Download Debate: Common Social concepts Anarchism: the state undesirable

Debate: Common Social concepts
Anarchism: the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society,
or anarchy. It seeks to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations.
(government of consent, not coercion)
Anarchy: Absence of organized government
Aristocracy: a form of government in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule.
Authoritarianism: a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is opposed
to individualism and democracy. In politics, an authoritarian government is one in which political power
is concentrated in a leader or leaders, typically unelected, who possess exclusive, unaccountable, and
arbitrary power.
Democracy: where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum (direct
democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy).
Hegemony: is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over
other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter.
Iron law of Oligarchy: (a political theory) It states that all forms of organization, regardless of how
democratic or autocratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop into oligarchies.
The reasons for this are the technical indispensability of leadership, the tendency of the leaders to
organize themselves and to consolidate their interests; the gratitude of the led towards the leaders; and
the general immobility and passivity of the masses.
Matriarchy: refers to a gynecocentric form of society, in which the leading role is taken by the women
and especially by the mothers of a community.
Meritocracy: a system of aristocratic or oligarchical government or other organization wherein
appointments are made and responsibilities assigned to individuals based upon demonstrated
intelligence and ability (merit), evaluated through the use of institutionalized examination.
Oligarchy: a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small segment of society
distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, military control, or religious hegemony.
Oligopoly: market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers
(oligopolists).
Patriarchy: a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority
over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the
dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It may also include title being traced through the male
line.
Plutocracy: rule by the wealthy or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and
oligarchy is called plutarchy.
Monarchy: a form of government in which all political power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an
individual or individuals. As a political entity, the monarch is the head of state, generally until their death
or abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state.”
Theocracy: a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler,
or in a higher sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or
by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.
Stoicism: The Stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a
sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions. Stoics were
concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief
that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the
Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an
individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how he behaved.
Zionism: a nationalist Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, calls for the selfdetermination of the Jewish people and a sovereign, Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment
of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to support and advocate on behalf of
the Jewish state, and its current existence.
Capitalism: an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply,
demand, price, distribution, and investments are determined mainly by private decisions in the free
market, rather than by the state through central economic planning or through democratic planning;
profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed by
businesses.
Classical liberalism: It is committed to the ideal of limited government and liberty of individuals
including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets. Central to classical liberalism
was a view of human nature as selfish, calculating, idle and atomistic. Being selfish, people were
motivated solely by pain and pleasure. Being calculating, they made decisions intended to maximize
pleasure and minimize pain. If there were no opportunity to increase pleasure or reduce pain, they
would become idle. Therefore the only motivation for labour was either the possibility of great reward
or fear of hunger.
Colonialism: the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.
Colonialism is a process whereby sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the metropole and social
structure, government and economics within the territory of the colony are changed by the colonists.
Colonialism is a certain set of unequal relationships, between metropole and colony and between
colonists and the indigenous population. The reasons for the practice of colonialism at this time include:
 The profits to be made.
 To expand the power of the metropole.
 To escape persecution in the metropole.
 To spread the colonists way of life including religion and political philosophy.
Some colonists also felt they were helping the indigenous population by bringing them civilization.
However, the reality was often subjugation, displacement or death.
Communism: a sociopolitical structure that aims for a classless and stateless society with the communal
ownership of property.
Conservatism: a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions
and opposes rapid change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are,
emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way
things were."
Egalitarianism: is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort. Its general premise is that people
should be treated as equals on certain dimensions such as religiously, politically, economically, socially,
or culturally. Egalitarian doctrines maintain that all human persons are equal in fundamental worth or
moral status.
Fascism: a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to organize a nation
according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the
economy. Fascism rejects the concepts of egalitarianism, materialism, and rationalism in favor of action,
discipline, hierarchy, spirit, and will. They oppose liberalism — as a bourgeois movement — and
Marxism — as a proletarian movement — for being exclusive economic class-based movements. Fascists
present their ideology as that of an economically trans-class movement that promotes ending economic
class conflict to secure national solidarity. They identify violence and war as actions that create national
regeneration, spirit and vitality. In fascism, the country is considered more important than any one
person.
