Search

George Bernard Shaw's political comedies, The Apple Cart and On the Rocks, explore loopholes of representative democracy and Shaw's prospect for reformative dictatorship as an alternative. The Apple Cart reveals the political apathy of English people with all good social welfare in the late twentieth century, which naturally leads to the parliamentary politics controlled by powerful conglomerates. In On the Rocks, representative democracy fails to address extreme unemployment, and the reform plan of the prime minister, Sir Arthur, faces opposition from both the labor class and the conservative. Therefore, Shaw hints at the temporary necessity for reformative dictatorship within constitutional limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with one of the largest covered-up financial affairs in Serbia between the two world wars, that was carried out with participation and knowledge of the very top of the political establishment at that time. The aim of the article is to contribute to the previous efforts to empirically prove how large-scale corruption worked, that is, how the plutocratization had shaped the political elites in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Through an analysis of the establishment and operation of banks and companies that were grouped into a large consortium called the Dragiša Matejić concern, the paper explains the mechanisms of hitherto uninvestigated financial malfeasance, cover-ups, and deliberate violations of the law by the highest state officials, as well as to what extent the principle of nepotism and cronyism prevailed in the business world.

This paper examines the effects of transitioning from a plutocratic to a meritocratic university admission system on students and society. We develop a theoretical model to predict the socioeconomic impacts of this transition and validate our predictions using simulations and empirical data from Georgia, where education reform shifted university admissions from a plutocratic system to a meritocratic one, providing a natural experiment that enables us to validate predictions of our theoretical model. The findings demonstrate positive outcomes for individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, including improved educational attainment and increased labor income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia Regional is the property of Historia Regional and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The fear that business corporations have claimed unwarranted constitutional protections which have entrenched corporate power has produced a broad social movement demanding that constitutional rights be restricted to human beings and corporate personhood be abolished. We develop a critique of these proposals organized around the three salient rationales we identify in the accompanying narrative, which we argue reflect a narrow focus on large business corporations, a misunderstanding of the legal concept of personhood, and a failure to distinguish different kinds of constitutional rights and the reasons for assigning them. Corporate personhood and corporate constitutional rights are not problematic per se once these notions are decoupled from biological, metaphysical, or moral considerations. The real challenge is that we need a principled way of thinking about the priority of human over corporate persons which does not reduce the efficacy of corporate institutions or harm liberal democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the relationship between conservatism to capitalist dictatorship. It argues that conservatism constitutes the prime ideological determinant and predictor of capitalist dictatorship, along with fascist and religious dictatorships. It establishes and specifies the connection of conservatism to capitalist dictatorship. It examines the historical emergence and evolution of conservatism in relation to capitalist dictatorship. In particular, it investigates the link of conservatism to capitalist dictatorship through anti-labor ideology. The paper concludes that conservatism comoves closely with capitalist dictatorship, just as with fascism and theocracy, and suggests further theoretical and empirical directions for further research. It aims to contribute to better understanding and explaining the links between conservatism and capitalist and similar dictatorship, including present trends in America post-2016 and via contagion or convergence other societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of transitioning from a plutocratic to a meritocratic university admission system on students and society. We develop a theoretical model to predict the socioeconomic impacts of this transition and validate our predictions using simulations and empirical data from Georgia, where education reform shifted university admissions from a plutocratic system to a meritocratic one, providing a natural experiment that enables us to validate predictions of our theoretical model. The findings demonstrate positive outcomes for individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, including improved educational attainment and increased labor income.

