Representation without Democracy: The Webbs' Constitution

1954 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-375
Author(s):  
Shirley Robin Letwin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The People ◽  
Popular Government ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Real Work ◽  
The Common

Even before they had fully secured representative government with universal suffrage and frequent elections, the most ardent English democrats had already grown quite sensitive to the drawbacks of democracy. By the middle of the nineteenth century a number of them had become seriously disturbed about the difficulty of combining popular government with efficient government. They believed that ordinary men should rule but were learning that only extraordinary men could rule well. They opposed government by an aristocracy because it sacrificed the good of all to the interests of a few but they were discovering that the people could disregard or violate the common good as easily as the aristocracy. The defects of democracy became a heavier burden still for English socialists at the end of the century. Convinced that government should take over control of economic life, and persuaded by its achievements in other realms that modem science was the most efficient means of control, they wanted the real work of governing to be done by scientific experts; yet the democratic tendencies of both the English and the socialist traditions obliged them to favor constitutional forms that would preserve the principle, or at least the appearance, of government by the people.

Progressive Catholicism in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
American Catholicism ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
American Society

American Catholicism has long adapted to US liberal institutions. Progressive Catholicism has taken the liberal values of democratic participation and human rights and made them central to its interpretation of Catholic social teaching. This chapter explores in detail the thought of David Hollenbach, S.J., a leading representative of progressive Catholicism. Hollenbach has proposed an ethical framework for an economy aimed at the common good, ensuring that the basic needs of all are met and that all are able to participate in economic life. The chapter also looks at the US Catholic bishops’ 1986 pastoral letter Economic Justice for All, which emphasizes similar themes while also promoting collaboration between the different sectors of American society for the sake of the common good.

scholarly journals Doing Public Theology in African Christianity: A Reflection on Communiques by Churches in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 190-200
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Public ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Public Concerns

Faith in public life can be associated with Christianity in Ghana from the days of the early Western missionaries. Christian faith perspectives on matters of public concerns however, assumed a wider scope with the practice of regular issuance of communiques to governments and the people of Ghana by the churches. Christian ministry is expected to be holistic. A holistic approach in Christian ministry is considered to lead to the holistic development of the nation for the common good and the glory of God. Church leaders subsequently, bring their faith perspectives to matters of public concerns as a ministerial mandate to be in pilgrimage with the people. The study is a reflection on how the churches’ communiques are done and the factors that make the communiques theological in the public space. It further seeks to identify the contribution of the construction of communiques to public theology in Christianity in Ghana. The study as qualitative, examines both available primary and secondary sources. Copies of communiques of some selected churches, ecumenical bodies and joint communiques by ecumenical bodies are examined to appreciate insights of communiques by the churches. The study seeks to make a contribution to the theological construction of public theologies in Ghana and African Christianity. KEYWORDS: Public Theology, African Christianity, Communique, Common Good

“To Spread Throughout the Land, an Army of Practical Men”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Dorn
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
The State ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Antebellum Era ◽  
Agricultural College ◽  
The Common

This chapter discusses the emergence of a social ethos of practicality in higher education by the end of the nineteenth century. Throughout the antebellum era, the expansion of scientific and technical knowledge joined with the rise of political populism to lead existing institutions to add practical studies to their curricula. Many advocates of practical studies, however, were not satisfied with simply incorporating courses or appending schools to already-established colleges and universities. They sought to break with tradition by establishing a new kind of higher-education institution, one that would teach students scientific and investigative principles while also requiring the application of those principles outside of the classroom, both on the farm and in the field. This new institutional type would contribute to the common good by being unprecedentedly accessible and affordable to agrarian and laboring youth. The chapter then looks at the establishment of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
Lucy Atkinson ◽  
Andrew Blick ◽  
Matt Qvortrup
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Popular Government ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Device Use ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Working Device

The referendum came onto the agenda in the UK in the final quarter of the nineteenth century, and it has never entirely disappeared from it, either as a proposition or a working device. Use of the referendum in the UK was conceived of and presented both as a natural extension of the principle of democracy that was then taking hold, and as a means of offsetting perceived defects with the representative variant of popular government that had developed. In particular, it was seen as a safeguard against the manipulative impact of parties that might lead the parliamentary system to serve the ends of factions within the elite above the people. It might enable the public to vote for a particular party with which they were broadly sympathetic without needing to endorse their entire programme; and would mean that a government could not implement measures of major significance to which a majority objected. It was largely envisaged as likely to have a conservative impact, creating a new and final means by which change might be blocked. Yet its appeal spread across the political spectrum; as did opposition to it....

Mathematics in the Pacific Basin

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garry J. Tee
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Pacific Basin ◽  
Australian Aborigines ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Numeral Systems ◽  
The Common ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Almost All

The development of systematic mathematics requires writing, and hence a non-literate culture cannot be expected to advance mathematics beyond the stage of numeral words and counting. The hundreds of languages of the Australian aborigines do not seem to have included any extensive numeral systems. However, the common assertions to the effect that ‘Aborigines have only one, two, many’ derive mostly from reports by nineteenth century Christian missionaries, who commonly understood less mathematics than did the people on whom they were reporting. Of course, in recent decades almost all Aborigines have been involved with the dominant European-style culture of Australia, and even those who are not literate have mostly learned to use English-style numerals and to handle money. Similar qualifications should be understood when speaking of any recent primitive culture.

