Social inequality in the evolution of human societies

2019 ◽  
pp. 98-120
Author(s):  
Georgi Derluguian
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Tangible Assets ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

The author develops ideas about the origin of social inequality during the evolution of human societies and reflects on the possibilities of its overcoming. What makes human beings different from other primates is a high level of egalitarianism and altruism, which contributed to more successful adaptability of human collectives at early stages of the development of society. The transition to agriculture, coupled with substantially increasing population density, was marked by the emergence and institutionalisation of social inequality based on the inequality of tangible assets and symbolic wealth. Then, new institutions of warfare came into existence, and they were aimed at conquering and enslaving the neighbours engaged in productive labour. While exercising control over nature, people also established and strengthened their power over other people. Chiefdom as a new type of polity came into being. Elementary forms of power (political, economic and ideological) served as a basis for the formation of early states. The societies in those states were characterised by social inequality and cruelties, including slavery, mass violence and numerous victims. Nowadays, the old elementary forms of power that are inherent in personalistic chiefdom are still functioning along with modern institutions of public and private bureaucracy. This constitutes the key contradiction of our time, which is the juxtaposition of individual despotic power and public infrastructural one. However, society is evolving towards an ever more efficient combination of social initiatives with the sustainability and viability of large-scale organisations.

Bribery and Corruption

2015 ◽  
pp. 196-210
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Oil Contracts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level ◽  
Personal Welfare ◽  
Political Economic

Bribes are mainly directed at government officials, although they could be directed at the employees and managers of business firms. However, bribery appears to be a self-defined crime. Bribery of small public sector employees is a white-collar crime. However, bribery also exists in high-level decision-making processes, whether political, economic, or corporate situations. These are large-scale bribes, consisting of millions and/or billions of dollars, paid out to executives and public officials in return for construction contracts, oil contracts, telecommunication contracts, etc. Although punishments exist and are implemented, it is up to the individual alone to make the final decision and choose between personal moral value system and personal welfare in opposition to serving the public welfare. This chapter explores bribery.

scholarly journals Framework for enhancing the estimation of model parameters for data with a high level of uncertainty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo B Libotte ◽  
Lucas Anjos ◽  
Regina Almeida ◽  
Sandra Malta ◽  
Renato Silva
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Compartmental Model ◽  
Gaussian Process Regression ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Study Case ◽  
Estimation Of Model Parameters ◽  
Reported Data ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

Abstract Reliable data is essential to obtain adequate simulations for forecasting the dynamics of epidemics. In this context, several political, economic, and social factors may cause inconsistencies in the reported data, which reflect the capacity for realistic simulations and predictions. In the case of COVID-19, for example, such uncertainties are mainly motivated by large-scale underreporting of cases due to reduced testing capacity in some locations. In order to mitigate the effects of noise in the data used to estimate parameters of models, we propose strategies capable of improving the ability to predict the spread of the diseases. Using a compartmental model in a COVID-19 study case, we show that the regularization of data by means of Gaussian Process Regression can reduce the variability of successive forecasts, improving predictive ability. We also present the advantages of adopting parameters of compartmental models that vary over time, in detriment to the usual approach with constant values.

scholarly journals Determining the potential of organizational structures models of a high-tech cluster

2021 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 00018
Author(s):  
Elena Lobova ◽  
Vladimir Postnikov ◽  
Stanislav Rybin ◽  
Irina Reshetnikova
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

As a rule, during the choice of the most viable organizational structure of a cluster, traditional methods of the assessment of economic efficiency are used, taking into account the influence of financial, production and technological risks. The high level of the fluctuations of social, political, economic and technological impacts of the intercountry level has a strong impact on the result of their production activities. The peculiarities of this influence include the emergence of new institutions of interaction between the subjects of a cluster, the growth of uncertainty within the system and a change in the level of specificity of the assets of its participants. The task to find new tools for the assessment of the potential of economic security of a cluster is becoming urgent. It is necessary to find such tools which would take into account the ability to adapt to technological and geopolitical challenges in the future. Within the framework of this study, the authors developed an algorithm for the assessment of the potential of alternative models of the organizational structure of a high-tech cluster. The important methodological aspect of the process of forecasting the level of adaptability of alternative cluster structures to external changes is the condition for the availability of institutional support to promising areas of technical development. The developed algorithm presupposes the further development of the methods of system analysis and the formation of Institutional Atlases for the parameters of the assessment of the opportunistic behavior risks of subjects or synergistic effects. The use of this algorithm allowed drawing some important intermediate conclusions about the unequal composition and the influence of dominant institutional factors in modeling different organizational structures of a high-tech cluster.