The Lancet stated in its editorial on the 9th of May 2020 that the situation in Brazil was very problematic insofar as the COVID-19 pandemic was concerned. More than a year later, Brazil already registered more than half a million deaths from complications of COVID-19, which places it in second place in the world ranking of deaths despite having the seventh-largest population in the world. Despite this utterly tragic situation, in July 2021, almost 40% of the Brazilian population approved of the federal government's role in confronting the pandemic, and the Brazilian elites have defended openly the view that the economy was more important than individuals' lives. Given this context, in this article, we reflect on the issue of plutocracy, demonstrating its platonic authoritarian foundations, in order to understand the Brazilian elites' attitude toward the pandemic, which had no proper regard or care for the most vulnerable in society. Through this philosophical inquiry we indicate the importance of education, particularly of philosophy of education, in encouraging educationists and educational systems to reflect on problematic issues and self-reflect so as to identify possible educational deficiencies and shortcomings that created the conditions for individuals' attitudes of indifference to the victims of the pandemic and the vulnerable in society.

Copyright of Studia Histórica: Historia Moderna is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article suggests that Trump’s presidency threatens the United States with a fascist future, and this threat persist even if he fails to be reelected. The article also considers other deficiencies of U.S. democracy including antiquated vote counting, voter suppression aimed at poor and minorities, rejections of reason and science, excessive influence of money, and political disempowerment of the citizenry. Only a transformative progressive movement outside the party system can fix U.S. democracy.

Despite his significant influence, the work of James M. Buchanan has been largely absent from the field of intellectual history and from recent attempts by historians to establish the intellectual origins of neoliberalism. The article explores the nature of Buchanan's intellectual project by focussing on the relationship of his thought to the 'Italian tradition', which he encountered during his year in Italy as a Fulbright Fellow. It is a tradition that encompasses both classical works of public finance and the 'elite theory' associated with Pareto and Mosca. An awareness of the importance of this Italian year helps us to reframe Buchanan's intellectual development. Furthermore, while he strove to exclude analyses of socio-economic power from his work, its proximity to a tradition in which this was a core concern throws into relief the points at which he chose not to pursue such considerations, forcing us to ask why. This article provides an answer. It concludes that, despite his efforts, Buchanan was forced to confront the reality of private power, as can be seen in his proposals for a confiscatory rate of inheritance tax. A response is also made to the controversy associated with Nancy MacLean's recent work on Buchanan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequalities in: capital, property, income; the regulations are contemporary and global society. The rate income on capital surpasses rate the economic growth. Implement is enormous concentration of capital. Large is number a rich mans and extreme wealthy. On other side enormous majority is smaller the well-off and poor. Increase and the layer global plutocrats. Project is decelerate dynamics growth. The future is foggy uncertainty, as and full risky. Target of the work is perceive growth sociable a inequalities as the urgent contemporary the problem. Apply is various the methodology (historical, deductive-inductive, structural, comparative, statistical and other analysis). The problem it is concentration of capital and possibility reduce the social divide. Similarly swear, the problem is it and long-term the decelerate dynamics of the economic growth. Conclude is that beneficial influence powers of the convergence and (or) of the divergence, as and mixed of the efficiencies whose a resultant to be able in the direction reduce a global inequalities. Development individually a regions to be able and to dynamism of the economic growth. Philosophical and economic, rate the return of capital surpass the rate economic growth (p>g). This the trend anticipate is and in 21. century. "the first basic law of capitalism": a participation income of capital in national income (a) increase is rate the return (r) on capital and relation capital and income (b) that is a = r x b. "Other basic law of capitalism": relation capital and income (b) quotient is rate of saving (s) and rate growth of national income (g) that is b = s/g. "Law cumulative growth": rather small annual rate the return in long a deadline cause powerful growth, initial, of capital. "Law behavior": money and profit are motor activities! Richest the layer make one percentage of people (1%) on highest top of pyramid! Plutocracy create of the world politics.