Federalism: found in a federation in which different constituent states possess different powers: one or
more of the states has considerably more autonomy than the other substates, although they have the
same constitutional status. The division of powers between substates is not symmetric. This is in
contrast to a symmetric federation, where no distinction is made between constituent states. As a
result, it is frequently proposed as a solution to the dissatisfactions that arise when one or two
constituent units feel significantly different needs from the others, as the result of an ethnic, linguistic or
cultural difference.
Feminism: political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater, equal, or, among
a minority, superior rights and participation in society for women and girls. These rights and means of
participation include legal protection and inclusion in politics, business, and scholarship, and recognition
and building of women's cultures and power.
Humanism: approach in study, philosophy, or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. The
most important Humanist ethic is that humans deserve respect. Every human should be treated with
respect and allowed to have dignity. If all people act with respect for others, then people will live in
peace and trust. [*Reasoning]
Imperialism: is "the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial
relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and
subordination." Imperialism has been described as a primarily western concept that employs
"expansionist – mercantilist and latterly communist – systems." a policy (way of governing) in which
large or powerful countries seek to extend their authorities by conquering or by establishing economic
and political control over other countries. Some large or powerful countries control other regions to
create a bigger empire.
Leninism: a political theory and practice of the dictatorship of the proletariat, led by a revolutionary
vanguard party. Developed by and named after Russian revolutionary and politician Vladimir Lenin,
Leninism comprises political and socialist economic theories, developed from Marxism, and Lenin's
interpretations of Marxist theory within the agrarian Russian Empire of the early 20th century. Leninism
reversed Marx’s order of economics over politics, allowing for a political revolution led by a vanguard
party of professional revolutionaries rather than a spontaneous uprising of the working class as
predicted by Karl Marx.
Liberalism: the belief in the importance of liberty and equality. Liberals espouse a wide array of views
depending on their understanding of these principles, but most liberals support such fundamental ideas
as constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the
separation of church and state.
Libertarianism: advocacy for individual liberty with libertarians generally sharing a distinct regard for
individual freedom of thought and action, as well as a strong suspicion of coercive authority, such as
that of government.
Marxism:
1. The dialectical and materialist concept of history — Humankind's history fundamentally is a
struggle between social classes. The productive capacity of society is the foundation of society, and
as this capacity increases over time the social relations of production, class relations, evolve
through this struggle of the classes and pass through definite stages (primitive communism,
slavery, feudalism, capitalism). The legal, political, ideological and other aspects (e.g. art) of society
are derived from these production relations as is the consciousness of the individuals of which the
society is composed.
2. The critique of capitalism — Marx argues that in capitalist society, an economic minority (the
bourgeoisie) dominate and exploit an economic majority (the proletariat). Marx argues that
capitalism is exploitative, specifically the way in which unpaid labor (surplus value) is extracted
from the working class (the labor theory of value), extending and critiquing the work of earlier
political economists on value. Such commodification of human labor according to Marx, creates an
arrangement of transitory serfdom. He argued that while the production process is socialized,
ownership remains in the hands of the bourgeoisie. This forms the fundamental contradiction of
capitalist society. Without the elimination of the fetter of the private ownership of the means of
production, human society is unable to achieve further development.
3. Advocacy of proletarian revolution — In order to overcome the fetters of private property the
working class must seize political power internationally through a social revolution and expropriate
the capitalist classes around the world and place the productive capacities of society into collective
ownership. Upon this, material foundation classes would be abolished and the material basis for all
forms of inequality between humankind would dissolve.
Determinism: the philosophical view that every event, including human cognition, behaviour, decision,
and action is causally determined (completely predictable) by previous events. Determinists believe the
universe is fully governed by causal laws resulting in only one possible state at any point in time. With
numerous historical debates, many varieties and philosophical positions on the subject of determinism
exist, most prominently the free will debates involving compatibilism and incompatibilism. Causal
determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and
conditions together with the laws of nature.
