Eva Brems
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199296033
- eISBN:
- 9780191700736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296033.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
The term ‘party closure’ refers to the prohibition or forced dissolution of a political party by a government authority. This issue is examined in the present chapter from the perspective of ...
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The term ‘party closure’ refers to the prohibition or forced dissolution of a political party by a government authority. This issue is examined in the present chapter from the perspective of international human rights law. At the domestic law level, both the regulatory framework and state practice with respect to party closure vary widely. It seems that among democratic states adhering to the same international human rights standards, different interpretations exist about the compatibility of the measure of party closure with such standards, in addition to diverging views on the opportunity of this measure. Before analysing the provisions dealing with the freedom of political association in United Nations and regional texts, the scope of that freedom under those provisions is first considered and acceptable and mandatory restrictions of the freedom are then discussed.Less
The term ‘party closure’ refers to the prohibition or forced dissolution of a political party by a government authority. This issue is examined in the present chapter from the perspective of international human rights law. At the domestic law level, both the regulatory framework and state practice with respect to party closure vary widely. It seems that among democratic states adhering to the same international human rights standards, different interpretations exist about the compatibility of the measure of party closure with such standards, in addition to diverging views on the opportunity of this measure. Before analysing the provisions dealing with the freedom of political association in United Nations and regional texts, the scope of that freedom under those provisions is first considered and acceptable and mandatory restrictions of the freedom are then discussed.
Susan James
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199698127
- eISBN:
- 9780191740558
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698127.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Along with many other Dutch republican writers, Spinoza holds that the sovereign must control sacred as well as civil matters, although in doing so he challenges the Dutch Reformed Church. Drawing on ...
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Along with many other Dutch republican writers, Spinoza holds that the sovereign must control sacred as well as civil matters, although in doing so he challenges the Dutch Reformed Church. Drawing on the example of the Hebrew Republic, he advocates the unification of civil and religious law. This suggestion guides an argument to the effect that piety (the goal of true religion and thus divine law) is a condition of peace (the goal of civil law) and vice versa, so that sovereign and citizens must protect both values, together with the religious pluralism and freedom to philosophize on which they depend. How far, exactly, should religious freedom and the freedom to philosophize extend? Spinoza sets out some limits. Nevertheless, republics become more secure as they cultivate a democratic ethos, and develop resources for engaging in the kind of peaceful debate that is the hallmark of genuine philosophy.Less
Along with many other Dutch republican writers, Spinoza holds that the sovereign must control sacred as well as civil matters, although in doing so he challenges the Dutch Reformed Church. Drawing on the example of the Hebrew Republic, he advocates the unification of civil and religious law. This suggestion guides an argument to the effect that piety (the goal of true religion and thus divine law) is a condition of peace (the goal of civil law) and vice versa, so that sovereign and citizens must protect both values, together with the religious pluralism and freedom to philosophize on which they depend. How far, exactly, should religious freedom and the freedom to philosophize extend? Spinoza sets out some limits. Nevertheless, republics become more secure as they cultivate a democratic ethos, and develop resources for engaging in the kind of peaceful debate that is the hallmark of genuine philosophy.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to ...
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This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to locating commonalities, to one of expressing and encouraging political freedom. Even where the commonality in question is one that actors understand as the product of their activity, a reading of the 2006 U.S. immigrant rights protests shows that the orientation towards commonality generates antidemocratic pressures to sacrifice political freedom for the sake of shared goals. While feminists and others have argued for coalition as an imaginary of democracy, coalition politics does not move theory beyond a preoccupation with commonality. In its place, this chapter offers protests as paradigmatic of a democratic action. Protests are cacophonous, multivocal, and unpredictable. They exemplify “democracy sense”: the awareness that people inhabit the world together with plural others who all possess the capacity for world-building. Protests, therefore, are self-authorizing expressions of political freedom that embrace the uncertainty, unpredictability, and risk of acting together with others to try to shape a common world.Less
This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to locating commonalities, to one of expressing and encouraging political freedom. Even where the commonality in question is one that actors understand as the product of their activity, a reading of the 2006 U.S. immigrant rights protests shows that the orientation towards commonality generates antidemocratic pressures to sacrifice political freedom for the sake of shared goals. While feminists and others have argued for coalition as an imaginary of democracy, coalition politics does not move theory beyond a preoccupation with commonality. In its place, this chapter offers protests as paradigmatic of a democratic action. Protests are cacophonous, multivocal, and unpredictable. They exemplify “democracy sense”: the awareness that people inhabit the world together with plural others who all possess the capacity for world-building. Protests, therefore, are self-authorizing expressions of political freedom that embrace the uncertainty, unpredictability, and risk of acting together with others to try to shape a common world.
