The Culture of Contentment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith ◽  
Jeff Madrick
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Action ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have nots. This book shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend their comfortable status at a cost. Middle-class voting against regulation and increased taxation that would remedy pressing social ills has created a culture of immediate gratification, leading to complacency and hampering long-term progress. Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry underclass seem capable of changing the status quo. A groundbreaking critique, the book shows how the complacent majority captures the political process and determines economic policy.

scholarly journals Coronavirus and Politics: Demands and Values in the Age of the Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
D. A. Parenkov ◽  
K. E. Petrov
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Masses

The article discusses the political eff ects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the framework of Terror Management Theory. Growing fears caused by the pandemic provoke mortality salience across the globe. Political and psychological eff ects of mortality salience are manifested in the strengthening of conservative orientations and support for status quo. Awareness of mortality provides support to power structures, incumbent political leaders, strengthening patriotic attitudes and rejection of external groups. The pandemic strengthens the eff ect of rallying around the fl ag and results in an increase in the ratings of ruling political leaders. The growing support for political leaders confi rms the orientation towards maintaining the status quo and conservative attitudes. In a pandemic, patriotic feeling, the demand for order, the growth of distrust of fellow citizens, and the rejection of freedoms in favor of security come to the fore. In the context of mortality salience orientation to support specifi c types of political leadership is intensifying. It seems that in the near future, electorally successful types of leaders will include two major types. Firstly, politicians inclined to charismatic control of the trust of their supporters based on a confi dent and uncompromising orientation to their own ego, most often on the basis of previously gained fame. Secondly, those politicians who are capable of expressing simple human closeness to ordinary people and are focused on creating and maintaining social ties with a constituency. Charismatic leadership is oriented towards personal decision-making at leader’s own peril and risk. The second type is associated with horizontal dialogue with citizens. and creating the maximum numberof personal connections. In the current situation, the role of personal qualities of leaders will only grow, both as objects of attitudes and aspirations on the part of the masses, and as subjects of the political process, making political decisions that are crucial for society.

scholarly journals Leadership, management and command in the time of the Coronavirus

Leadership ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Grint
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Leadership Theory ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Leadership Management ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Complicated Nature

The Covid-19 pandemic that swept through the world in late 2019 and through 2020 provides a test not just for all societies and their leadership, but for leadership theory. In a world turned upside down, when many conventions are disposed of, it is clear that things will not return to the status quo ante any time soon, if ever. In the light of these challenges, this short paper suggests we might reconsider the way governments and their leaders act against the frame of societal problems, originally established by Rittell and Webber in 1973. I suggest that all three modes of decision-making (Leadership, management and command) are necessary because of the complex and complicated nature of the problem and conclude that while Command is appropriate for certain times and issues, it also poses long-term threats, especially if the context is ignored.

Coping with the End of the Commodities Boom: Rubber Smallholders in Southern Thailand Oscillating Between Near-poverty and Middle-class Status

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edo Andriesse ◽  
Puntita Tanwattana
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Middle Income Country ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Southern Thailand ◽  
The Status ◽  
Class Status

This article focuses on the steep fall in the international natural rubber price and investigates its impact on the socioeconomic situation of rubber smallholders in Southern Thailand, particularly diversification and community development. Based on surveys and semi-structured interviews, this article highlights the vulnerability of rubber smallholders in an upper middle-income country. Despite substantial diversification, volatility in the international rubber price still causes rural households to zigzag back and forth between the classes of near-poverty and accomplished middle class. Consistent diversification is hard to achieve, and there is a lack of local leadership. Current forces in the political economy of rubber are geared toward maintaining the status quo.

scholarly journals L’URSS et ses conceptions de sa sécurité : De brejnev à Andropov

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-491
Author(s):  
Adriano Guerra
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Scene

The international developments of the last few years have once more brought forth the traditional questions on the foreign policy of the USSR. The strong coming hack of the Soviet military on the political scène has revived the debate on the nature of the Soviet power and on the role played by the Army and its representatives. Since 1975, Soviet policy has been what can be considered as a "policy of response", aimed at protecting the recently acquired "new frontiers" and at preventing the United States from availing themselves of the internal problems existing in the USSR to change the status quo to their advantage. Increasingly, the Soviet government, in his multiple interventions in various regions of the world - and particularly in Afghanistan - is resorting to the militarization of her ancient and new frontiers. This line of action makes the Soviet policy more and more unpredictable and intensifies the risks of confrontation around the globe.

The Powers Metaphysic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil E. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Potential Interaction ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Repeated Application ◽  
Fundamental Ontology ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Foundational Ontology ◽  
Interaction Types

Systematic metaphysics is defined by its task of solving metaphysical problems through the repeated application of a single, fundamental ontology. The dominant contemporary metaphysic is that of neo-Humeanism, built on a static ontology typified by its rejection of basic causal and modal features. This book offers and develops a radically distinct metaphysic, one that turns the status quo on its head. Starting with a foundational ontology of inherently causal properties known as ‘powers’, a metaphysic is developed that appeals to powers in explanations of causation, persistence, laws, and modality. Powers are properties that have their causal natures internal to them: they are responsible for the effects in the world. A unique account of powers is developed that understands this internal nature in terms of a blueprint of potential interaction types. After the presentation of the powers ontology, it is put to work in offering solutions to broad metaphysical puzzles, some of which take on different forms in light of the new tools that are available. The defence of the ontology comes from the virtues of metaphysic it can be used to develop. Particular attention is paid to the problems of causation and persistence, simultaneously solving them as it casts them in a new light. The resultant powers metaphysic is offered as a systematic alternative to neo-Humeanism.

