The View from Above

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hardman
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Decision Points ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Alternative Solutions ◽  
As If

In the maelstrom of ‘pre-revolutionary’ agitations, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the king and his ministers, to varying degrees, still thought and acted through 1788 and early 1789 as if their wishes and decisions were the determinants of political action. And indeed, to a certain extent, they were. This chapter explores the complex web of principle, prejudice and self-interest that continued to mark the conduct of old-regime governance up to, and beyond, the threshold of revolutionary change. As well as detailing a series of crucial decision points at which the monarchy could have offered alternative solutions to those it unsuccessfully chose, it also reflects on the extent to which the nature of those decisions can be fully understood, or must remain locked within the enigma that was the personality of Louis XVI.

scholarly journals Foruroligende etik i Heinrich von Kleists »Michael Kohlhaas«

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (106) ◽  
pp. 70-95
Author(s):  
Maria Jørgsen
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Central Place ◽  
The Self ◽  
Kantian Ethics ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Kant's Ethics

Disquieting Ethics in »Michael Kohlhaas« by Heinrich von Kleist:This article argues that the concept of evil takes a central place in the exploration of the Kantian ethics in Heinrich von Kleist’s novella »Michael Kohlhaas«.Maria Jørgensen argues that not only is the famous duty to which Kohlhaas finds himself obliged conceived in accordance with Kant’s ethics of duty, but also the description of Kohlhaas’ subjectivity in general is constructed by means of Kantian terms. Kleist’s text makes use of concepts such as duty, freedom, pathology, universality and the sublime in order to construct Kohlhaas as an inherently decentered subject. Furthermore Jørgensen argues that the emptying of the concept of the Good in Kantian ethics surfaces in Kleist’s novella as a hitherto unnoticed tendency to a certain tautologisation in Kohlhaas’ qualitative judgments.In the final section of the article the evil act in »Michael Kohlhaas« as an act of freedom, »Aktus der Freiheit«, is investigated with a departure in the Kantian concept of diabolical evil in Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft. If Kohlhaas’ first attempt to act ethically is contaminated by the self-interest which sticks to his initial duty to secure redress for the wrongs done to him and his fellow citizens by the Junker von Tronka, his last act of refusing to negotiate with the Elector of Saxony functions as a purely ethical act in Kantian terms. Kohlhaas’ act can be seen as an ethical act as it neglects the subject’s pathology, which according to Kant can only be done by an act of reason. Furthermore the act is in keeping with the criteria which Kant, according to Alenka Zupančič, delivers in the famous footnote on the execution of Louis XVI in Metaphysik der Sitten: The act is characterized by being purely formal, it arises from a maxim, and it is first of all an act of freedom. This article thus argues that »Michael Kohlhaas« evidently contains a fulfilled ethical act in Kantian terms, but that this act must be found in quite another place than previously assumed.

scholarly journals When Do Powerful Stakeholders Give Managers the Latitude to Balance All Stakeholders’ Interests?

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flore M. Bridoux ◽  
Pushpika Vishwanathan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Value Appropriation ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
As If

Research in instrumental stakeholder theory often discusses the benefits of a stakeholder strategy that balances all stakeholders’ interests as if the firm’s managers were not constrained much in choosing a strategy. Yet, through their value appropriation behavior, stakeholders with high bargaining power can significantly constrain managers’ choices. Our objective is, therefore, to understand when powerful stakeholders give managers the latitude to balance all stakeholders’ interests, rather than forcing them to satisfy primarily their own interests. Building on enlightened self-interest and the justice literature, we identify five motivational drivers that help explain powerful stakeholders’ value appropriation behavior. We next explore the endogenous relationship between the stakeholder strategy adopted by the firm and its effect on powerful stakeholders’ value appropriation behavior. This article complements instrumental stakeholder theory by looking at powerful stakeholders’ motivation to exercise their bargaining power, and in so doing brings powerful stakeholders’ moral responsibility in the treatment of weak stakeholders to the forefront.

Monarchy

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joël Félix
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
The Social ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Louis Xv

This chapter examines the social and political structures of the absolute monarchy. It explores the extent to which tensions and conflicts in the mid-eighteenth century, in particular disputes between government and parlements, divided the elites over reform and policy, and opened up the realm of politics to public opinion. Reviewing the fate of major reform initiatives through the reigns of both Louis XV and his grandson Louis XVI, it argues that political crises paralysed the ability of royal institutions to enforce authority and generate consensus, thus making the transition from the old regime to the modern world necessary and inevitable.

The Reluctant Immigrant

The Mentelles ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Paul Runyon
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Horseback Riding ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
As If

This chapter contrasts the Parisian childhoods of Charlotte and Waldemar Mentelle, born in 1770 and 1769 respectively. Charlotte was raised, in the absence of her mother, by her physician father as if she were a boy, inuring her to hardship and teaching her the "manly arts" of fencing, hunting, and horseback riding. Waldemar's father, Edme Mentelle, was a prominent academician with ties to Louis XVI and led such an active social life that he left his son entirely to the care of his mother, who spoiled him. When Waldemar became a young man, his father took him to task for not having learned a profession, and sent him off to America in the hope he could make something of himself there. Charlotte and Waldemar had in the meantime become lovers.