Miranda Fricker
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199855469
- eISBN:
- 9780199932788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199855469.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
When someone speaks but is not heard because of their accent, or their sex, or the color of their skin, they suffer a distinctive form of injustice—they are undermined as a knower. This kind of ...
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When someone speaks but is not heard because of their accent, or their sex, or the color of their skin, they suffer a distinctive form of injustice—they are undermined as a knower. This kind of injustice, which I call testimonial injustice, is not only an ethical problem but also a political one, for citizens are not free unless they get a fair hearing when they try to contest wrongful treatment. I shall argue that not only individuals but also public institutions need to have the virtue of testimonial justice. If our police, our juries, our complaints panels lack that virtue, then some groups cannot contest. And if you can’t do that, you do not have political freedom.Less
When someone speaks but is not heard because of their accent, or their sex, or the color of their skin, they suffer a distinctive form of injustice—they are undermined as a knower. This kind of injustice, which I call testimonial injustice, is not only an ethical problem but also a political one, for citizens are not free unless they get a fair hearing when they try to contest wrongful treatment. I shall argue that not only individuals but also public institutions need to have the virtue of testimonial justice. If our police, our juries, our complaints panels lack that virtue, then some groups cannot contest. And if you can’t do that, you do not have political freedom.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common ...
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It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common culture, or consensus on a core set of values – sets theorists and political actors alike on a futile search for what we have in common, and generates misplaced anxiety when it turns out that this commonality is not forthcoming. Sharing Democracy argues that this preoccupation with commonality misdirects our attention toward what we share and away from how we share in democracy. This produces an ironically anti-democratic tendency to emphasize the passive possession of commonality at the expense of promoting the active exercise of political freedom. This book counteracts this tendency by exposing the reasons for the persistent allure of the common. Sharing Democracy offers in its stead a radical vision of democracy grounded in political freedom: the capacity of ordinary people to make and remake the world in which they live. This vision of democracy is exemplified in protest marches: cacophonous, unpredictable, and self-authorizing collective enactments of our world-building freedom.Less
It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common culture, or consensus on a core set of values – sets theorists and political actors alike on a futile search for what we have in common, and generates misplaced anxiety when it turns out that this commonality is not forthcoming. Sharing Democracy argues that this preoccupation with commonality misdirects our attention toward what we share and away from how we share in democracy. This produces an ironically anti-democratic tendency to emphasize the passive possession of commonality at the expense of promoting the active exercise of political freedom. This book counteracts this tendency by exposing the reasons for the persistent allure of the common. Sharing Democracy offers in its stead a radical vision of democracy grounded in political freedom: the capacity of ordinary people to make and remake the world in which they live. This vision of democracy is exemplified in protest marches: cacophonous, unpredictable, and self-authorizing collective enactments of our world-building freedom.
Sharon R. Krause
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226234694
- eISBN:
- 9780226234724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226234724.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
If agency is the affirmation of one’s subjective existence through concrete action in the world, political freedom is the set of interpersonal conditions that make this affirming action possible. To ...
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If agency is the affirmation of one’s subjective existence through concrete action in the world, political freedom is the set of interpersonal conditions that make this affirming action possible. To be free in this sense is to be able to exercise one’s agency, to live among others in such a way that the possibility of affirming one’s identity in one’s deeds is generally open, or not systematically foreclosed. This chapter examines three views of freedom that are highly influential in political theory today through the lens of non-sovereign agency: freedom as non-interference, freedom as non-domination, and freedom as collective world-making. In addition, an ideal of freedom as non-oppression is developed and its value defended. Freedom takes multiple forms because the enabling conditions of agency are diverse. Persons can be more and less free, and free in different ways, depending on which enabling conditions are present and on how deeply and widely entrenched in society they are.Less
If agency is the affirmation of one’s subjective existence through concrete action in the world, political freedom is the set of interpersonal conditions that make this affirming action possible. To be free in this sense is to be able to exercise one’s agency, to live among others in such a way that the possibility of affirming one’s identity in one’s deeds is generally open, or not systematically foreclosed. This chapter examines three views of freedom that are highly influential in political theory today through the lens of non-sovereign agency: freedom as non-interference, freedom as non-domination, and freedom as collective world-making. In addition, an ideal of freedom as non-oppression is developed and its value defended. Freedom takes multiple forms because the enabling conditions of agency are diverse. Persons can be more and less free, and free in different ways, depending on which enabling conditions are present and on how deeply and widely entrenched in society they are.