scholarly journals Enhancing the estimation of compartmental model parameters for COVID-19 data with a high level of uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo B. Libotte ◽  
Lucas dos Anjos ◽  
Regina C. Almeida ◽  
Sandra M. C. Malta ◽  
Renato S. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Gaussian Process Regression ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
Compartmental Models ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Reported Data ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractResearch on predictions related to the spread of the novel coronavirus are crucial in decision-making to mitigate the disease. Computational simulations are often used as a basis for forecasting the dynamics of epidemics and, for this purpose, compartmental models have been widely used to assess the situation resulting from the spread of the disease in the population. Reliable data is essential to obtain adequate simulations. However, several political, economic, and social factors have caused inconsistencies in the reported data, which are reflected in the capacity for realistic simulations and predictions. Such uncertainties are mainly motivated by a large-scale underreporting of cases due to the reduced testing capacity in some locations. In order to mitigate the effects of noise in the data used to estimate parameters of compartmental models, we propose strategies capable of improving the ability to predict the spread of the disease. We show that the regularization of data by means of Gaussian Process Regression can reduce the variability of successive forecasts, thus improving predictive ability. We also present the advantages of adopting parameters of compartmental models that vary over time, in detriment to the usual approach with constant values.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 261-280
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Lambert
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Military History ◽  
Economic Literacy ◽  
British Government ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Grain Trade ◽  
The Government ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

The conclusion reviews the previous chapters as a case study in high-level policymaking under pressure. Globalization, the internationalization of the grain trade, and the outbreak of war confronted the British government with conjoined political–economic and military–diplomatic problems, which it had no good options to solve. The complexity of the challenges confronting the government render simplified narratives of its decision-making inaccurate and of doubtful utility as a model. This argument has important methodological implications for students of grand strategy and military history: the former requires as much attention to military as to civilian perspectives and the latter demands better economic literacy. Both require rigorous archival research in civilian and military, public and private records, as well as a willingness to engage the past with a high level of precision.

Bribery and Corruption

2015 ◽  
pp. 144-158
Author(s):  
Philippe W. Zgheib
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Oil Contracts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level ◽  
Personal Welfare ◽  
Political Economic

Bribes are mainly directed at government officials, although they could be directed at the employees and managers of business firms. However, bribery appears to be a self-defined crime. Bribery of small public sector employees is a white-collar crime. However, bribery also exists in high-level decision-making processes, whether political, economic, or corporate situations. These are large-scale bribes, consisting of millions and/or billions of dollars, paid out to executives and public officials in return for construction contracts, oil contracts, telecommunication contracts, etc. Although punishments exist and are implemented, it is up to the individual alone to make the final decision and choose between personal moral value system and personal welfare in opposition to serving the public welfare. This chapter explores bribery.

scholarly journals The History of Politics in Angola

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Fernando Camba
Keyword(s):  
State Intervention ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Events ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level ◽  
Political Economic

The political, economic and social instabilities of the African countries have been seen as one of the biggest challenges to be overcome in the current days. Today, the lack of economic and social freedom is the great problem that makes the weak effort of the African politicians on consolidating the political and economic systems in permanent crisis, even more vulnerable. We attempt to understand the reasons of the increasing levels of bribery of the public and private institutions besides the deficit of a political ethics and other corrosive factors of the African nations that make it a continent with a high level of vulnerability. So, we task ourselves to draft a historic line of the political thought of one of the most promising countries of the African continent: Angola. This is achieved through the use of historic sources that chain the main political events of the history of Angola that led to the independence and that succeeded. It is concluded that the state intervention based on ideas socialist / communist ideas has been, as theoretically proved by the Austrian School, harmful to the socio-economic development of the African country and it is suggested a review to such intervention to be completed in a future paper.

A Different Kind of Animal

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Essential Ingredient ◽  
Princeton University

Human beings have evolved to become the most dominant species on Earth. This astonishing transformation is usually explained in terms of cognitive ability—people are just smarter than all the rest. But this book argues that culture—our ability to learn from each other—has been the essential ingredient of our remarkable success. The book shows how a unique combination of cultural adaptation and large-scale cooperation has transformed our species and assured our survival—making us the different kind of animal we are today. The book is based on the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, featuring challenging responses across the chapters.