Rousseau's General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Grofman ◽  
Scott L. Feld
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The People ◽  
Collective Judgment ◽  
Jury Theorem ◽  
The Common

We identify three basic elements of Rousseau's theory of the general will: (1) there is a common good; (2) citizens are not always accurate in their judgments about what is in the common good; and (3) when citizens strive to identify the common good and vote in accordance with their perceptions of it, the vote of the Assembly of the People can be taken to be the most reliable means for ascertaining the common good. We then show that Condorcet's (1785) model of collective judgment shares these assumptions with Rousseau and that understanding the implications of Condorcet's (1785) “jury theorem” enables us to clarify many of the most obscure aspects of Rousseau's treatment of the general will, including his discussion of the debilitating effects of factions and his confidence in the ability of the Assembly of the People to discern the general will by means of voting.

scholarly journals Institutions and rural economy in Rolpa district of Nepal

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 135-152
Author(s):  
Shiba Raj Pokhrel
Keyword(s):  
Rural Economy ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Common People ◽  
Rural Municipality ◽  
The People ◽  
Local Institution ◽  
The Common ◽  
Academic Debate

This paper aims to analyze a pertinent academic debate pragmatically whether institutions assist in promoting life standard and betterment of the common people or they act just as an instrument to perpetuate poverty and fulfill the interest of vested group. To accomplish this task, Marxist, Post-Marxist theories are taken into consideration in order to indicate how an institution or the process of institutionalization as such is debated and perceived in social science academia. Likewise, the research also uses the popular research methodology of pragmatism which focuses on data collection, analysis and field study. The research is conducted in Sunil Smirti Gaupalika (Rural Municipality) of Rolpa district and focuses on the role of institutions in order to transform particularly the economic life of the people. The research divides institutions into two parts. The first one includes the governmental local institution Gaupalika. The second part includes INGO/NGOs. This division enables to decipher and historicize what these government and non government institutions have done independently and collectively to uplift the life of target group. The research finds that INGO/NGOs and locals institution in the remote village like Sunil Smirti Gaupalika have played significant roles on uniting the economically poor and make individual and collective efforts to fight against poverty. They work to find out the poor and economically weak section of the society by setting target group, generating the awareness and providing conductive environment for putting collective effort in their fight against poverty to a certain extent. Therefore, these two types of institutions have been found tremendously supportive in uniting what Marx calls “have-nots” of Sunil Smirti Gaupalika. However, the research also finds that mostly Brahmin/Chhetri communities have been benefitted by these programs. In comparison the ratio of economic growth between Brahmin-Chhetri community and Janjati community-Dalit community, the first one is found to be accelerating whereas the second one is slower and sluggish.

scholarly journals A STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AMONG THE TEACHER EDUCATORS OF KUVEMPU UNIVERSITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 289-295
Author(s):  
Dr. Shivakumar GS
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Concerted Action ◽  
The People ◽  
Decent Life ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right

Every human being has the right to decent life but today there are elements in our environment that tend to militate against the attainment and enjoyment of such a life. The exacerbation of the pollution of environment can cause untold misery. Unhappiness and suffering to human beings, simply because of our lack of concerns for the common good and the absence of sense of responsibility and ethics for sustaining a balanced eco-system. If we are to aspire to a better quality of life – one which will ensure freedom from want, from disease and from fear itself, then we must all join hands to stem the increasing toxification of this earth. What we need in order to defuse this environmental time bomb is immediate concerted action of all the people, but such needed action will come only if we reorient such citizenry values, i.e., imbibe them with proper awareness and values (ethics), specifically those that will lead to a greater concern for preserving balance in the ecosystem, besides teaching them how to save the environment from further degradation, and to help, make it more healthful and progressive place to live in, springs from a strong sense of social responsibility. KEYWORD: Environmental Ethics

The Spirit and the Subprime: Race, Risk, and Our Common Dispossession

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-69
Author(s):  
Amaryah Jones-Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Common Good ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common

This essay argues that Sarah Coakley's understanding of contemplation and the Spirit's dispossessive work can provide timely interruption of contemporary economic crises when read beside Willie Jennings's indictment of Christianity's imagination as the production of race. Read together, contemplation and dispossession provide useful frames for analyzing and reimagining the common good. Here, I argue that theologians and church communities can understand Coakley's and Jennings's work as confrontations with racial capitalism. In particular, I take Coakley's attention to the need for dispossession by the Spirit to correspond with black theologians’ assertions that we must turn to the dispossessed in the United States—the black and brown poor—to find where God is at work. The racialized subprime debtors who are perpetually dispossessed, failing, and criminal are the people Christian theology must align with in order to confront its relation to white supremacy. By contemplating alternative conceptions of property and ownership foregrounded by the concept of dispossession, we can begin to imagine, perceive, and practice an otherwise common good.

scholarly journals RAKYAT MEMPERKUAT KENDALINYA TERHADAP NEGARA

2017 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Merphin Panjaitan
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
New Order ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Regional Autonomy ◽  
Balance Principle ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe people’s goal to established the a state is to get better life, justice, secure and welfare.But in the New Order, injustice was almost happened in all fields of lives, which was thenfall into an economic crisis leaving broad poverty, unemployment, backward education andcorruption. Those New Order’s diseases are still continue up till now, although reformationhas been continued for more than 10 years. In reality the state’s power is not always used toserve its people. Thus, people has to tightened its control toward state, since when onceloose its control, state’s power will be misused only for the interest of the ruler and at thesame time forget the people who actually is the owner of the state. The state is owned bypeople for the common good and that kind of state is named democratic state that its processof execution must be under people’s control. For that purpose it needed a kind of politicalinteraction between state-society which is peaceful, secure, fairness and having trust to eachother. That interaction needs appropriate condition, among other things are limited statepower, power division based on check and balance principle, general election, effectivepolitical participation, regional autonomy and reformation of the behavior of society andstate.Keywords: State power, People’s control, Democratic state,Behavior reform of state and society

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