Robert Post
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222212
- eISBN:
- 9780520928619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222212.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter offers an interpretation of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) in the context of the U.S. constitution. It explains that the regulations of the University of California, Berkeley, did not ...
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This chapter offers an interpretation of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) in the context of the U.S. constitution. It explains that the regulations of the University of California, Berkeley, did not offer any specific guidance on how the university can override First Amendment rights in order to fulfil its responsibilities as an educational institution. It suggests that the legendary struggle of 1964 fundamentally altered the concept of the university, and such political freedoms as we now enjoy derive from that transformation.Less
This chapter offers an interpretation of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) in the context of the U.S. constitution. It explains that the regulations of the University of California, Berkeley, did not offer any specific guidance on how the university can override First Amendment rights in order to fulfil its responsibilities as an educational institution. It suggests that the legendary struggle of 1964 fundamentally altered the concept of the university, and such political freedoms as we now enjoy derive from that transformation.
R. R. Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161280
- eISBN:
- 9781400850228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161280.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter considers the prevailing notion in the eighteenth century that nobility was a necessary bulwark of political freedom. Whether in the interest of a more open nobility or of a more closed ...
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This chapter considers the prevailing notion in the eighteenth century that nobility was a necessary bulwark of political freedom. Whether in the interest of a more open nobility or of a more closed and impenetrable nobility, the view was the same. Nobility as such, nobility as an institution, was necessary to the maintenance of a free constitution. There was also a general consensus that parliaments or ruling councils were autonomous, self-empowered, or empowered by history, heredity, social utility, or God; that they were in an important sense irresponsible, free to oppose the King (where there was one), and certainly owing no accounting to the “people.” The remainder of the chapter deals with the uses and abuses of social rank and the problems of administration, recruitment, taxation, and class consciousness.Less
This chapter considers the prevailing notion in the eighteenth century that nobility was a necessary bulwark of political freedom. Whether in the interest of a more open nobility or of a more closed and impenetrable nobility, the view was the same. Nobility as such, nobility as an institution, was necessary to the maintenance of a free constitution. There was also a general consensus that parliaments or ruling councils were autonomous, self-empowered, or empowered by history, heredity, social utility, or God; that they were in an important sense irresponsible, free to oppose the King (where there was one), and certainly owing no accounting to the “people.” The remainder of the chapter deals with the uses and abuses of social rank and the problems of administration, recruitment, taxation, and class consciousness.
Caroline Franklin
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112303
- eISBN:
- 9780191670763
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112303.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Lord Byron's oriental heroine is the fought-over focus of the eternal triangle, situated between a Turkish tyrant and a debased would-be Western liberator. The obvious political allegory is a ...
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Lord Byron's oriental heroine is the fought-over focus of the eternal triangle, situated between a Turkish tyrant and a debased would-be Western liberator. The obvious political allegory is a commonplace of modem criticism, and could be compared with a political cartoon. The association between the rights of woman and political freedom was forged in the revolutionary decade of the 1790s, when the concept of natural law was cited to challenge hierarchical authority. The heroine is not merely conventionally used as the genius of her country in the poems of William Blake and Byron, for the concept of femininity is central to the relationship between Romanticism and revolution. Blake's and Byron's female slaves are quintessential subjects, inferior in sex, lass, and colonised race. Byron breaks new ground in introducing another contrasting heroine, Gulnare, in The Corsair.Less
Lord Byron's oriental heroine is the fought-over focus of the eternal triangle, situated between a Turkish tyrant and a debased would-be Western liberator. The obvious political allegory is a commonplace of modem criticism, and could be compared with a political cartoon. The association between the rights of woman and political freedom was forged in the revolutionary decade of the 1790s, when the concept of natural law was cited to challenge hierarchical authority. The heroine is not merely conventionally used as the genius of her country in the poems of William Blake and Byron, for the concept of femininity is central to the relationship between Romanticism and revolution. Blake's and Byron's female slaves are quintessential subjects, inferior in sex, lass, and colonised race. Byron breaks new ground in introducing another contrasting heroine, Gulnare, in The Corsair.