Moral Absolutism: the ethical view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of
other contexts such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Thus lying, for instance, might
be considered to be always immoral, even if done to promote some other good (e.g., saving a life), and
even if it does in the end promote such a good.
Consequentialism: refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular
action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action (or create a structure for judgment,
see rule consequentialism). Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right action is one that
produces a good outcome, or consequence. This view is often expressed as the aphorism "The ends
justify the means". Consequentialism is usually understood as distinct from deontology, in that
deontology derives the rightness or wrongness of an act from the character of the act itself rather than
the outcomes of the action, and from virtue ethics, which focuses on the character of the agent rather
than on the nature or consequences of the action itself. The difference between these three approaches
to morality tends to lie more in the way moral dilemmas are approached than in the moral conclusions
reached. For example, a consequentialist may argue that lying is wrong because of the negative
consequences produced by lying—though a consequentialist may allow that certain foreseeable
consequences might make lying acceptable. A deontologist might argue that lying is always wrong,
regardless of any potential "good" that might come from lying. A virtue ethicist, however, would focus
less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie
said about one's character and moral behavior.
Deontology: an approach to ethics that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence
to a rule or rules. Deontologists look at rules and duties. It is sometimes described as "duty" or
"obligation" or "rule" - based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty" Kant: Nothing in the world—
indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be conceived which could be called good without
qualification except a good will.
Categorical Imperative: According to Kant, human beings occupy a special place in creation, and
morality can be summed up in one ultimate commandment of reason, or imperative, from which all
duties and obligations derive. He defined an imperative as any proposition that declares a certain action
(or inaction) to be necessary. A hypothetical imperative compels action in a given circumstance: if I wish
to quench my thirst, I must drink something. A categorical imperative, on the other hand, denotes an
absolute, unconditional requirement that asserts its authority in all circumstances, both required and
justified as an end in itself. It is best known in its first formulation: "Act only according to that maxim
whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." The concept of the
categorical imperative is a syllogism. The first premise is that a person acts morally if his or her conduct
would, without condition, be the "right" conduct for any person in similar circumstances (the "First
Maxim"). The second premise is that conduct is "right" if it treats others as ends in themselves and not
as means to an end (the "Second Maxim"). The conclusion is that a person acts morally when he or she
acts as if his or her conduct was establishing a universal law governing others in similar circumstances
(the "Third Maxim").
Nihilism: the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more meaningful aspects of life.
Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life[1] is
without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not
inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived.
Moral Realism: Moral realists are those who think that, in these respects, things should be taken at face
value—moral claims do purport to report facts and are true if they get the facts right. Moreover, they
hold, at least some moral claims actually are true. That much is the common (and more or less defining)
ground of moral realism.
Moral Relativism: has the unusual distinction—both within philosophy and outside it—of being
attributed to others, almost always as a criticism, far more often than it is explicitly professed by
anyone. The term ‘moral relativism’ is understood in a variety of ways. Most often it is associated with
an empirical thesis that there are deep and widespread moral disagreements and a metaethical thesis
that the truth or justification of moral judgments is not absolute, but relative to some group of persons.
Sometimes ‘moral relativism’ is connected with a normative position about how we ought to think
about or act towards those with whom we morally disagree, most commonly that we should tolerate
them.
Nazism: was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany. It was a unique variety of
fascism that involved biological racism and anti-Semitism. Nazism presented itself as politically syncretic,
incorporating policies, tactics and philosophies from right- and left-wing ideologies; in practice, Nazism
was a far right form of politics.
Neo-Conservatism: a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which
supports using modern American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and
human rights to other countries. Consequently the term is chiefly applicable to certain Americans and
their strong supporters. In economics, unlike paleoconservatives and libertarians, neoconservatives are
generally comfortable with a welfare state; and, while rhetorically supportive of free markets, they are
willing to interfere for overriding social purposes.