STUDY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RELATION TO THEIR GENDER AND ACADEMIC STREAM

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-265
Author(s):  
Dr.Navdeep Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Environmental Awareness ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Stages Of Learning ◽  
The Masses

Since its evolution environment has remained both a matter of awe and concern to man. The frontier attitude of the industrialized society towards nature has not only endangered the survival of all other life forms but also threatened the very existence of human life. The realization of such potential danger has necessitated the dissemination of knowledge and skill vis-a-vis environment protection at all stages of learning. Therefore, learners of all stages of learning need to be sensitized with a missionary zeal. This may ensure transformation of students into committed citizens for averting global environment crisis. The advancement of science and technology made the life more and more relaxed and man also became more and more ambitious. With such development, human dependence on environment increased. He consumed more resources and the effect of his activities on the environment became more and more detectable. Environment covers all the things present around the living beings and above the land, on the surface of the earth and under the earth. Environment indicates, in total, all of peripheral forces, pressures and circumstances, which affect the life, nature, behaviour, growth, development and maturation of living beings. Irrational exploitation (not utilization) of natural resources for our greed (not need) has endangered our survival, and incurred incalculable harm. Environmental Education is a science, a well-thought, permanent, lasting and integrated process of equipping learning experiences for getting awareness, knowledge, understanding, skills, values, technical expertise and involvement of learners with desirable attitudinal changes about their relationship with their natural and biophysical environment. Environmental Education is an organized effort to educate the masses about environment, its functions, need, importance, and especially how human beings can manage their behaviour in order to live in a sustainable manner.  The term 'environmental awareness' refers to creating general awareness of environmental issues, their causes by bringing about changes in perception, attitude, values and necessary skills to solve environment related problems. Moreover, it is the first step leading to the formation of responsible environmental behaviour (Stern, 2000). With the ever increasing development by modern man, large scale degradation of natural resources have been occurred, the public has to be educated about the fact that if we are degrading our environment we are actually harming ourselves. To encourage meaningful public participation and environment, it is necessary to create awareness about environment pollution and related adverse effects. This is the crucial time that environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity should be cultivated among the masses particularly among youths. For the awareness of society it is essential to work at a gross root level. So the whole society can work to save the environment.

Impacto de la comunicación de la responsabilidad social universitaria en la selección de universidad y efecto mediador de la reputación

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Erazo-Coronado ◽  
Sergio Llano-Arristizábal ◽  
Miguel Garcés-Prettel ◽  
Ana-María Erazo-Coronado
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
University Selection ◽  
Cross Sectional Design ◽  
Institutional Websites

The emerging concept of university social responsibility (USR) consists in the fulfillment of the mission of the university in terms of ethical standards, community support, respect for human beings, and respect for the environment. Thus, universities must not only provide professional training but also instill ethical principles in students to allow them to behave as good citizens and help solve community problems. On the other hand, competition for students requires efficient management of university reputation and communication with their stakeholders, to demonstrate the accomplishment of the university’s mission and attract potential students. The objective of this paper is thus to explain the causal relationship between communication about university social responsibility (USR) activities through institutional websites and university selection, as well as the role of reputation. Research work was carried out based on an explanatory cross-sectional design, with a sample of 356 subjects from a population of 11th-grade students from public and private schools in the City of Barranquilla (Colombia). The results revealed that USR communication through institutional websites has a significant influence on university selection, not only directly but also indirectly, through reputation as a mediating variable. These findings contribute at a theoretical level by providing empirical evidence to understand and explain the analyzed topic. Furthermore, the results provide useful information to evaluate USR disclosure and implement strategies to make progress on USR issues. Resumen El naciente concepto de responsabilidad social universitaria (RSU) consiste en el cumplimiento de la misión de la universidad dentro de unos estándares éticos, de apoyo a la comunidad, respeto al ser humano y al medio ambiente. Así, pues, la universidad no sólo debe impartir formación profesional, sino inculcar a sus estudiantes principios éticos que les permitan comportarse como buenos ciudadanos y contribuir a la solución de los problemas de la comunidad. Por otra parte, la competencia entre universidades exige una gestión eficiente de su reputación y de la comunicación con sus distintos stakeholders, para demostrar a la sociedad el cumplimiento de su misión social, y para atraer estudiantes potenciales hacia la institución. Por lo tanto, este artículo tiene como objetivo explicar la relación de causalidad entre la comunicación de las prácticas de RSU en los sitios web institucionales y la selección de universidad, y el papel mediador de la reputación en esta relación. Para lograrlo, se llevó a cabo una investigación cuantitativa de nivel explicativo experimental y diseño transversal, con una muestra conformada por 356 sujetos, de una población de estudiantes de grado 11º de colegios públicos y privados de la ciudad de Barranquilla (Colombia). Los resultados revelan que la comunicación de las prácticas de RSU en los sitios web institucionales ejerce una influencia significativa directa en la intención de selección de universidad, e indirecta, a través de la reputación como variable mediadora. La evidencia empírica aportada representa un avance teórico en la comprensión y explicación del fenómeno estudiado, e igualmente servirá para que las universidades evalúen si están comunicando adecuadamente su responsabilidad social y adopten estrategias para avanzar en este aspecto.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document