Hans Blokland
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300110814
- eISBN:
- 9780300134827
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300110814.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
People's capacity to give meaning and direction to social life is an essential dimension of political freedom. Yet many citizens of Western democracies believe that this freedom has become quite ...
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People's capacity to give meaning and direction to social life is an essential dimension of political freedom. Yet many citizens of Western democracies believe that this freedom has become quite restricted. They feel they are at the mercy of anonymous structures and processes over which they have little control, structures and processes that present them with options and realities they might not have chosen if they had any real choice. As a result, political interest declines and political cynicism flourishes. The underlying cause of the powerlessness pervading the current political system could be modernization. Taking the work of Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Joseph Schumpeter as a point of departure, this book examines this process. The topics covered are, among others, the meaning of modernization, the forces that drive it, and, especially, the consequences of modernization for the political freedom of citizens to influence the course of their society via democratic politics.Less
People's capacity to give meaning and direction to social life is an essential dimension of political freedom. Yet many citizens of Western democracies believe that this freedom has become quite restricted. They feel they are at the mercy of anonymous structures and processes over which they have little control, structures and processes that present them with options and realities they might not have chosen if they had any real choice. As a result, political interest declines and political cynicism flourishes. The underlying cause of the powerlessness pervading the current political system could be modernization. Taking the work of Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Joseph Schumpeter as a point of departure, this book examines this process. The topics covered are, among others, the meaning of modernization, the forces that drive it, and, especially, the consequences of modernization for the political freedom of citizens to influence the course of their society via democratic politics.
Sharon R. Krause
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226234694
- eISBN:
- 9780226234724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226234724.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Most theories of freedom today are alike in being monist rather than pluralist in character. A pluralist view would recognize multiple forms of freedom that operate concurrently in the same domains ...
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Most theories of freedom today are alike in being monist rather than pluralist in character. A pluralist view would recognize multiple forms of freedom that operate concurrently in the same domains and it would resist an easy rank ordering of them. It would insist that no one account of freedom can capture without remainder all that is important to the meaning of freedom in any sphere of activity. The non-sovereign model of human agency points to the plurality of freedom because it makes clear both the limits and the value of political freedom in its various forms. This chapter defends a pluralism of freedom, drawing on the concepts of non-interference, non-domination, non-oppression, and collective world-making. It then specifies how these different forms of freedom can be expected to interact in a liberal-democratic society such as the U.S., what principles might be employed in the effort to balance them relative to one another, and what advantages there are in conceiving freedom in this multidimensional way.Less
Most theories of freedom today are alike in being monist rather than pluralist in character. A pluralist view would recognize multiple forms of freedom that operate concurrently in the same domains and it would resist an easy rank ordering of them. It would insist that no one account of freedom can capture without remainder all that is important to the meaning of freedom in any sphere of activity. The non-sovereign model of human agency points to the plurality of freedom because it makes clear both the limits and the value of political freedom in its various forms. This chapter defends a pluralism of freedom, drawing on the concepts of non-interference, non-domination, non-oppression, and collective world-making. It then specifies how these different forms of freedom can be expected to interact in a liberal-democratic society such as the U.S., what principles might be employed in the effort to balance them relative to one another, and what advantages there are in conceiving freedom in this multidimensional way.
Ilya Somin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190054588
- eISBN:
- 9780190054618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190054588.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This chapter explains the advantages of foot voting over ballot box voting as a mechanism of political choice. The big ones are the ability to make a decision that makes a difference, and stronger ...
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This chapter explains the advantages of foot voting over ballot box voting as a mechanism of political choice. The big ones are the ability to make a decision that makes a difference, and stronger incentives to become well-informed. These translate into important advantages from the standpoint of several leading theories of political freedom, including consent, negative freedom, positive freedom, and non-domination. The relative merits of foot voting are not affected by the availability of political participation beyond voting, such as activism or lobbying. They are also not negated by claims that foot-voting decisions are selfish in nature, or not truly “political.” The gap is similarly unlikely to be closed by efforts to promote greater democratic deliberation.Less
This chapter explains the advantages of foot voting over ballot box voting as a mechanism of political choice. The big ones are the ability to make a decision that makes a difference, and stronger incentives to become well-informed. These translate into important advantages from the standpoint of several leading theories of political freedom, including consent, negative freedom, positive freedom, and non-domination. The relative merits of foot voting are not affected by the availability of political participation beyond voting, such as activism or lobbying. They are also not negated by claims that foot-voting decisions are selfish in nature, or not truly “political.” The gap is similarly unlikely to be closed by efforts to promote greater democratic deliberation.