Socialism: an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative
management of the means of production and allocation of resources. In a socialist economic system,
production is carried out by a free association of workers to directly maximize use-values (instead of
indirectly producing use-value through maximizing exchange-values), through coordinated planning of
investment decisions, distribution of surplus, and the means of production. Socialism is a set of social
and economic arrangements based on a post-monetary system of calculation, such as labour time,
energy units or calculation-in-kind; at least for the production. Socialists advocate a method of
compensation based on individual merit or the amount of labour one contributes to society. They
generally share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth within a small segment
of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through a system of exploitation. They argue that
this creates an unequal society that fails to provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximize their
potential, and does not utilize technology and resources to their maximum potential in the interests of
the public. Socialists characterize full socialism as a society no longer based on coercive wage-labour,
organized on the basis of relatively equal power-relations and adhocracy rather than hierarchical,
bureaucratic forms of organization in the productive sphere.
Stalinism: the "theory and practice of communism" practiced by Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet
Union from 1928–1953. Stalinism, when used in its common derogatory sense, refers to socialist states
that use secret police, propaganda, and bureaucratic central planning of the economy, to enforce their
rule. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Stalinism is associated with a regime of terror and
totalitarian rule."
Utilitarianism: the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its utility in providing
happiness or pleasure as summed among all sentient beings. It is thus a form of consequentialism,
meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. Utilitarianism was described
by Bentham as "the greatest happiness or greatest felicity principle." Utility, the good to be maximized,
has been defined by various thinkers as happiness or pleasure (versus suffering or pain), although
preference: utilitarians define it as the satisfaction of preferences. It may be described as a life stance,
with happiness or pleasure being of ultimate importance.
Materialism: the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are
composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material
interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance.
Metaphysical Naturalism: This stance is concerned with existence: what does exist and what does not
exist? Naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is, and all basic truths are truths of
nature."
Methodological Naturalism: This stance is concerned with knowledge: what are methods for gaining
trustworthy knowledge of the natural world? It is an epistemological view that is specifically concerned
with practical methods for acquiring knowledge, irrespective of one's metaphysical or religious views. It
requires that hypotheses be explained and tested only by reference to natural causes and events.
Explanations of observable effects are considered to be practical and useful only when they hypothesize
natural causes (i.e., specific mechanisms, not indeterminate miracles). Methodological naturalism is the
principle underlying all of modern science.
Altruism: selfless concern for the welfare of others. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of
loyalty and duty. Altruism focuses on a motivation to help others or a want to do good without reward,
while duty focuses on a moral obligation towards a specific individual, a specific organization (for
example, a government), or an abstract concept (for example, patriotism etc.). Some individuals may
feel both altruism and duty, while others may not. Pure altruism is giving without regard to reward or
the benefits of recognition and need.
Meech lake Accord: was a set of failed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987
by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and nine provincial premiers, including Premier of Quebec Robert
Bourassa. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982
Canadian Constitution and increase support in Quebec for remaining within Canada. However, its
rejection had the opposite effect of energizing support for Quebec sovereignty. It identified five main
modifications to the Canadian constitution:
 a recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society"
 a constitutional veto for Quebec and the other provinces
 increased provincial powers with respect to immigration
 extension and regulation of the right for a reasonable financial compensation to any province
that chooses to opt out of any future federal programs in areas of exclusive provincial
jurisdiction
 provincial input in appointing senators and Supreme Court judges
Canadian Confederation: was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed,
officially beginning on July 1, 1867. On that date, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian
provinces. The British Province of Canada was divided into two the new Canadian provinces of Ontario
and Quebec, and two other British colonies, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, also became provinces of
Canada.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It
forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Charter guarantees certain political rights to
Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all levels of
government. It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The
Charter was signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982 (along with the rest of the
Act).
