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Countervailing Power
Countervailing power, or countervailance, is the idea in political theory that the wielding of power by two or more groups, centers, or sets of interests within a polity can, and often does, yield beneficial effects through productive opposition and containment between opposing forces. As a political concept, it resembles those of agonism, agonistic pluralism, and checks and balances, encapsulated in the often-quoted phrase from Federalist No. 51 that "ambition must be made to counteract ambition." The notion of countervailance has been applied in both politics and economics. In political theory, countervailance dates back at least to Medieval times, especially in reformist Roman Catholic and early Protestant movements. The Conciliar Movement, although ultimately ending in failure to reform the Catholic Church, "raised issues that are fundamental in all domains of social organization, and it contributed to the understanding of the general principle of countervailance, which even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agonism
Agonism (from Greek 'struggle') is a political and social theory that emphasizes the potentially positive aspects of certain forms of conflict. It accepts a permanent place for such conflict in the political sphere, but seeks to show how individuals might accept and channel this conflict positively. Agonists are especially concerned with debates about democracy, and the role that conflict plays in different conceptions of it. The agonistic tradition to democracy is often referred to as agonistic pluralism. A related political concept is that of countervailing power. Beyond the realm of the political, agonistic frameworks have similarly been utilized in broader cultural critiques of hegemony and domination, as well as in literary and science fiction. Theory of agonism There are three elements shared by most theorists of agonism: constitutive pluralism, a tragic view of the world, and a belief in the value of conflict. Constitutive pluralism holds that there is no universal measu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Period
The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period was plagued by internal and religious strife, and a large-scale civil war which resulted in the Execution of Charles I, execution of Charles I of England, King Charles I in 1649. The Interregnum (1649–1660), Interregnum, largely under the control of Oliver Cromwell, is included here for continuity, even though the Stuarts were in exile. The Cromwell regime collapsed and Charles II of England, Charles II had very wide support for his taking of the throne in 1660. His brother James II of England, James II was overthrown in 1689 in the Glorious Revolution. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, Mary II and her Dutch husband William III of England, William III. Mary's sister Anne was the last of the line. For the next half century James II and his son James Francis Edward Stuart and grandson Charles Edward Stuart claimed that they were the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Capitalism
''American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power'' is a book by John Kenneth Galbraith, written in 1952. It contains a critique of the view that markets, left to their own devices, will provide socially optimal solutions. Galbraith agrees with F. A. Hayek as far as the assertion goes that "the price system will fulfil tsfunction only if competition prevails, that is, if the individual producer has to adapt to price changes and cannot control them." The book presents Galbraith's account of the inter-relationship between politics and economics which for Galbraith is based on a theory of competition guiding a capitalistic democratic society. Synopsis and summary Galbraith builds on work by Prof. E. H. Chamberlin of Harvard and Joan Robinson at Cambridge, as well as the work done by Joe S. Bain of the University of California at Berkeley, arguing that the America of the early 1950s no longer complied to a textbook definition of Perfect competition. On page 66 he sets out t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s. As an economist, he leaned toward post-Keynesian economics from an institutional economics, institutionalist perspective. He served as the deputy director of the powerful Office of Price Administration (OPA) during World War II in charge of stabilizing all prices, wages and rents in the American economy, to combat the threat of inflation and hoarding during a time of shortages and rationing, a task which was successfully accomplished. Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his works ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are many sub-fields, ranging from the broad philosophy, philosophical theory, theories to the focused study of minutiae within specific Market (economics), markets, macroeconomics, macroeconomic analysis, microeconomics, microeconomic analysis or financial statement analysis, involving analytical methods and tools such as econometrics, statistics, Computational economics, economics computational models, financial economics, regulatory impact analysis and mathematical economics. Professions Economists work in many fields including academia, government and in the private sector, where they may also "study data and statistics in order to spot trends in economic activity, economic confidence levels, and consumer attitudes. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democratization
Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what extent democratization occurs can be influenced by various factors, including economic development, historical legacies, civil society, and international processes. Some accounts of democratization emphasize how elites drove democratization, whereas other accounts emphasize grassroots bottom-up processes. How democratization occurs has also been used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war or whether its economy grows. The opposite process is known as democratic backsliding or autocratization. Description Theories of democratization seek to explain a large macro-level change of a political regime from authoritarianism to democracy. Symptoms of democratization include elector ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of The United Kingdom
The constitution of the United Kingdom comprises the written and unwritten arrangements that establish the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no official attempt has been made to Codification (law), codify such arrangements into a single document, thus it is known as an uncodified constitution. This enables the constitution to be easily changed as no provisions are formally entrenched. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and its predecessor, the Judicial functions of the House of Lords, Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, have recognised and affirmed constitutional principles such as Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy, and upholding Internationalism (politics), international law. It also recognises that some Act of Parliament (UK), Acts of Parliament have special constitutional status. These include Magna Carta, which in 1215 required the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange (William III and II), a nephew of James who thereby had an interest to the throne irrespective of his marriage to his cousin Mary. The two ruled as joint monarchs of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland until Mary's death in 1694, when William became ruler in his own right. Jacobitism, the political movement that aimed to restore the exiled James or his descendants of the House of Stuart to the throne, persisted into the late 18th century. William's invasion was the last successful invasion of England. Despite his own Catholicism, usually an impediment to Protestant support, James became king in February 1685 with widespread backing from the Protestant majorities in England and Scotla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and latterly as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death. Although elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon in 1628, much of Cromwell's life prior to 1640 was marked by financial and personal failure. He briefly contemplated emigration to New England, but became a religious Independent in the 1630s and thereafter believed his successes were the result of divine providence. In 1640 he was returned as MP for Cambridge in the Short and Long Parliaments. He joined the Parliamentarian army when the First Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Checks And Balances
The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state power (usually law-making, adjudication, and execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishable and articulated, thereby maintaining the integrity of each. To put this model into practice, government is divided into structurally independent branches to perform various functions (most often a legislature, a judiciary and an administration, sometimes known as the ). When each function is allocated strictly to one branch, a government is described as having a high degree of separation; whereas, when one person or branch plays a significant part in the exercise of more than one function, this represents a fusion of powers. History Antiquity Polybius (''Histories'', Book 6, 11–13) described the Roman Republic as a mixed government ruled by the Roman Senate, Consuls and the Assemblies. Polybius explained the system of checks an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sphere and the private sphere of society. In the field of political science, totalitarianism is the extreme form of authoritarianism, wherein all socio-political power is held by a dictator. This figure controls the national politics and peoples of the nation with continual propaganda campaigns that are broadcast by state-controlled and state-aligned private mass communications media. The totalitarian government uses ideology to control most aspects of human life, such as the political economy of the country, the system of education, the arts, sciences, and private morality of its citizens. In the exercise of socio-political power, the difference between a totalitarian regime of government and an authoritarian regime of government is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