Ilya Somin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479868858
- eISBN:
- 9781479821303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479868858.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter examines foot voting as a tool for enhancing political freedom and its implications for federalism. It begins with a discussion of some of the limitations of ballot box voting compared ...
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This chapter examines foot voting as a tool for enhancing political freedom and its implications for federalism. It begins with a discussion of some of the limitations of ballot box voting compared to foot voting as a method of political choice, such as voters' inability to exercise choice over the basic structure of the political system and the presence of widespread rational political ignorance. It then considers some possible disadvantages of foot voting, including moving costs, the possibility of “races to the bottom,” and the problem of oppression of minority groups by subnational governments. It argues that the case for foot voting under federalism should be expanded “all the way down” to local governments and private communities, and “all the way up” to allow greater migration across international boundaries. Finally, the chapter highlights the advantages of “all the way down” decentralization for foot voting.Less
This chapter examines foot voting as a tool for enhancing political freedom and its implications for federalism. It begins with a discussion of some of the limitations of ballot box voting compared to foot voting as a method of political choice, such as voters' inability to exercise choice over the basic structure of the political system and the presence of widespread rational political ignorance. It then considers some possible disadvantages of foot voting, including moving costs, the possibility of “races to the bottom,” and the problem of oppression of minority groups by subnational governments. It argues that the case for foot voting under federalism should be expanded “all the way down” to local governments and private communities, and “all the way up” to allow greater migration across international boundaries. Finally, the chapter highlights the advantages of “all the way down” decentralization for foot voting.
Paul A. Kottman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226314976
- eISBN:
- 9780226314990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226314990.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter reconstructs Arendt's attempts to describe the purely human foundations of political authority in secular modernity. It argues that the revolutionary tradition to which Arendt draws ...
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This chapter reconstructs Arendt's attempts to describe the purely human foundations of political authority in secular modernity. It argues that the revolutionary tradition to which Arendt draws attention—and the secular politics it implies and defends—understands political freedom as founded anew only in the retrospective light of past, failed revolutions. Her reflections on revolution thus unfold as the hard-won knowledge that a fully secular politics has no other content than the experience of such new beginnings out of our own past miseries, calamities, and failings.Less
This chapter reconstructs Arendt's attempts to describe the purely human foundations of political authority in secular modernity. It argues that the revolutionary tradition to which Arendt draws attention—and the secular politics it implies and defends—understands political freedom as founded anew only in the retrospective light of past, failed revolutions. Her reflections on revolution thus unfold as the hard-won knowledge that a fully secular politics has no other content than the experience of such new beginnings out of our own past miseries, calamities, and failings.
Deirdre McCloskey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199769063
- eISBN:
- 9780199896851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
An understanding of thrift in the United States requires a look back at developments in England and, before that, in Holland. With the relative leveling of society in the wake of the Renaissance, and ...
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An understanding of thrift in the United States requires a look back at developments in England and, before that, in Holland. With the relative leveling of society in the wake of the Renaissance, and especially the Reformation, aristocratic virtues gradually lost their long-held social dominance. In their place arose new commercial and civic virtues that legitimated the rising capitalist order. This chapter shows that the lesson of this early history is not what many have assumed. It questions the oft-repeated assumption that it was an increase in savings due to thrift that drove the rise of capitalism as the dominant economic order in the Anglo-American world. The chapter demonstrates that all of the historical evidence points instead to a combination of relative political freedom and technological innovation that led to the most dramatic economic growth—by a factor of eighteen—in world history. However, it concedes that thrift's social status did change in the period leading up to the Industrial Revolution from an utterly unremarkable feature of human existence to a marker of middle-class respectability and comportment. Along with all the economic virtues, thrift became an important regulating ideal.Less
An understanding of thrift in the United States requires a look back at developments in England and, before that, in Holland. With the relative leveling of society in the wake of the Renaissance, and especially the Reformation, aristocratic virtues gradually lost their long-held social dominance. In their place arose new commercial and civic virtues that legitimated the rising capitalist order. This chapter shows that the lesson of this early history is not what many have assumed. It questions the oft-repeated assumption that it was an increase in savings due to thrift that drove the rise of capitalism as the dominant economic order in the Anglo-American world. The chapter demonstrates that all of the historical evidence points instead to a combination of relative political freedom and technological innovation that led to the most dramatic economic growth—by a factor of eighteen—in world history. However, it concedes that thrift's social status did change in the period leading up to the Industrial Revolution from an utterly unremarkable feature of human existence to a marker of middle-class respectability and comportment. Along with all the economic virtues, thrift became an important regulating ideal.