Indian Act: is a Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians (that is, First Nations peoples of
Canada), their bands, and the system of Indian reserves. The Indian Act was enacted in 1876 by the
Parliament of Canada under the provisions of Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, which
provides Canada's federal government exclusive authority to legislate in relation to "Indians and Lands
Reserved for Indians". The Indian Act is administered by the Development. The Act defines who is an
"Indian" and contains certain legal rights and legal disabilities for registered Indians. The rights exclusive
to Indians in the Indian Act are beyond legal challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. Section Twenty-five of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in particular, provides
that the charter shall not be interpreted as negating specific aboriginal treaties and their corresponding
rights and freedoms.[1] Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 also recognizes and affirms the
legal validity of aboriginal treaties.
Persons Case: is a famous Canadian and British constitutional case where it was first decided that
women were eligible to sit in the Canadian Senate. The case, put forward by a group of women known
as the Famous Five, went all the way to the Imperial Privy Council, then the court of last resort for
Canada, and was a landmark case in at least two respects. The persons case established that Canadian
women were eligible to be appointed senators and more generally, that Canadian women had the same
rights as Canadian men with respect to positions of political power. Second, it established what came to
be known as the "living tree doctrine", which is a doctrine of constitutional interpretation that says that
a constitution is organic and must be read in a broad and liberal manner so as to adapt it to changing
times.
Bourgeoisie: describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late
eighteenth century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital
and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist (plural: bourgeois;
capitalists). Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the social class that owns the means of production in a
capitalist society. Marxism views the group as emerging from the wealthy urban classes in pre- and early
capitalist societies.
[Canadian] Crown corporations: enterprises owned by the federal government of Canada (the Queen in
Right of Canada), one of Canada's provincial governments (the Queen in right of a province) or one of
the territorial governments. Crown corporations have a long standing presence in the country and have
been instrumental in the formation of the state. They are involved in everything from the distribution,
use, and price of certain goods and services to energy development, resource extraction, public
transportation, cultural promotion, and property management.
Budget Deficit: occurs when an entity spends more money than it takes in.[1] The opposite of a budget
deficit is a budget surplus. An accumulated governmental deficit over several years (or decades) is
referred to as the government debt. Government debt is usually financed by borrowing, although if a
government's debt is denominated in its own currency it can print new currency to pay debts.
Monetizing debts, however, can cause rapid inflation (but does not necessarily do so) if done on a large
scale. Governments can also sell assets to pay off debt. Most governments finance their debts by issuing
long-term government bonds or shorter term notes and bills, often sold by auction. Governments
usually must pay interest on what they have borrowed. Governments reduce debt when their revenues
exceed their current expenditures and interest costs. Otherwise, government debt increases, requiring
the issue of new government bonds or other means of financing debt, such as asset sales.
Fiscal Crisis: Actual or supposed inability of the state to raise enough tax revenue to pay for its
programme.
Fiscal Policy: is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection to influence the economy.
Fiscal policy can be contrasted with the other main type of macroeconomic policy, monetary policy,
which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and the supply of money. The two
main instruments of fiscal policy are government expenditure and taxation. Changes in the level and
composition of taxation and government spending can impact on the following variables in the
economy:
 Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity;
 The pattern of resource allocation;
 The distribution of income.
Fiscal policy refers to the use of the government budget to influence the first of these: economic
activity. The three possible stances of fiscal policy are neutral, expansionary and contractionary. The
simplest definitions of these stances are as follows:
 A neutral stance of fiscal policy implies a balanced economy. this results in a large tax revenue.
Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a
neutral effect on the level of economic activity.
 An expansionary stance of fiscal policy involves government spending exceeding tax revenue.
 A contractionary fiscal policy occurs when government spending is lower than tax revenue.
Flat Tax: a tax system with a constant tax rate. A flat tax may also be called a tax in rem ("against the
thing"), such as an excise tax on gasoline of three cents per gallon. Usually the term flat tax refers to
household income (and sometimes corporate profits) being taxed at one marginal rate, in contrast with
progressive or regressive taxes that vary according to parameters such as income or usage levels. Flat
taxes offer simplicity in the tax code, which has been reported to increase compliance and decrease
administration costs.
