The Merchants and Economic Development in the Americas, 1750-1850: A Preliminary Study

1968 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Lee Woodward

The century embracing the wars and turmoils that politically separated America from Europe coincides roughly with that great change in the economic life of the western world known as the “Industrial Revolution.” Admitting that this so-called “Revolution” did not occur simultaneously everywhere, or affect all parts in a like manner, it is nonetheless clear that it had a profound effect not only on the material well-being of the American peoples, but on their social and political institutions as well, probably an effect even more important than the political revolutions and wars that accompanied it. The period thus demands careful attention and lends itself well to regional comparative study.

Author(s):  
Ammar Shamaileh ◽  
Yousra Chaábane

What is the relationship between institutional favoritism, economic well-being, and political trust? Due to the role that East Bank tribes played in supporting the monarchy during the state’s formative years, Jordan has institutionalized a type of political discrimination that privileges East Bank Jordanians over Palestinian Jordanians. An empirical examination of the political institutions of the state reveals that such discrimination remains pervasive. It was subsequently theorized that institutional favoritism’s impact on political trust is conditional on income due to the greater salience of group identity among individuals with lower incomes. Regression analyses of survey data reveal a consistent negative correlation between political trust and income among East Bank Jordanians. There is little evidence of a substantively meaningful unconditional relationship between national origin and political trust.


Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith

This book examines what it calls the political economy of contentment. It argues that the fortunate and the favored do not contemplate and respond to their own longer-run well-being. Rather, they respond to immediate comfort and contentment. In the so-called capitalist countries, the controlling contentment and resulting belief is now that of the many, not just of the few. It operates under the guise of democracy, albeit a democracy not of all citizens but of those who, in defense of their social and economic advantage, actually go to the polls. This chapter discusses how economic life undergoes a constant process of change, and, in consequence, the same action or event occurring at different times can lead to very different results. It considers some examples throughout history, such as the economic ideas of the Physiocrats in France, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.


Author(s):  
Ruslana Klym

The article defines that political institutions are integral elements of the political system of society, important subjects of politics and carriers of the political process, that regulate the political organization of society, ensuring its stable and long-term functioning. It is stated that the main scientific approaches to understanding the phenomenon of political communication is positivism, behaviorism, structural functionalism, institutionalism and the attention is drawn to the fact that the mass media perform several functions in modern society – communicative, informational, relay, through the implementation of which, media affects all spheres of society and play an important role in the process of interaction between the government and the public. It was noted that the authorities of the Republic of Bulgaria took advantage of the historical moment when the European Union member states were interested in cooperation and were able to convince the Bulgarian society that membership in the EU is a way to solve economic problems, which will further contribute to the economic well-being of the country. The article mentions that an important role in the European integration process of interaction between the authorities and the public was played by Bulgarian journalists, who conducted an extremely intensive and important information campaign, which resulted in 76% of support for the Republic’s membership in this international organization by the Bulgarian society The experience of the Republic of Bulgaria shows that effective work of the mass media is extremely important for establishing communication interaction between government and civil society at a crucial moment for the country. However, the modern Bulgarian media environment is subject to intense criticism for the poor quality of the media product, the media’s dependence on oligarchs, and corruption.


1961 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hacker

In all advanced societies there is a distinct tendency for political and economic power to be held and exercised by different kinds of individuals. Even in modern totalitarian states it has been possible to observe quite distinguishable groups playing the leading roles in political and economic life. The aptitudes that go to make a successful political leader and those that produce an effective economic manager are analytically separable. And if the men who comprise the political and economic elites in a single society are markedly different in character and social background, then certain tensions are bound to arise in the areas where their power and authority interact. These tensions may develop even if the two sets of people profess to sharing a common ideology and even if they are ostensibly committed to working toward common objectives. For the kinds of men who enter political and economic vocations are prone to view social reality from different vantage points, and consequently they will interpret their shared ideology in the light of different experience. What will follow, then, is a comparative study of two elite groups in contemporary American society. The purpose of this study, quite simply, is to ascertain what the members of these elites have in common and what they do not.


10.1068/c0639 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Jouve

We are facing a transformation of the political order in which cities are becoming more and more important, partly in the field of economic development but also regarding security questions, specifically after 9 September 2001, such as cultural diversity, social cohesion, and sustainable development. The institutional conditions of governability have evolved during the last two decades. Cities develop strategies at the global level and promote different kinds of collective value. In this paper we aim to analyse these international strategies, their elaboration, and their implementation by using a comparison of Montreal, Paris, and Rome. The various strategies are analyzed as the outcome of dominant political coalitions between the political institutions and very specific segments of civil society.