P. S. Atiyah
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198254447
- eISBN:
- 9780191681493
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198254447.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
This is a revised edition of the paperback Essays on Contract, which was published by OUP in 1988. With the addition of a previously unpublished chapter, this chapter is an up-to-date and ...
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This is a revised edition of the paperback Essays on Contract, which was published by OUP in 1988. With the addition of a previously unpublished chapter, this chapter is an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the views on the law and theory of contract. The new essay, ‘Freedom of Contract and the New Right’, charts the latest shift in the development of contract law, this time back in the direction of Freedom of Contract. This shift, the author argues, can be traced directly to the growing strength of the ‘New Right’ and its advocacy of political and economic freedom.Less
This is a revised edition of the paperback Essays on Contract, which was published by OUP in 1988. With the addition of a previously unpublished chapter, this chapter is an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the views on the law and theory of contract. The new essay, ‘Freedom of Contract and the New Right’, charts the latest shift in the development of contract law, this time back in the direction of Freedom of Contract. This shift, the author argues, can be traced directly to the growing strength of the ‘New Right’ and its advocacy of political and economic freedom.
Walter Armbrust
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691162645
- eISBN:
- 9780691197517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691162645.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter assesses the most important period in the revolution, namely the last three months of 2011. By that time the revolutionary forces—those that stayed mobilized or that remobilized ...
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This chapter assesses the most important period in the revolution, namely the last three months of 2011. By that time the revolutionary forces—those that stayed mobilized or that remobilized periodically throughout the year—had articulated a series of demands that went far beyond the ubiquitous but vague “bread, freedom, and social justice” slogan. They included the cleansing of institutions from Mubarakist elements, greater autonomy and political freedom within universities and al-Azhar, independent labor unions, the cessation of military trials for civilians, unambiguous civilian rule, and redress for those killed or injured by the security forces. None of this had anything to do with an institutionally nurtured “democratic transition” that occupied the attention of political scientists; none of it was acknowledged by institutions or powerful public figures, who never deviated from the line that the revolution was incoherent, and merely the product of a few feckless youths. Hence, chants at demonstrations of “down with military rule” were heard by March, but it was a series of massacres and street battles beginning in October and lasting until early February of 2012 that brought anti-SCAF (Supreme Council for the Armed Forces) sentiment much more openly into the mainstream than anyone could have dreamed, given the deeply institutionalized reverence for the military in Egyptian public culture. At that point, the military had little choice but to push ahead with elections that it knew would result in a transfer of power to the Muslim Brotherhood.Less
This chapter assesses the most important period in the revolution, namely the last three months of 2011. By that time the revolutionary forces—those that stayed mobilized or that remobilized periodically throughout the year—had articulated a series of demands that went far beyond the ubiquitous but vague “bread, freedom, and social justice” slogan. They included the cleansing of institutions from Mubarakist elements, greater autonomy and political freedom within universities and al-Azhar, independent labor unions, the cessation of military trials for civilians, unambiguous civilian rule, and redress for those killed or injured by the security forces. None of this had anything to do with an institutionally nurtured “democratic transition” that occupied the attention of political scientists; none of it was acknowledged by institutions or powerful public figures, who never deviated from the line that the revolution was incoherent, and merely the product of a few feckless youths. Hence, chants at demonstrations of “down with military rule” were heard by March, but it was a series of massacres and street battles beginning in October and lasting until early February of 2012 that brought anti-SCAF (Supreme Council for the Armed Forces) sentiment much more openly into the mainstream than anyone could have dreamed, given the deeply institutionalized reverence for the military in Egyptian public culture. At that point, the military had little choice but to push ahead with elections that it knew would result in a transfer of power to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Keith Ewing and Conor Anthony Gearty
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198762515
- eISBN:
- 9780191695193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198762515.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
It is widely believed that there was a golden age in which political freedom in Britain was protected by the rule of law, and by judges developing the common law in favour of individual liberty. This ...
