... demander for production (Polanyi; 1994). Similarly an oligopoly where there is only a small select number of companies providing a specific service, price can become very uncompetitive and does not necessarily reflect the needs and wants of the consumer. In the contemporary socio-economic sphere, Polanyi's analysis of market patterns and progression of markets can become increasingly relevant to investigating current socio-economic policy issues. When Polanyi's theory is extended ... to the real world it especially provides insight into the issues pertaining towards the labour market. P...

• Word Count: 1246
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... economy the impulse of self-interest would bring about the public welfare. Smith was opposed to monopolies and the concepts of mercantilism in general but he favored some restrictions to free trade, such as the Navigation Acts, as sometimes necessary national economic weapons in the existing state of the world. Smith identified self-interest as the basic economic force and, through his analysis of the division of labor and his comprehensive study of the development of economic ... institutions in the West, established economics as a major area of study. The Division of labor is the spec...

• Word Count: 451
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Graduate

Douglas North delineates the role of institutional structure and change in economic development. North analysis implicitly recognises the fact that something is inherently wrong in the developing world institutions as all the negative features of institutions have been well-entrenched with Path Dependence towards economically ineffective lock-in effects. This paper attempts to postulate on why this is so. It critiques the colonial capitalist institution that imposes alien formal ... constraints in the background of sustainable indigenous informal institutions ... ...

• Word Count: 1646
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the real problems of development, presenting an oversimplified view of development, along with strong resistance against development in the field, and romanticizing local traditions and social movements. Nevertheless, this discourse has had repercussions in developing new perspectives on development, as post-development arguments have shifted the views on certain aspects of development, including a rapprochement on political economy and cultural analysis ... . Escobar concluded his article recognizing that for post-development to be a socially effective tool depends on how we assess the c...

• Word Count: 3546
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Graduate

... and the ability of the "intelligentsia", to use and manipulate them in a way that will inspire nationalistic instincts most successfully. Smith's theory seems very convincing as it not only explains the rise of nationalism, but also roots it in a historical past. He does also highlight the uneven nature of nationalisms and ethno-histories and the idea of "periphery" nationalisms. Gellner has however claimed that his analysis conveniently excludes examples of nations ... or countries created from no individual cultural background or history, such as Estonia. It would seem, however, with ...

• Word Count: 3295
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: Graduate

... tend to be overwhelmingly Protestant." (Weber in Calhoun 2012:291) He observed that this phenomena is somewhat explainable by historical circumstances- in the 16th century, "a large number of the richest and most economically developed areas" converted to Protestantism. (Weber in Calhoun 2012:292) Although, historical reasoning does not fully account for ... the overwhelming representation of those who practice Protestantism among those considered as the haves in society- capitalists- and skilled workers. Weber then brings to light certain attributes of the Catholic faith that may have c...

• Word Count: 660
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... their demands. Moreover, capitalism excels in allocating scarce resources to where they are most economically productive, and it is the consumer demand that drives the allocation to the manufacturing of products and to the provision of services. Competition, which arises from the potential of the vast market, provides the incentive to supply goods and services as cheaply as possible and therefore use resources as efficiently as possible. Thus, while satisfying ... under these inspiring conditions. Capitalism is an economic system where property is privately owned and the interests of in...

• Word Count: 677
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the wellbeing of the society with out being profitable (public works and institutions). Smith starts his discussion on the duties of the State by saying, "The first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies, can be performed only by means of a military force." (Heilbroner, p290). After establishing the precedence of this duty over the others that follow Smith discusses the varying expense of this duty in both times of ... war and peace depending on the "different states of society" (Heilbroner, p290) and ... ...

• Word Count: 1236
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... key aspects of the nature of the neoliberal world. As part of the 'New Left', an emerging stance on the left wing of politics, Miliband disagreed with the notion of pluralism being a means of spreading political power across a wider spectrum than what he called the 'dominant class', which he asserted to maintain not only the majority of the wealth, but also the majority of political power ... as was reported in the New York Times, the top 1% own more than the bottom 90% combined, the 'control' being is in fact, statistically, being returned to the narrowest 'variety ...

• Word Count: 2635
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the animal's ability to forget, the species will also enable the ability to only appropriate elements of the past that are "life-serving" and forget those that are unnecessary or harmful to our happiness (Nietzsche, 36). While Karl Marx see's history as an opportunity for man to transform from a stratified society to an egalitarian one, Nietzsche may criticize Marx's use of empirical analysis when establishing the ... historic relationship between economic structure and class conflicts. Such an analysis is incompatible with Nietzsche's belief in forgetting history because it eliminates ...

• Word Count: 1000
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... , a system of economics based on the control of production by forces of popular appeal and buying capacity, in which the flow of revenue from such sale would be a cyclical process of profit and reinvestment (In otherwords, a breakdown of capitalism). Although some of the altruistic forces Smith mentioned soon became problems to the extent that government intervention was the only way out, his philosophy is still very relevant today as the first comprehensive analysis of the most ... successful economic system up-to-date, affecting the writing of all economic thinkers following ... ...