Flat taxes that allow a tax exemption for household income below a cutoff level are not true
proportional taxes, because, for household incomes below the cutoff level, taxable income is less than
total income.
Free trade: a system of trade policy that allows traders to act and or transact without interference from
government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual
gains from trade of goods and services. Under a free trade policy, prices are a reflection of true supply
and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. Free trade differs from other forms of
trade policy where the allocation of goods and services amongst trading countries are determined by
artificial prices that may or may not reflect the true nature of supply and demand. These artificial prices
are the result of protectionist trade policies, whereby governments intervene in the market through
price adjustments and supply restrictions. Such government interventions can increase as well as
decrease the cost of goods and services to both consumers and producers. Interventions include
subsidies, taxes and tariffs, non-tariff barriers, such as regulatory legislation and quotas, and even intergovernment managed trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) (contrary to their formal titles) and any
governmental market intervention resulting in artificial prices. Most states conduct trade policies that
are to a lesser or greater degree protectionist. One ubiquitous protectionist policy employed by states
comes in the form of agricultural subsidies whereby countries attempt to protect their agricultural
industries from outside competition by creating artificial low prices for their agricultural goods. Free
trade agreements are a key element of customs unions and free trade areas. The details and differences
of these agreements are covered in their respective articles. Free trade implies the following features:
 trade of goods without taxes (including tariffs) or other trade barriers (e.g., quotas on imports or
subsidies for producers)
 trade in services without taxes or other trade barriers
 The absence of "trade-distorting" policies (such as taxes, subsidies, regulations, or laws) that
give some firms, households, or factors of production an advantage over others
 Free access to markets
 Free access to market information
 Inability of firms to distort markets through government-imposed monopoly or oligopoly power
 The free movement of labor between and within countries
 The free movement of capital between and within countries
Globalization: describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become
integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. The term is
sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies
into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and
the spread of technology. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination
of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the
transnational circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation.
Gross Domestic Product: is a measure of a country's overall official economic output. It is the market
value of all final goods and services officially made within the borders of a country in a year. It is often
positively correlated with the standard of living, though its use as a stand-in for measuring the standard
of living has come under increasing criticism and many countries are actively exploring alternative
measures to GDP for that purpose.
Keynesian Economics: a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th century British economist
John Maynard Keynes. Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to
inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and therefore advocates active policy responses by the public
sector, including monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government
to stabilize output over the business cycle. The theories forming the basis of Keynesian economics were
first presented in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936; the
interpretations of Keynes are contentious, and several schools of thought claim his legacy. Keynesian
economics advocates a mixed economy—predominantly private sector, but with a large role of
government and public sector—and served as the economic model during the latter part of the Great
Depression, World War II, and the post-war economic expansion (1945–1973), though it lost some
influence following the stagflation of the 1970s. The advent of the global financial crisis in 2007 has
caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought. The former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President
of the United States Barack Obama, and other world leaders have used Keynesian economics through
government stimulus programs to attempt to assist the economic state of their countries. Keynes
believed that the government should spend a lot of money (even if it has to borrow the money and go
into debt) to create jobs for unemployed people, and then those people would spend their money,
which would create more jobs and get the economy's motor running again.
Laissez Faire: describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from
state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies. The phrase is
French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone."