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It is widely believed that there was a golden age in which political freedom in Britain was protected by the rule of law, and by judges developing the common law in favour of individual liberty. This study, based on a wide range of official and unofficial sources, examines the mythical nature of much of this traditional learning. The book traces the hostile response of the executive and judicial branches of government to the various groups and individuals who confronted the power of the State in the first half of the 20th century: the wartime peace movements, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the striking trade unionists in 1926, the hunger marches, and the Irish Nationalists. In addressing these issues, the study has a contemporary resonance, by placing in a new and alarming historical context the struggles for civil liberties that have been and are being fought by radical groups in contemporary British Society, and during the Thatcher decade in particular.Less
It is widely believed that there was a golden age in which political freedom in Britain was protected by the rule of law, and by judges developing the common law in favour of individual liberty. This study, based on a wide range of official and unofficial sources, examines the mythical nature of much of this traditional learning. The book traces the hostile response of the executive and judicial branches of government to the various groups and individuals who confronted the power of the State in the first half of the 20th century: the wartime peace movements, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the striking trade unionists in 1926, the hunger marches, and the Irish Nationalists. In addressing these issues, the study has a contemporary resonance, by placing in a new and alarming historical context the struggles for civil liberties that have been and are being fought by radical groups in contemporary British Society, and during the Thatcher decade in particular.
Andrew Johnstone
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453250
- eISBN:
- 9780801454738
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453250.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of ...
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This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of fascist aggression. As war approached, the internationalist movement attempted to arouse the nation in order to defeat noninterventionism at home and fascism overseas. This book's examination of this movement undermines the common belief that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor wrenched an isolationist United States into global armed conflict and the struggle for international power. The book focuses on three organizations—the American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Fight For Freedom—that actively promoted a more global role for the United States based on a conception of the “four freedoms” later made famous by FDR. The desire to be free from fear was seen in concerns regarding America's immediate national security. The desire to be free from want was expressed in anxieties over the nation's future economic prosperity. The need for freedom of speech was represented in concerns over the potential loss of political freedoms. Finally, the need for freedom of worship was seen in the emphasis on religious freedoms and broader fears about the future of Western civilization. These groups and their supporters among the public and within the government characterized the growing global conflict as one between two distinct worlds and in doing so, set the tone of American foreign policy for decades to come.Less
This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of fascist aggression. As war approached, the internationalist movement attempted to arouse the nation in order to defeat noninterventionism at home and fascism overseas. This book's examination of this movement undermines the common belief that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor wrenched an isolationist United States into global armed conflict and the struggle for international power. The book focuses on three organizations—the American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Fight For Freedom—that actively promoted a more global role for the United States based on a conception of the “four freedoms” later made famous by FDR. The desire to be free from fear was seen in concerns regarding America's immediate national security. The desire to be free from want was expressed in anxieties over the nation's future economic prosperity. The need for freedom of speech was represented in concerns over the potential loss of political freedoms. Finally, the need for freedom of worship was seen in the emphasis on religious freedoms and broader fears about the future of Western civilization. These groups and their supporters among the public and within the government characterized the growing global conflict as one between two distinct worlds and in doing so, set the tone of American foreign policy for decades to come.
Martin Breaugh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231156189
- eISBN:
- 9780231520812
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231156189.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
How do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, this book identifies fleeting yet ...
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How do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, this book identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 bce, the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. The people reject domination through political praxis and concerted action, therefore establishing an alternative form of power. This study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, this work undertakes exercises in political theory to show how concepts provide a different understanding of the meaning of historical events and our political present. This text describes a recurring phenomenon that clarifies struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles from ancient Rome to Occupy Wall Street and beyond.Less
How do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, this book identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 bce, the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. The people reject domination through political praxis and concerted action, therefore establishing an alternative form of power. This study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, this work undertakes exercises in political theory to show how concepts provide a different understanding of the meaning of historical events and our political present. This text describes a recurring phenomenon that clarifies struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles from ancient Rome to Occupy Wall Street and beyond.
