Thomas Piketty’s Historical-Institutional Study of Wealth and Income Inequality

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1311-1325
Author(s):  
John Eustice O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Minor Variation ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Thomas Piketty

In his Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty (2019) deepens and broadens his historical and material analysis of the institutional sources of wealth and income inequality. Fueled by an expanded data base, he extends his position to cover the globe. In his earlier work, he disavowed Kuznets, demonstrating that under néoliberal capitalism, concentration of wealth continues at the top of the economic ladder, while indifferent to the suffering among those at the bottom. With his data he demonstrates that the problem of inequality is due only partly to capitalism as technical machine, and moreso to the way governments facilitate it in favor of their elites. This occurs thanks to an informal and unchallenged ideological consensus, that the wealthy have earned the right to their advantage, as have also–in negative terms, the poor. Without major restructuring, this is the inevitable yield under the ‘regimes of inequality’, which with minor variation today characterize all major nations around the world. As alternative, he proposes a participative-socialism, with modification concerning the nature of property, its distribution and ownership, supported by alterations in market regulation, economic rights, worker participation in enterprises, education, citizen engagement and environmental responsibility.

A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Jong-sung ◽  
Sanjeev Khagram
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Corruption Index ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Control Of Corruption

This article argues that income inequality increases the level of corruption through material and normative mechanisms. The wealthy have both greater motivation and more opportunity to engage in corruption, whereas the poor are more vulnerable to extortion and less able to monitor and hold the rich and powerful accountable as inequality increases. Inequality also adversely affects social norms about corruption and people's beliefs about the legitimacy of rules and institutions, thereby making it easier for them to tolerate corruption as acceptable behavior. This comparative analysis of 129 countries using two-stage least squares methods with a variety of instrumental variables supports the authors' hypotheses using different measures of corruption (the World Bank's Control of Corruption Index and the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index). The explanatory power of inequality is at least as important as conventionally accepted causes of corruption such as economic development. The authors also found a significant interaction effect between inequality and democracy, as well as evidence that inequality affects norms and perceptions about corruption using the World Values Surveys data. Because corruption also contributes to income inequality, societies often fall into vicious circles of inequality and corruption.

scholarly journals KAJIAN PENDISTRIBUSIAN ZAKAT OLEH BAZNAS KOTA PADANG KEPADA MAJLIS TAKLIM BINAAN DITINJAU DARI HUKUM ISLAM

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joni Zulhendra
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

Zakat is one of the economic activities that can alleviate poverty and also help the poor invarious parts of the world, especially Indonesia which is experiencing a multidimensionalcrisis. Therefore, zakat role in restoring the economy and society need professionalmanagement. Management of zakat is not merely be individualized from muzakki tomustahik, but carried out by a special institution that handles charity in which people meetcertain requirements called amil zakat board. The impetus in this discussion is more specificto the application of Islamic law on the study of the distribution of charity funds by amilzakat board, namely Baznas Padang. Therefore charity is part of the obligation of everyMuslim who has the ability, so this research can increase knowledge in the life as a Muslim,in accordance with Islamic teachings. This study, using field with a descriptive qualitativeapproach that describes the circumstances as they appear in the field next critically analyzedand described in the narrative. The results of this study explained that the distribution of zakatmade by Baznas city of Padang to auxiliaries majlis taklim been right on target, because the members who are members of the group were mustahik zakat tergolongan groups and destitute, come from the middle to the bottom who are having difficulty to make ends the necessities of life, children's school fees and treatment if a family member is sick. Implementation of the distribution of zakat carried out by the majlis taklim target Baznas city of Padang to its members is not appropriate, because zakat is the right of mustahik zakat used to help make ends meet, but the board of the group makes loans and indirectly mustahik zakat has been indebted to the rights that should belong to the mustahik.

scholarly journals Reconfiguring Economic Democracy: Generating New Forms of Collective Agency, Individual Economic Freedom and Public Participation

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Cumbers ◽  
Robert McMaster ◽  
Susana Cabaço ◽  
Michael J White
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

We seek to advance debate and thinking about economic democracy. While recognising the importance of existing approaches focused upon collective bargaining and workplace organisation, we articulate a perspective that emphasises the importance of individual economic rights, capabilities and freedoms at a time when established norms and protections at work are in retreat in many parts of the world. We outline a framework where both individual rights to self-government of one’s own labour, as well as the right of all citizens to participate in economic decision-making, are emphasised. The framework identifies a set of underlying principles, prerequisites, critical spheres for intervention, progressive institutional arrangements, and policies in pursuit of an expanded agenda around economic democracy. In this way, economic democracy potentially empowers individuals and creates the basis for generating new and sustainable alliances that challenge elite dominance in contemporary capitalism.

Environmental Priorities for Financing Institutions

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J.A. Goodland
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World

The reasons which recently forced the World Bank into environmental improvements are discussed, so that other financial institutions can profit from this experience. The reasons include due recognition that environmental abuse is constraining economic development, that environmental damage has now assumed massive proportions, and that such abuse is intensifying. The electorates of the World Bank's industrial shareholding nations began to pressure their representatives. Advocates of the poor, and of people affected by environmentally-bungled development projects, joined forces with environmental NGOs and added to the pressure for environmental reform.The World Bank's positive response led to a series of major institutional, procedural, and policy, reforms, which are provided as examples and suggestions to other financial bodies that need or at least desire to improve their environmental stance. The Bank's environmental policies are outlined, and the most powerful — Environmental Impact Assessment — is treated in detail.Based on this experience, the environmental opportunities available to other financiers are discussed. The case is presented that financiers becoming environmentally prudent in the ways suggested will out-compete their environmentally imprudent colleagues. The latter will go bust or be prosecuted. The paper ends with a rich menu of ideas through prosecution of which environmental responsibility can be sought by financiers.