Luddites: were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested –
often by destroying mechanized looms - against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution,
which they felt was leaving them without work and changing their way of life. It took its name from
Luddite movement emerged in the harsh economic climate of the Napoleonic Wars and difficult working
conditions in the new textile factories. The principal objection of the Luddites was to the introduction of
new wide-framed automated looms that could be operated by cheap, relatively unskilled labour,
resulting in the loss of jobs for many skilled textile workers. The movement began in 1811 and 1812,
when mills and pieces of factory machinery were burned by handloom weavers, and for a short time
was so strong that Luddites clashed in battles with the British Army. Measures taken by the British
government to suppress the movement included a mass trial at York in 1812 that resulted in many
executions and transportations. The action of destroying new machines had a long tradition before the
Luddites, especially within the textile industry. Many inventors of the 18th century were attacked by
vested interests who were threatened by new and more efficient ways of making yarn and cloth. Samuel
Crompton, for example, had to hide his new spinning mule in the roof of his house at Hall i' th' Wood in
1779 to prevent it being destroyed by the mob.
Historical Materialism: can be seen to rest on the following principles:
 1. The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to produce the means of
subsistence.
 2. There is a division of labour into social classes (relations of production) based on property
ownership where some people live from the labour of others.
 3. The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production.
 4. The mode of production is based on the level of the productive forces.
 5. Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is displaced by a new emerging
class, by overthrowing the "political shell" that enforces the old relations of production no
longer corresponding to the new productive forces. This takes place in the superstructure of
society, the political arena in the form of revolution, whereby the underclass "liberates" the
productive forces with new relations of production, and social relations, corresponding to it.
Invisible hand of the Market: the term economists use to describe the self-regulating nature of the
marketplace. This is a metaphor first coined by the economist Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral
Sentiments. For Smith, the invisible hand was created by the conjunction of the forces of self-interest,
competition, and supply and demand, which he noted as being capable of allocating resources in
society. This is the founding justification for the laissez-faire economic philosophy. Smith uses the
metaphor in the context of an argument against protectionism and government regulation of markets,
but it is based on very broad principles developed by Bernard Mandeville, Bishop Butler, Lord
Shaftesbury, and Francis Hutcheson. In general, the term “invisible hand” can apply to any individual
action that has unplanned, unintended consequences, particularly those that arise from actions not
orchestrated by a central command, and that have an observable, patterned effect on the community.
Market Economy: economy based on the power of division of labor in which the prices of goods and
services are determined in a free price system set by supply and demand. This is often contrasted with a
planned economy, in which a central government determines the price of goods and services using a
fixed price system. Market economies are also contrasted with mixed economy where the price system
is not entirely free but under some government control or heavily regulated, which is sometimes
combined with state-led economic planning that is not extensive enough to constitute a planned
economy. In the real world, market economies do not exist in pure form, as societies and governments
regulate them to varying degrees rather than allow self-regulation by market forces. The term freemarket economy is sometimes used synonymously with market economy, but, as Ludwig Erhard once
pointed out, this does not preclude an economy from having socialist attributes opposed to a laissezfaire system. Economist Ludwig von Mises also pointed out that a market economy is still a market
economy even if the government intervenes in pricing. Different perspectives exist as to how strong a
role the government should have in both guiding the market economy and addressing the inequalities
the market produces. For example, there is no universal agreement on issues such as central banking,
and welfare. However, most economists oppose protectionist tariffs. The term market economy is not
identical to capitalism where a corporation hires workers as a labour commodity to produce material
wealth and boost shareholder profits. Market mechanisms have been utilized in a handful of socialist
states, such as China, Yugoslavia and even Cuba to a very limited extent. It is also possible to envision an
economic system based on independent producers, cooperative, democratic worker ownership and
market allocation of final goods and services; the labour-managed market economy is one of several
proposed forms of market socialism.
Monetarism: the view within monetary economics that variation in the money supply has major
influences on national output in the short run and the price level over longer periods and that objectives
of monetary policy are best met by targeting the growth rate of the supply. Monetarism is an economic
theory which focuses on the macroeconomic effects of the supply of money and central banking.