The Ethical Decision

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-140
Author(s):  
K. E. Løgstrup
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Action ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing ◽  
As If

This chapter considers a variety of ways in which, as fundamentally self-interested individuals, we try to camouflage that self-interest by making it look as if we are behaving rightly: for example, by evading an ethical action by insisting that it requires further reflection, or by inspecting our motives so that the time for action has passed. We reason in this way because we do not like being griped by the decision, and required to act. Nonetheless, our conscience can make us aware of these evasions, while also, in certain extreme or ‘heightened’ situations, we can still come to do the right thing, even while in more ordinary circumstances, when the risks are a lot less, we remain oblivious to the needs of others.

Consumption Cleavages and Welfare Politics

1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Relative Advantage ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
A Minor

The rôle of consumption cleavages in influencing political behaviour has received a great deal of attention in recent years. This paper argues that some critics have misunderstood the approach as a theory about the direct influence of social circumstances on behaviour, rather than as a theory about the way in which people's perceptions of one another's positions in relation to the means of consumption are articulated by political parties to become bases for political action. Dunleavy has argued that ideas about self-interest in state and private consumption in relation to other people are of the greatest importance in this, while Saunders suggests that the security associated with private property rights has stronger influence. Both these claims are tested with data from a recent national survey. ‘Consumption sector’ is shown to play a minor but significant rôle in influencing ideas. Part of this influence appears to lie in the social meaning of private property, as Saunders claims. Comparisons of relative advantage across sectoral cleavages, however, contribute little to the explanation of political ideas.

Security Europeanization since 1989

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-112
Author(s):  
Katherine Graney
Keyword(s):  
Security Policies ◽  
European Security ◽  
Military Alliance ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
European Values ◽  
As If

This chapter examines the process of NATO expansion since 1989, highlighting the strange fact that NATO claims to be a community of “European” values and identity as much as, if not more than, a strategic and military alliance. This has led NATO gatekeepers to pursue enlargement for rationales other than strict realist self-interest and has led NATO into direct conflict with Russia over the security policies of the ex-Soviet republics, especially Georgia and Ukraine. The chapter examines the unsuccessful efforts of NATO to find ways to cooperate with Russia, and of Russia to reshape the European security sphere to its own ends and according to its own values.

Self-Interest versus Group Interest and “Racialized” Social Constraint

2020 ◽  
pp. 144-167
Author(s):  
Ismail K. White ◽  
Chryl N. Laird
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
Black Study ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Monetary Incentives ◽  
Social Constraint ◽  
Group Norm ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Study Participants

This chapter focuses on racialized social constraint's ability to increase political action in support of the Democratic Party and its candidates. To demonstrate the existence of an in-group norm of active support, the chapter turns once again to data about the race of the interviewer. It then pushes deeper into the causal process of racialized social constraint using a lab-in-the-field experiment that can directly test the effect of racialized social pressure on blacks' willingness to engage in political action. Using the behavior of contributions to the Obama campaign as a black group-norm-consistent behavior, and using personal monetary incentives to defect from this norm to induce a self-interest conflict, the chapter varies whether black study participants must make their choice in front of another person who has made their own political choice clear, as well as whether that person is a racial in-group member. As a result, social pressure from other blacks uniquely reduces self-interested behavior and results in greater group-norm-consistent political behavior. Importantly, the chapter also shows that social pressure from other blacks only works to increase group-norm-consistent behavior. It does not encourage defection.

Enforcing Virtue: Social Norms and Self-Interest in an Eighteenth-Century Merchant Court

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amalia D. Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Court Order ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Court Judge ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Bill Of Exchange ◽  
Poor Children

Recent scholarship on law and norms has emphasized that important social values are at work in the law. But nothing could prepare us for the “Red Ink Case.” Decided by an eighteenth-century French merchant court, the suit was brought by a young woman driven by poverty to prostitute herself in return for a bill of exchange, written with her lover's blood. When the person on whom the bill was drawn refused to accept it for payment, the women sued her lover, demanding that he honor it instead. Although the applicable law required the defendant to pay the bill, the merchant-court judge declined to enforce payment on the ground that “humanity is the primary law.” Instead, the judge ordered the defendant to marry the plaintiff and thereby restore the virtue he had taken. With virtue thus saved, “[t]hese poor children withdrew satisfied.”What are we to make of this case? It appears in Le négotiant patriote, an account of Old Regime commercial life and merchant-court practice penned by a successful eighteenth-century merchant named Bedos, who claimed to have served as a merchant-court judge and president of a chamber of commerce. Although Bedos' depiction of the Red Ink Case may well be exaggerated, his professional experience suggests that it must be taken seriously—if only as an expression of what contemporary merchants believed merchant-court litigation should be like. Yet, as familiar as we have become with the notion that law shapes and expresses social values, the case remains puzzling. What commercial interests are served, we might ask, by enforcing norms of sexual virtue? And how does a court order of marriage promote the transactional efficiency that bills of exchange, as a defining feature of merchant-court jurisprudence, were presumably intended to facilitate?By examining the workings of a merchant-run court in eighteenth-century Paris, this article seeks to make sense of the Red Ink Case and its place in merchant-court jurisprudence.

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