Equilibrium ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Zielenkiewicz

For many countries the Industrial Revolution was an opportunity for a dynamic economic development, but it was accompanied by deep social changes. Inequalities between regions have deepened, pollution has increased and also conjunctural fluctuations have intensified. In contemporary view at the social welfare there is a tendency to abandon identifying it with the level of income. Also, the research on the causes of socio-economic success is developing. One of the aspects of the research, which the article refers to, is the role of the institutions (within the meaning of institutional economics) in the socio-economic development. The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between indicators of institutional environment and indices related to socio-economic development. For the analysis of the institutional environment the indices published by the World Bank under the name of Worldwide Governance Indicators were used. The analysis of socio-economic level of the countries is based on Sustainable Society Index and its components, which include a wide range of factors related to well-being. The analysis was conducted in two stages. The first stage is a general study of the correlation between WGI and SSI for 151 countries from different continents. The second stage includes a more detailed analysis conducted for the European Union, using the cluster method and the analysis of the level of indicators in groups of countries. The study is based on the data from 2010.


Author(s):  
Ousseina D. Alidou ◽  
Halimatou Hima

Nigerien women played important cultural, economic, and political leadership roles throughout history. Women across ethnicities contributed to the economic life in precolonial Nigerien societies and their public presence in indigenous markets have been recorded by both Arab chroniclers as well as European colonial explorers, authorities, and historians. Women also occupied important positions in the political sphere and played important roles within their indigenous religious traditions and pantheons. The advent of Islam in the region in the 11th century changed the nature of preexisting spaces. However, a syncretism between Islam and indigenous religions developed, and this created yet another space for women across Nigerien ethnic groups to continue the preservation of some practices tied to their indigenous culture. As predominantly Muslims, most Nigerien women and men have been exposed to Arabic and Qur’anic literacy, and women of clerical lineage and those married to Qur’anic teachers have played a major role in the propagation of Islamic literacy in Nigerien precolonial societies, and continue to do so in the postcolonial dispensation. Ethnic and regional diversity accounts for the degree of authority that women may enjoy within the family structure, and women from rural and urban areas experience patriarchal structures in distinct ways. In relation to contemporary participation in political leadership, the year 1991, with the historic women’s march, marked a turning point in the history of women’s political leadership. The democratization process opened the way for multiparty democracy and greater women’s participation; it also fostered a religious pluralism that has engendered manifestations with women playing distinctive roles in the religious moral economy, including in minority religions. However, democratic pluralism has inadvertently created the conditions for the growth of violent religious fundamentalist movements undermining the rights of girls and women. Unequal gendered and power relations continue to hinder Nigerien women’s emergence at high levels of public leadership, with consequences for economic development and women’s rights. While there has been a steady increase in women’s participation in parliament and high-level appointed positions in government owing to a quota law, which was revisited in 2019, Nigerien women still have some way to go to achieve representative parity not only in politics but also in other public and private sectors of employment and elective positions in society. In terms of human development, Niger continues to register poor development indicators, especially those relating to women’s and girls’ welfare and well-being in rural areas including high rates of child marriage as well as high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates. The status of women in Nigerien societies continues to experience major mutations as women consolidate their roles as a visible and vocal political force as well as one of the main drivers of economic development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-36
Author(s):  
Oussou Kouame Remi

In the 1990, taking advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Empire, many African States, mainly French speaking countries, the opposition elite in alliance with the civil society took to the streets for a national encounter in order to set new grounds for the political competition in almost 30 years. This paper tries and analyzes the impact of the so-called National Conferences on the current shape on the democratic transition and the democratic process in some of the States that hosted these public discussions. In contrast, it argues that countries failed to take advantage of these National Fora are less prone to embrace democracy, with for all of them a failure to bring substantial social changes in terms of well-being.    


1989 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Duquette

The article is a comparative study of Hegel and Marx on the nature and function of the political state and it argues that Marx's critique of Hegel on this topic is aimed not at the “idealism” of the state, which concerns the principle of universal freedom, but rather at the “material” presuppositions of the state. Indeed, Marx's critique of political institutions is premised upon the way in which they are infected with the egoism and self-seeking of civil (bürgerliche) society. The relationship between the views of Hegel and Marx on these points is explored by (1) giving an exegesis of Hegel's conception of civil society as a foundation for freedom, (2) examining Marx's critique of Hegel's theory of the state, (3) distinguishing the Hegelian and Marxian philosophical conceptions of freedom, the individual, and community, and (4) evaluating the fairness and cogency of Marx's critique of Hegel.


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