Formulated by Milton Friedman, it argues that excessive expansion of the money supply is inherently
inflationary, and that monetary authorities should focus solely on maintaining price stability. This theory
draws its roots from two almost diametrically opposed ideas: the hard money policies that dominated
monetary thinking in the late 19th century, and the monetary theories of John Maynard Keynes, who,
working in the inter-war period during the failure of the restored gold standard, proposed a demanddriven model for money which was the foundation of macroeconomics. While Keynes had focused on
the value stability of currency, with the resulting panics based on an insufficient money supply leading
to alternate currency and collapse, then Friedman focused on price stability, which is the equilibrium
between supply and demand for money.
Petite Bourgeoisie: a French term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social
classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Starting from the mid-19th century, the term was used by
Karl Marx and Marxist theorists to refer to a social class that included shop-keepers and professionals.
Though distinct from the ordinary working class and the lumpenproletariat, who rely entirely on the sale
of their labor-power for survival, the petty is different from the haute bourgeoisie, (high bourgeoisie) or
capitalist class, who own the means of production and buy the labor-power of others to work it. Though
the petite bourgeois may buy the labor power of others, in contrast to the haute bourgeoisie, they
typically work alongside their own employees; and although they generally own their own businesses,
they do not own a controlling share of the means of production. More important, the means of
production in the hands of the petite bourgeoisie do not generate enough surplus to be reinvested in
production; as such, they cannot be reproduced in an amplified scale, or accumulated, and do not
constitute capital properly.
Privatization: the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or
public service from the public sector (the state or government) to the private sector (businesses that
operate for a private profit) or to private non-profit organizations. In a broader sense, privatization
refers to transfer of any government function to the private sector - including governmental functions
like revenue collection and law enforcement. The term "privatization" also has been used to describe
two unrelated transactions. The first is a buyout, by the majority owner, of all shares of a public
corporation or holding company's stock, privatizing a publicly traded stock, and often described as
private equity. The second is a demutualization of a mutual organization or cooperative to form a joint
stock company.
Public sector: sometimes referred to as the state sector is a part of the state that deals with either the
production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens,
whether national, regional or local/municipal. Examples of public sector activity range from delivering
social security, administering urban planning and organizing national defenses.
Private sector: is that part of the economy which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a
means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state. By contrast, enterprises that are part of
the state are part of the public sector; private, non-profit organizations are regarded as part of the
voluntary sector.
Hegemony: the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over
other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter. While initially referring to the political
dominance of certain ancient Greek city-states over their neighbors, the term has come to be used in a
variety of other contexts, in particular Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural
hegemony. The term is often mistakenly used to suggest brute power or dominance, when it is better
defined as emphasizing how control is achieved through consensus not force. (Dominance of one group
over other groups)
The Cold War: was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic
competition existing after World War II (1939–1945), primarily between the Soviet Union and its
satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, particularly the United States. Although the
primary participants' military forces never officially clashed directly, they expressed the conflict through
military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable,
proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, a nuclear arms race, intense competition at international sports
events, and economic and technological competitions, such as the Space Race. Despite being allies
against the Axis powers and having the most powerful military forces among peer nations, the USSR and
the US disagreed about the configuration of the post-war world while occupying most of Europe. The
Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc with the eastern European countries it occupied, annexing some
as Soviet Socialist Republics and maintaining others as satellite states, some of which were later
consolidated as the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991). The US and some western European countries
established containment of communism as a defensive policy, establishing alliances such as NATO to
that end.
The Warsaw Pact (1955-1991): the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship,
Cooperation and Mutual Assistance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact subscribed by eight
communist states in Eastern Europe, which was established at the USSR’s initiative and realized on 14
May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland.
Proxy War: a war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each
other directly. While powers have sometimes used governments as proxies, violent non-state actors,
mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed. It is hoped that these groups can strike an
opponent without leading to full-scale war. Proxy wars have also been fought alongside full-scale
conflicts. It is almost impossible to have a pure proxy war, as the groups fighting for a certain nation
usually have their own interests, which can diverge from those of their patron. Typically proxy wars
function best during cold wars, as they become a necessity in conducting armed conflict between at
least two belligerents while continuing cold warfare.
Sovereignty: the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a
power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be
provided.