Political Translation and the Sustainable Development Goals

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Chris G. Pope ◽  
Meng Ji ◽  
Xuemei Bai
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals

The chapter argues that whether or not the world is successful in attaining sustainability, political systems are in a process of epoch-defining change as a result of the unsustainable demands of our social systems. This chapter theorizes a framework for analyzing the political “translation” of sustainability norms within national polities. Translation, in this sense, denotes the political reinterpretation of sustainable development as well as the national capacities and contexts which impact how sustainability agendas can be instrumentalized. This requires an examination into the political architecture of a national polity, the norms that inform a political process, socioecological contexts, the main communicative channels involved in the dissemination of political discourse and other key structures and agencies, and the kinds of approaches toward sustainability that inform the political process. This framework aims to draw attention to the ways in which global economic, political, and social systems are adapting and transforming as a result of unsustainability and to further understanding of the effectiveness of globally diffused sustainability norms in directing that change.

scholarly journals A Transformation of the Approach to Evaluating a Region’s Investment Attractiveness as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Dmitriy G. Rodionov ◽  
Evgenii A. Konnikov ◽  
Magomedgusen N. Nasrutdinov
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
World Order ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused a transformation of virtually all aspects of the world order today. Due to the introduction of the world quarantine, a considerable share of professional communications has been transformed into a format of distance interaction. As a result, the specific weight of traditional components of the investment attractiveness of a region is steadily going down, because modern business can be built without the need for territorial unity. It should be stated that now the criteria according to which investors decide if they are ready to invest in a region are dynamically transforming. The significance of the following characteristics is increasingly growing: the sustainable development of a region, qualities of the social environment, and consistency of the social infrastructure. Thus, the approaches to evaluating the region’s investment attractiveness must be transformed. Moreover, the investment process at the federal level involves the determination of target areas of regional development. Despite the universal significance of innovative development, the region can develop much more dynamically when a complex external environment is formed that complements its development model. Interregional interaction, as well as an integrated approach to innovative development, taking into account not only the momentary effect, but also the qualitative long-term transformation of the region, will significantly increase the return on investment. At the same time, the currently existing methods for assessing the investment attractiveness of the region are usually heuristic in nature and are not universal. The heuristic nature of the existing methods does not allow to completely abstract from the subjectivity of the researcher. Moreover, the existing methods do not take into account the cyclical properties of the innovative development of the region, which lead to the formation of a long-term effect from the transformation of the regional environment. This study is aimed at forming a comprehensive methodology that can be used to evaluate the investment attractiveness of a certain region and conclude about the lines of business that should be developed in it as well as to find ways to increase the region’s investment attractiveness. According to the results of the study, a comprehensive methodology was formed to evaluate the region’s investment attractiveness. It consists of three key indicators, namely, the level of the region’s investment attractiveness, the projected level of the region’s investment attractiveness, and the development vector of the region’s investment attractiveness. This methodology is based on a set of indicators that consider the status of the economic and social environment of the region, as well as the status of the innovative and ecological environment. The methodology can be used to make multi-dimensional conclusions both about the growth areas responsible for increasing the region’s innovative attractiveness and the lines of business that should be developed in the region.

Enhancing Science and Technology in the SADC Region: Roles of the Secretariat and Member States

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-95
Author(s):  
Rubin Patterson ◽  
James Bozeman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Foreign Affiliate ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

AbstractIncreased economic integration throughout the world, the growing dominance of foreign affiliate production over international exports, the routinization of innovation, and amplified knowledge-intensiveness of FDI collectively characterize the new global economic environment in which SADC nations are attempting to develop and compete. This paper provides a detailed summary of the global economic context and one of its leading engines, namely, science and technology (S&T). Analysis of Africa's post-independence S&T travails and successes constitutes the second section of the paper. Various factors that have collectively arrested S&T growth are discussed. The third and largest section is the analysis of commonalities and particularities of S&T needs and activities by the SADC secretariat and member states. Focused analytical reports on the status of S&T development efforts in Botswana and Zimbabwe comprise the final section. Based on the contextual threats and opportunities discussed above, the paper concludes with two concrete recommendations: integrating and adopting the elements suggested in the paper for a long-term S&T development model, and pursuing state-sponsored or quasi-state-sponsored reverse engineering campaigns.

Mercantilism Revisited

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
The Status

The intention of this paper is to look at some of the problems which arise in attempts to provide ‘explanations’ of mercantilism and especially its English manifestations. By ‘explanations’ I mean the efforts which some writers have made causally to relate the historical appearance of sets of economic notions or general recommendations on economic policy or even acts of economic policy by the state to particular long-term phenomena of, or trends in, economic history. Historians of economic thought have not generally made such attempts. With a few exceptions they have normally concerned themselves with tracing and analysing the contributions to economic theory made by those labelled as mercantilists. The most extreme case of non-explanation is provided by Eli Heckscher's reiterated contention in his two massive volumes that mercantilism was not to be explained by reference to the economic circumstances of the time; mercantilist policy was not to be seen as ‘the outcome of the economic situation’; mercantilist writers did not construct their system ‘out of any knowledge of reality however derived’. So strongly held an antideterminist fortress, however congenial a haven for some historians of ideas, has given no comfort to other historians – economic or political, Marxist or non-Marxist – who obstinately exhibit empiricist tendencies. Some forays against the fortress have been made. Barry Supple's analysis of English commerce in the early seventeenth century and the resulting presentation of mercantilist thought and policy as ‘the economics of depression’ has passed into the textbooks and achieved the status of an orthodoxy.

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