Political Theory and History
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Critiques Of Libertarianism
Established 10/25/94. Last updated 09/26/11. Welcome to the web site dedicated to critiquing libertarianism! Introductory features:Soft Power, Cowering Embassies and Roman Forts « Silberzahn & Jones
Joseph Nye, an eminent political scientist at Harvard, wrote a book about “soft power” a few years ago.
In his speech to the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park, Slavoj Žižek lamented that “It’s easy to imagine the end of the world, but we cannot imagine the end of capitalism.”
Four Futures
This book (first published in 1993 by Spokesman, Nottingham, England) is our attempt to answer the idea that socialism is dead and buried after the demise of the Soviet Union. The core of the book consists of a series of chapters spelling out what we believe would be efficient and democratic methods for planning a complex economy. We also examine issues of inequality and its elimination, systems of payment for labour, a democratic political constitution for a socialist commonwealth, the commune as a set of arrangements for living, and property relations under socialism. The book "Towards a New Socialism" (TNS) is copyright (c) 1993 W. Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell.
Towards a New Socialism
Slavoj Žižek ( Slovene: [ˈslavoj ˈʒiʒɛk] ( listen ) ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovene philosopher and cultural critic . He is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy, University of Ljubljana , Slovenia, and a professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School . [ 1 ] Žižek writes widely on political theory , film theory , and theoretical psychoanalysis . [ 2 ] He achieved international recognition as a social theorist after the 1989 publication of his first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology , which disputed a Marxist interpretation of ideology as false consciousness and argued for ideology as an unconscious fantasy that structures reality.
Slavoj Žižek
Anarchism: Arguments for and against -- by Albert Meltzer - StumbleUpon
by Albert Meltzer Table of Contents Introduction Inalienable Tenets of Anarchism The Class Struggle Organisation and Anarchism The Role of an Anarchist in an Authoritarian Society Bringing About the New Society The Marxist Criticism of Anarchism The Social-Democratic Critique of Anarchism The Liberal-Democratic Objection to Anarchism The Fascist Objection to Anarchism The Average Person's Objection to Anarchism IntroductionErik Olin Wright (born 1947, in Berkeley , California ) is an American analytical Marxist sociologist , specializing in social stratification , and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism . He is the current (2012) President of the American Sociological Association. [ 1 ] [ edit ] Biography Erik Olin Wright, born on 9 February 1947 in Berkeley , California , received two BAs (from Harvard College in 1968, and from Balliol College in 1970), and the PhD from University of California, Berkeley , in 1976.
Erik Olin Wright
Egalitarianism (from French égal , meaning "equal")—or, rarely, equalitarianism [ 1 ] [ 2 ] —is a trend of thought that favors equality for particular categories of, or for all, living entities. Egalitarian doctrines maintain that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status, according to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . [ 3 ] The Cultural theory of risk holds egalitarianism as defined by (1) a negative attitude towards rules and principles, and (2) a positive attitude towards group decision-making, with fatalism termed as its opposite. [ 4 ] According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary , the term has two distinct definitions in modern English. [ 5 ] It is defined either as a political doctrine that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political , economic , social , and civil rights [ 6 ] or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities among people or the decentralization of power.
Egalitarianism
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, religious, economic, or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human being in a society or civilization . Collectivism is a basic cultural element that exists as the reverse of individualism in human nature (in the same way high context culture exists as the reverse of low context culture ). Collectivist orientations stress the importance of cohesion within social groups (such as an "in-group", in what specific context it is defined) and in some cases, the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists often focus on community, society, nation or country. It has been used as an element in many different and diverse types of government and political, economic and educational philosophies throughout history and most human societies in practice contain elements of both individualism and collectivism. Some examples of collectivist cultures include India and Japan.
Collectivism
Mutualism is an economic theory and anarchist school of thought that advocates a society where each person might possess a means of production , either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market . [ 1 ] Integral to the scheme was the establishment of a mutual-credit bank that would lend to producers at a minimal interest rate, just high enough to cover administration. [ 2 ] Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value that holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive goods or services embodying "the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility". [ 3 ] Mutualism originated from the writings of philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon . Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals receiving an income through loans, investments, and rent, as they believe these individuals are not laboring.
Mutualism (economic theory)
Participatory economics , often abbreviated parecon , is an economic system proposed in the 1990s primarily by activist and political theorist Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel , among others. It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and allocation of resources in a given society. Proposed as an alternative to contemporary capitalist market economies and also an alternative to centrally planned state-socialism , it is described as "an anarchistic economic vision", [ 1 ] and is a form of socialism, since in a parecon the means of production are owned in common . The underlying values that parecon seeks to implement are equity , solidarity , diversity, workers' self-management and efficiency. (Efficiency here means accomplishing goals without wasting valued assets.) It proposes to attain these ends mainly through the following principles and institutions: