German philosopher) would regard the Eagletonians as the haves and the
Pawneeans as the have nots of the society in his theory of class differentiation. The haves are
the bourgeoisie who have many benefits and resources to choose from, and also contain political
power. The have nots are considered proletariats, or people who do not contain access to many
benefits in the society (Johnson). Leslie is trying to create a sense of equality amongst both
groups since they all reside in Pawnee now.
Since Councilman Jamm is trying to make voting available to only Pawnee citizens rather
than the existing Eagleton citizens who had recently moved to Pawnee, he is inevitably making
the situation unfair. According to Auguste Comte, society is able to work by certain laws, and if
he passes the law it will create chaos in the town (Macionis, 15). If the recall vote is passed by
the Pawnee citizens, it will throw Leslie off the council party and it will create an unstable city
due to councilman Jamm and councilman Dexhart who in all honestly just care about their well
being and not the Pawneeans. If Leslie can stay on the council, she will be able to maintain the
fair laws that already exist in the community.

Chan Shum 3
Comte, Marx, and Durkheims views can all be related to this episode because they all
have views that can be applied to their situations. Durkheim believes in functionalism which is
trying to keep society stable and fair for the inhabitants. Marx believes that society is composed
of haves and have nots which are also known as the wealthy and the poor. Last but not least,
Compte believes that society functions with laws and what not. Functionalist and interactionist
paradigms are shown in this episode because one, Leslie is communicating with the city citizens
in order to make them reconsider their thoughts and two, she believes that if they all work as a
group they will have a perfect city with no faults.

Works Cited
Filibuster. dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 27 September 2015.
Hurst, Melissa. Emile Durkheims Theories: Functionalism, Anomie and Division of Labor.
study.com. Study.com. Web. 27 September 2015.

Chan Shum 4
Johnson, Bethany. Karl Marxs Theories: Class Differentiation and Revolution, Socialism and
Capitalism. study.com. Study.com. Web. 27 September 2015.
Macionis, John J. Society the Basics. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2013. Print.