Social Rights Against the Poor

ICL Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Portugal Gouvêa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
Class Actions ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Right ◽  
Social And Economic Rights

AbstractThe main argument of this work is that the discourse of social and economic rights in Brazil has been appropriated by privileged economic groups with the result that the constitutional protection of those rights is no longer carrying out its function to reduce economic inequality. This article will be divided into three parts. The first is a discussion of the historic context of patrimonialism in Brazil as well as the origins of economic inequality in the country. The second part is devoted to the theoretical debate surrounding the con­stitutional protection of social and economic rights in light of what is often referred to as ‘new constitutionalism’, along with an interpretation of the structure for protecting social and economic rights that is present in the Brazilian constitution. The third part consists of a case study of the current state of the judicialization of the right to health in Brazil, with special attention to free concession of medicine and the new legislation on the subject. In conclusion, the paper argues that judicial decisions on the right to health, in particular, and social and economic rights, in general, have been formalistic, with little regard to their (often negative) distributive impact. The solution is then not to move from individual litiga­tion to collective litigation (eg class actions), but to move from an ‘individual rights’ approach to a ‘distributive’ approach, which takes into account the effects of court decisions not only with respect to the parties involved but also to the rights of the poorest of the poor.

Personal and Common Good – Personal and Common Evil. Liberation Theology perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Tim Noble ◽  
Petr Jandejsek
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

Whatever its grammatical status, the verb “to discern” has an implicit transitive element. That is to say, we always discern about something or between two options. What is the right course of action in this situation and in these circumstances? In our paper, we want to look at responses to this question from the perspective of the theology of liberation. As the name implies, this is first and foremost a theology, a way of seeking to understand and articulate the faith of the believing Christian community. But it is also necessarily political, because it seeks to contribute to the liberation of those who are not free – the poor, the oppressed, those to whom injustice is done, both negatively, by decrying the presence of unfreedom and positively by working for social transformation. It is thus a public theology, a manifestation of the ongoing power of religion to inform and motivate its adherents to engage in attempts to transform the world not only in terms of a post mortem future but here and now.

Tails Linux Operating System

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Maurice Dawson ◽  
Jose Antonio Cárdenas-Haro
Keyword(s):  
Operating System ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Security Controls ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Information Research ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Right

After the information released by Edward Snowden, the world realized about the security risks of high surveillance from governments to citizens or among governments, and how it can affect the freedom, democracy, and peace. And organizations such as WikiLeaks has shown just how much data is collected to include the poor security controls in place to protect that information. Research has been carried out for the creation of the necessary tools for the countermeasures to all these surveillance. One of the most potent tools is the Tails system as a complement of The Onion Router (TOR). Even though there are limitations and flaws, the progress has been significant, and we are moving in the right direction. As more individuals and organizations fall under a watchful eye on their Internet activities then maintaining anonymity it not only essential for getting out information but one's safety.

scholarly journals Democracy, neoliberalism and the alternative

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Slobodan Milić
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Paper Author

In this paper author is dealing with the problem of democracy and neoliberal capitalism, through the prism of history; it explains the difference in certain socio-economic and political-economic systems. The concept of the neoliberal capitalist system that has been current for the last forty years has become unsustainable due to the enormous inequalities in the society that it has created. Therefore today, the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer. It has also been shown that without the economic intervention of a state, no economic system can survive. The growing protests throughout Europe and the world have prompted the author to consider the following questions' What are the alternatives to neoliberal capitalism? Why are Marxism and socialism always current when we talk about changing? Can we talk about socialism in the 21st century?

Transforming reality

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Vivian Schelling
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Educational Method ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

One of the key figures in the Popular Culture Movement, Paulo Freire is the founder of a revolutionary educational method which brought literacy — and political awareness — to thousands of the poor in Brazil. His books, which have played a key role in adult literacy movements throughout the world, have been banned by many dictatorial governments, including those of South Africa and, most recently, Haiti. Forced into exile from his own country following the right-wing coup in 1964, Freire finally returned in 1980. In São Paulo he talked to Vivian Schelling about his work

scholarly journals How Do the Poor Respond to Rising Prices?

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (4II) ◽  
pp. 827-842
Author(s):  
Zareen Fatima Naqvi ◽  
Mohammad Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Services ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
The Government

Recent estimates show that after falling in the 1980s, poverty has made a comeback in Pakistan during the 1990s. The Government of Pakistan (GOP) estimate show an increase in caloric poverty headcount from 17 percent in 1987-88 to 33 percent in 1998-99 and also rising income inequality during the 1990s.1 In contrast preliminary estimates by the World Bank show that poverty may not have risen as rapidly during the 1990s and may even have stagnated.2 Slow down in economic growth, rising open unemployment, rising food and non-food prices, reduction in the fiscal space for pro-poor public programmes, poor governance hampering delivery of social services to the poor; are factors that have been attributed to the growing poverty and vulnerability of households in recent years.

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