30-Second Politics

meritocracy – the idea that only the wisest and most virtuous persons should be allowed access to the reins of power.

proletariat, preventing revolution.

detractors argue that it’s difficult to quantify ‘merit’.

identified imperialist trade as providing sufficient wealth via the bourgeoisie to the proletariat,

Athens
KIM IL-SUNG

industrial society inevitably would lead to a conflict between the proletariat, the working class whose labour led to the production of goods, and who were paid a wage for their labour, and the bourgeoisie, the middle and upper classes who owned the capital or means of production and who profited from their use to produce goods. K

Aristocracy is rule by the few, and its justification is that not everyone is equally equipped to rule and most people are altogether unfit for ruling.

imperialist trade as providing sufficient wealth via the bourgeoisie to the proletariat, preventing revolution.

Arab socialism A political ideology that combines elements of socialism with a pan-Arabic agenda, which seeks to unify the various countries of the Arab world.

Neoconservatism, as an approach in international relations, is a critique of realism. Instead of seeing the international system as one populated by amoral, rational states that each have their own unique self-interests, neoconservatism sees those states as being either good or evil. As such, the exercise of power against evil states to further the morals of the good states is justifiable. This approach helped fuel the intellectual underpinnings of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war.

Neoconservatism is a term that has been used with some frequency in the public discourse over the last 10 years because of its association with the foreign policy of President George W. Bush and especially the war in Iraq. The origin of the term was as a label to describe disillusioned liberals (in the American political sense of the word) of the early 1970s who believed in a role for government but were critical of the development of the US welfare state and who saw the Democratic Party and American liberals as being insufficient in their anti-communism.

The term took on an even broader meaning with the rise of Marxism-Leninism, which viewed all advanced capitalist countries as part of an economic imperialist project that kept less-developed countries in poverty despite not ruling directly. Thus, the state of being hegemonic – far more powerful than others – qualified as imperialism. Either way, the government of a strong state directs the political and economic machinery of others, sometimes even over very long distances. This can also lead to cultural imperialism, where the culture of the more powerful state becomes dominant over its local counterpart.

In his first major work, Scientific Man Vs. Power Politics (1946), Morgenthau was critical of the prevalent contemporary belief that science was the answer to the world’s social and political problems. In his second book, Politics among Nations (1948), he outlined the concept of political realism. Primarily concerned with international relations, this book argued that international politics was shaped by the national interests of sovereign states and was therefore essentially about states ‘keeping power, increasing power and demonstrating power’. As a realist, Morgenthau believed that the policies of nation states should be removed from the universal morals that are experienced by individuals. States should seek to increase their power over any other moral or legal considerations.
Morgenthau’s work was hugely influential, and during the Cold War period he was a policy consultant to the US State Department. However, he was also critical of US foreign policy – opposing the war in Vietnam, for example – and although primarily thought of as a power-politics realist, often overlooked are his endeavours to tease out the connection between moral principles and the politics of necessity, a theme explored in his work In Defense of the National Interest (1951).

Kyoto Protocol An international treaty under which 37 industrialized nations have agreed to an overall reduction of the main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, sulphur hexafluoride, HFCs and PFCs. The agreement was adopted in 1997 and came into force in 2005. Reduction targets range from 7 per cent for the United States, 8 per cent for Europe and 6 per cent for Japan to 0 per cent for Russia with, additionally, allowable increases for Australia and Iceland.

Objectivism is Ayn Rand’s philosophy that links objective reality, reason, self-interest and capitalism to form a system that proposes a template for society where individuals can act for their own happiness and protect their long-term survival. People may desire what they wish, but to achieve their goals they must first have a correct understanding of reality. This allows individuals to use reason to advance their self-interest in a world where capitalism and limited government provide the capacity for personal action. The State is reduced to protecting individual rights, preventing violence and providing free-market exchanges that allow people to engage in advantageous trade.

In 1925 Rand was allowed to visit relatives in the United States, and she soon moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. Although she achieved some literary success during the 1930s, it was her novel The Fountainhead (1943) that brought her to the public’s attention. Rand’s novel, featuring a young, principled architect’s struggle against convention and nepotism, was a precursor to her philosophical works. During the 1950s Rand became increasingly active in politics – and while her vehement anti-communist/pro-individualist free-market stance attracted right-wing supporters, her equally vehement atheism was less well-received.

the 1980s in particular, neoliberal policies have been very controversial, especially in the developing world. The combination of privatization and subsidy reductions sparked riots in numerous countries and in several cases even led to the overthrow of presidents. Protests and the election of more statist-oriented presidents are marked by explicit rejection of neoliberal models.

The term ‘mercantilism’ was first used by Adam Smith to criticize a system directly opposed to free trade and laissez faire. Mercantilism emphasized state protectionism and governmental regulations, which largely limited economic freedom and vitality. The ‘beggar thy neighbour’ policy fuelled a continuous cycle of intra-European conflicts since it was impossible for all states to have a trade surplus. However, mercantilism did play an important role in state building and economic unification in early modern Europe.

history, the mercantilist era was associated with the aggressive trading activities by merchants such as the British East India Company, the ruthless exploitations of colonies in America, Asia and Africa and the military competitions among major sea powers.

In the period from the Second World War through the early 1970s, Keynesianism had greatest influence in Western industrialized countries. Its credibility declined when stagflation hit the global capital system in the 1970s.