• Word Count: 575
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Graduate

... is likely that younger generations will be without any sense of what was attempted in the past by way of the Welfare State. These experiments in Canada can be seen as having been relatively brief although they did provide a basic safety net for thousands of marginal citizens. (Kudrle & Marmor, 1981) The return to cut-and-dried financial analysis and very much more growth-oriented economic thinking has ... let earlier attempts to buffer weaker sections of society from market forces ... ...

• Word Count: 3222
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... and considered inferior with the popular "A woman's place is in the kitchen" opinion by those in power. However, this situation has improved considerably in the last few decades. There has been a massive increase in women's participation in the labour force since WWII, with women now being an integral and visible component of the workforce Marx asserts that the course of human history is greatly ... focussed around the struggle between classes. Examples range from the patrician and plebeian in biblical times to the lord and serf in ... and social action depending on class does remain e...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... tale would be rather meaningless without the previous knowledge of the historical context of its time, specially the facts involving the Cardiff Giant statue, its creators and the profitable use they made out of it. The narrator of the tale describes his experience in a creepy dusty New York City apartment which he had recently moved in. At the very first night he was spending there, supernatural things invaded his privacy like ... chains clanking, heavy footsteps and his blanket pulled out while he was tucked in his bed trembling and scared to death of these strange phenomenons. Then t...

• Word Count: 368
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Graduate

... , 88) that reflects the idea of globalization which is " a relatively complete phenomenon in that it connects the economies of the entire planet demonstrates the connection of the global to the local it confirms that globalization is by no means a finished process - the crisis is solved by the IMF loans and regulations dominated by the US government with the IMF working closely with the US treasury" (Malcolm, 2001, 89), the US being the prime shareholder in IMF ... . The stringent conditions imposed by the US- backed IMF on Argentina ... ...

• Word Count: 506
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... should not flow to entrepreneurs because it increases the gap between rich and poor. Marx suggested that, "the two great economic interests are those of the capitalist and the worker(who) stand in opposition since the capitalist can only prosper if the worker is exploited," (63). Marx's critique of the entrepreneur is considered the foundation for socialist thought on the issue; however, the English entrepreneur Robert Owen suggested a model where ... should be distributed. Under socialist theories, human nature is inherently cooperative leading to the greatest social benefit from prod...

• Word Count: 1068
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... weakened just because liberal democracies have shifted their views slightly to the right in terms of what kind of equality they offer to their citizens. A shift in some of the values that liberal democracy represents does not mean it is being contradicted by capitalism, quite the contrary, this signals that the definition of what makes a liberal democracy is evolving just like numerous ... relationship. A capitalist economy supports liberal democracy by promoting it on a global scale. The article "Democracy and Market Economy" by professor Seizaburo Sato argues that capitalism is the mos...

• Word Count: 1285
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... majority did not. Innumerable social, political and economic problems face Africa today, and the question that often remains asked is whether these problems are truly the legacy of colonialism and the perpetual neo-colonial exploitation of Africa's resources, or the persistent failings of the country's leaders. One must acknowledge the damage that African leaders have inflicted upon their own continent. Colonialism has interrupted Africa's course, but this has been ... believes in using political power to amass wealth and to build rich empires while the generality of the people bear the...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... majority did not. Innumerable social, political and economic problems face Africa today, and the question that often remains asked is whether these problems are truly the legacy of colonialism and the perpetual neo-colonial exploitation of Africa's resources, or the persistent failings of the country's leaders. One must acknowledge the damage that African leaders have inflicted upon their own continent. Colonialism has interrupted Africa's course, but this has been ... believes in using political power to amass wealth and to build rich empires while the generality of the people bear the...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... to Marxists you will inevitably inherit a system where self-promotion and self-gain outweighs the need for collective well-being. It is engorged through the capitalist society to prioritise economic self-interest above the well being of the collective society, it promotes the thinking that the individual is more important than the collective, which is a dangerous concept in itself, since it promotes this notion ... , Parsons view that society is a meritocracy and a value consensus system to me nether seems to be the case, and doesn't explain why the same class keep braking the law. I do ...

• Word Count: 1725
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Graduate

... less attractive, business can threaten to move somewhere else, thus creating difficult choices for government about the balance between the need to keep business in place and the desire to tax and regulate it in the interests of the electorate. For the developing world, "doing what you are best at" in trade may mean providing sweatshop labour so ... the results of the neoliberal turn were not good, even in terms of growth which was poor for most of the 1980s. It is possible to identify three broad sets of responses to the neoliberal experience which approximately overlap with the three a...

• Word Count: 7309
• Approx Pages: 29
• Grade Level: Graduate