Suchergebnisse

Introduction -- A criminological classification -- Fearing the future -- The law of power -- Domination, hegemony and violence -- Inglorious human activities -- The ethics of power -- Balzac: power as crime -- Conclusion

The concepts of power and state - particularly embedded in the idea of the Great Power, with a geopolitical perspective and a profoundly aggressive character - are tantamount in importance to the Russia's elite political ideology. However, the existence of different emphases within such a political ideology, ranging from the active-obstructive to the passive stances, brings into question the factors of variation that might be responsible for the elite's level of determination to pursue these concepts over an internal or foreign policy development.In addressing this query, two tasks are set: descriptive - involving a survey of the content of Russian aggressive political ideology over different periods in history; and explanatory - determining circumstances that might account for the empowerment of one or other option of Russian aggressive political ideology. Therefore, the thesis includes a comparison of historical periods with similar relevance to the Russian state. The concern here is in relation to shifting factors of variations of aggressive political ideology acting in the space-frame of one state, but in different time-frame. Resting on these frames the thesis explores the shaping of the Russian elite's defining principles of state internal and foreign policy development and traces the factors of variation responsible for the empowerment of one or other particular form of the aggressive political ideology.The factors of variation discussed in the thesis are different in nature and intensity. The primary impetus for variation in the form that aggressive political ideology would take is determined by the factor of national distress. Other factors (regime volatility, political and economic motivations, information dissemination, and challenges within the international system) are responsible for the depth and extent to which aggressive ideology is going to resonate. No factor could create the variation by itself. The argument is that a specific set of factors is required to create the conditions for variations in the form the aggressive political ideology would take and to determine whether aggressive ideology would generate or not an obstructive political decision.

In this important book, Niklas Luhmann uses his powers as an analyst of the social system to examine two of the most important concepts which hold that system together and allow it to evolve: trust and power. He criticises those theoretical accounts whose roots lie in what he refers to as ideologies - accounts which use implicit beliefs in particular conceptions of human nature to explain and predict social action in a one-dimensional way. Theories of rational choice and moralistic explanations are taken to task, as are the theories of both Marx and Habermas. Luhmann's unique scientific sociology underpins every page and enables him to highlight the potential shortcomings of these narrative approaches. Underlying this approach is the idea that ideologically-based social theory, whether critical or conservative, is unable to do justice to the complexities existing within the parameters of social systems, individuals, and the interactions between them. He aims to show instead how only a painstaking systems analysis can capture these intricacies. Although written over 40 years ago, Luhmann's complex vision of the operations of trust and power provides a wealth of insights of considerable value to scholars and students grappling with contemporary social and economic problems. The editors' introduction to this new edition and the significant revisions they have made to the translation will help to reveal the richness and clarity of this vision and its relevance to the ways that trust and power operate in today's society.--

The conventional conception of the linkage between science & policy making is based on a rational & positivist science model of decision making that creates a false dichotomy between allegedly legitimate rational research utilization & illegitimate political research utilization. However, the rational decision-making ideal bears little resemblance to the reality of actual policy formulation. Alternative decision models -- eg, the satisfice model, cost-benefit analysis of rationality, & the garbage can model -- produce a more realistic account of social science research utilization. Awareness that research is transferred to & becomes part of a discourse of action reveals that the contribution of science to policy making is less tangible & potentially more influential than usually assumed. 67 References. Adapted from the source document.

This book offers a pluralistic vision of the way economists have dealt with the question of power in society over the last two centuries. Economists' ideas about power are examined from political, theoretical and policy-making points of view, with additional discussion of the active participation of economists in the management of power. The book is organized into four main conceptions of power relations: i) Power as embedded in political institutions; ii) Power as emerging from the asymmetric relations caused by the unequal distribution of income and wealth; iii) Power as associated to the monopolistic or oligopolistic position held by some firms in the market; and iv) Power as the management of economic policies by the state. Mosca brings together contributions from a range of scholars to analyse how economists have considered the role of power, putting the discussion into a much needed historical context. Manuela Mosca is Professor of History of Economic Thought in the Department of Economics, University of Salento, Italy and Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna, Italy. She is a member of the International Advisory Board of the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought and of the Editorial Board of History of Economic Theory and Policy. Her main research interests are the history of the theory of monopoly power and marginalism in Italy.--

Popular culture is saturated with claims about a science of human life. Demographics are said to predict how we will vote; chemicals in our brains, who we'll date; game-like scenarios, how we'll spend our money; and genes, what we will think. This text explores this flood of scientism as it has spread in the last fifty years into almost all facets of daily existence. Readers will discover how popular pseudoscience has radically changed the world we live in, including spheres as different as dating, economics, politics, and artificial intelligence.

This volume brings together theoretical meditations and empirical studies of the intersection of culture, power and history in social life. New strategies for marketing and advertising to children, the production of gendered subjectivity in maquiladora factories, the racialized economic history of the construction of the Chicago School of sociology, and the normalization of cosmetic plastic surgery in contemporary America-these are some of the crossroads under investigation here, where cultural meanings and practices are set against historical landscapes of power. Included are contributions from William Gamson, Juliet Schor, Stephen Pfohl, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, Jackie Orr, Leslie Salzinger, Eva Garroutte, Davarian Baldwin, Ramon Grosfoguel, Charlotte Ryan, Danielle Egan, Charles Sarno, Steve Farough, Karen McCorkmack, Abigail Brooks, Aimee Van Wagenen and William Wood