In this conversation, Andrea Fraser discusses her recent book, 2016 in Money, Museums, and Politics, which considers the imbricated relationships between plutocracy, political power, and cultural institutions in the United States. She discusses the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump and the rise of right-wing populism; the history of private philanthropy and museum patronage; recent activist campaigns demanding the resignation of museum trustees, such as Warren B. Kanders at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the concept of "reflexive resistance." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The close relationship between money and votes has been exposed in contemporary democracies through the influence of the former in election results and in the creation of public policies. Studies have pointed out that the progressive inequity of financial resources available to the candidates running for elections unbalances democracy and promotes plutocracy, increasing the oligarchical ruling over the political processes by the wealthiest citizens and groups. This work contributes to this debate by analyzing the relationship between fundraising and electoral performance and the success of 317,107 candidates running in local legislative elections in 2008, 2012, and 2016 in 441 Brazilian municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants. This is an unprecedented study regarding its period, filling a gap in electoral studies on sub-national elections, particularly regarding elections for the legislative branch. Data was collected from the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court, from candidate lists, results, and accounting. The tests and data analysis and information employed correlation and regression statistical resources, along with central measures and odds ratio. The results confirmed a strong association between money, vote, and electoral success, including in the 2016 election when company donations had been prohibited. The maintenance of a pattern, regarding both time and geography, indicates the existence of structural characteristics of a plutocratic character in the election funding of those running for the council in the municipalities studied and, consequently, in the creation of public policies in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vilfredo Pareto's legacy is uncertain; while his reputation in economics is secure, references to Pareto in contemporary sociology are few and fleeting. Sociologists and members of the public who are aware of Pareto's non-economic work likely associate the Italian polymath with a single zoological image: the lions and the foxes. This phrase has found some currency in political sociology but has also recently been employed in the popular press to explain contemporary social and political change. Yet such references are often only vaguely connected to Pareto's larger intellectual project. This article situates Pareto's imagery of lions and foxes in relationship to his larger work in order to transform this popular-but-vague image into useable sociological concepts. These concepts are then used to interpret contemporary political changes. Several arguments about Pareto's work are made in the course of this discussion: that Pareto was a cultural sociologist, that a culturalist understanding of religion played a central part in his explanations of social change, and that his theory of elites should supplement existing elite theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that Trump's presidency threatens the United States with a fascist future, and this threat persist even if he fails to be reelected. The article also considers other deficiencies of U.S. democracy including antiquated vote counting, voter suppression aimed at poor and minorities, rejections of reason and science, excessive influence of money, and political disempowerment of the citizenry. Only a transformative progressive movement outside the party system can fix U.S. democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article places and analyzes the Chicago school of economics within the framework of Mannheim's sociology of knowledge or ideas that posits and documents social determinants of ideas and ideologies. This framework reveals the Chicago school as the explicit or implicit ideology and utopia of plutocracy, oligarchy and aristocracy in the sense of apologetics of these social classes and/or systems, thus being the class form of 'apologetic economics'. Specifically, first, Chicago economics reveals itself as the collective‐unconscious apologetics of plutocracy, oligarchy and aristocracy. Second, it appears as the 'collective‐conscious' apologetics in this respect. In addition, it come close to the mostly covert collective‐unconscious or conscious apologetics of theocracy and fascism. The article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the social, in particular class, factors of Chicago and related schools of economics and generally of economic ideas, theories and policies by applying Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, especially its emphasis on the collective unconscious as the source of ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism opened up the world economy to fundamentally illiberal regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Practitioner's Note considers the disruptive function of Little Phil, a mobile app that seeks to democratize philanthropic giving. Although many of the cultural aspects of philanthropy - such as increased control over donation, tracking the impact of one's giving, and building interpersonal relationships with receivers - can be opened to any person with an app-hosting device and internet access, it cannot supplant the role of big philanthropy and solve Rob Reich's problem: how to domesticate private wealth so that it serves democratic purposes? Little Phil's disruption has in concept gotten us halfway to legitimizing philanthropy. Perhaps the uptake of citizens' panels by large philanthropic foundations will cover the remaining distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hispania: Revista Española de Historia is the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What kinds of elite influence count as undemocratic? Ongoing debates in American political science have called attention to the ability of the self-interested rich to convert money into influence over elected officials. This article argues that democratic criticism of elite influence should also extend to elite philanthropy. It uses the case of philanthropy to argue that elite influence can be undemocratic even when public-spirited in its motivations and even when it bypasses formal political institutions. So far, political theorists writing on philanthropy have focused on insulating formal political institutions from money's influence or on ensuring tax fairness in incentivizing philanthropy. I argue that this focus is too narrow: democratizing philanthropy requires addressing the policy mechanisms and the public attitudes that privilege the wishes of donors over those of recipient organizations or the broader community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lajos Szádeczky Kardoss (1859-1935) being an eminent scholar published a lot of books and studies, predominantly from the Transylvanian and Hungarian history of the 16- 17th centuries. He became a professor at the University of Budapest and later at the universities of Kolozsvár and Szeged. His style can be characterized as a vivid, picturesque and Romantic description of the events. However, he can be considered a positivist historian basing his statements ever on archival sources, which he often added as an appendix to his monographs. He published most of his studies between 1882 and 1898 on the Ottoman era of Hungary. His most outstanding volumes were written about the age of Michael voivode (The history of Transylvania and Michael, 1882-1883; republished in 1893) and about the Transylvanian and Polish ruler, Stephen Báthory (The Election of Stephen Báthory as a Polish King, 1887). He also published smaller monographies about other historical personalities (Gáspár Bekes; Farkas Kovacsóczy; Maria Christierna - wife of Sigismund Báthory; Imre Thököly) and besides a lot of other studies and source publications. The author of this study analyzes the works of Lajos Szádeczky-Kardoss, whom he regards a great historian and a good patriot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundations have limited legitimacy, profit from generous tax exemptions, have unlimited lifespans and only accountable to the will of their founder. Overall, they constitute an institutional curiosity that fosters plutocratic tendencies in democratic societies. Because of their specific structure, they also can become fields for experimentation for long-term social political innovations. In the long run, this could help foundations to become more democratically legitimised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trumpism poses a difficult challenge for counterpublic scholarship: should forms of right-nationalism dissenting against dominant publicity be analysed using the same concepts as other types of dissent? This article argues that Trumpism demonstrated counterpublic dissent against dominant campaign finance publicity by criticising the influence of wealthy donors in both political parties. Trumpism also offered an alternative to the dominant logic of necessary ethical compromise shaping publicity about campaign finance in the wake of the 2010 Citizens United US Supreme Court decision. However, Trumpism failed to foster greater democracy because of the way it posed Trump himself as the only necessary solution to the problems of plutocracy. Counterpublic theory should revisit the way it balances its normative and empirical dimensions to account for the rise of radical-right nationalisms and their publicity outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We must start with the recognition - officially hidden - that the political, traditionally thought of as the domain of power, has been displaced by the economic, specifically financial and monopoly capitalism, i.e., billionaires and multi-millionaires, as the base of power in today's world. Democratic politics, therefore, must be unmasked (and overturned) as plutocracy, as rule by the rich, hard as this task evidently is. While capitalist nihilism - reduction of all values to money - is ideologically defended by neo-liberals, from the "left" it is allegedly radically criticized by the deviations of surrealism, postmodernism, deconstruction, and schizo-politics (Deleuze-Guattari). The present paper challenges the latter claim, exposing these alternatives for their dishonest Epicureanism which not only leaves the status-quo intact but mimics the powerful: George W. Bush fluent in the equivocations of deconstruction, President Trump a perfect instance of Deleuzean delirium. Kant's distinction in "Perpetual Peace" (1795) between the "moral politician," who aims for the common good, and the "political moralist," lying opportunist for the wealthy, is enlisted to support this criticism. Countering the enduring Social Darwinist claim of the wealthy to special expertise in politics, the paper concludes with Aristotle's argument in Politics that the least qualified candidate for political office is the business person - whether Perot, Romney, Berlusconi or Trump - because such a person is consumed by selfishness and greed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]