Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons is an American sociologist who attempted to integrate all the social sciences into a science of human action. He was converted tofunctionalism under the influence of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. In “The Social System” 1951, Parsons argued that the crucial feature of societies, as of biological organisms, is homeostasis (maintaining a stable state), and

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Thorstein Bunde Veblen

Thorstein Veblen was an American economist and sociologist. Educated at Carleton College, Johns Hopkins University and Yale University, his most famous work, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) is a biting satire directed at the leisure class. He coined the widely used phrases “conspicuous consumption” and “pecuniary emulation”. Thorstein Veblen began his career

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William Edward Burghardt DuBois

W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At that time Great Barrington had perhaps 25, but not more than 50, Black people out of a population of about 5,000. Consequently, there were little signs of overt racism there. Nevertheless, its venom was distributed through a constant barrage of suggestive

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Activism (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of political tactics. Argument and persuasion are limited by existing circumstances. In order to change those circumstances action is necessary which either achieves real change or demonstrates possible changes. At its best, activism can avoid pessimism and resignation; at its worst, it can encourage the belief that action is an alternative to thought.

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Administrative theory (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of political tactics. Management theory of public administration. There is no single administrative theory, but rather a body of work which seeks to discover the general constraints, incentives, and structures within which administration, particularly administration in governmental or public institutions, is conducted. Source: Christopher Hood, Administrative Analysis (Brighton, 1986) Types of Public Administration

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Albert Otto Hirschman

Maverick economist, Albert Otto Hirschman, was a world traveller: born in Berlin, educated in Paris, London and Trieste (where he obtained his Ph.D.), fought in the French Army in 1940, emigrated to the United States in 1941, stayed two years at Berkeley, joined the US Army, joined the Federal Reserve in Washington in 1946,

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Alienation (19TH CENTURY- )

Variously defined, but principally the positive theory of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and the critical theory of the German political economist Karl Marx (1818-1883) of consciousness in history. Hegel: human history consists of the progressive divisions or alienations of consciousness, whereby complexity and identity are recognized in growing division. Spirit creates its word in

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Anarchism (19TH CENTURY- )

Theory advocating society without coercive government. Coercion and authority, of which government is the principal expression, are rejected as incompatible with freedom and autonomy. Society should be held together by voluntary co-operation. Human nature is naturally collaborative and social, and with the removal of all forms of power and authority a natural harmony can emerge or be cultivated. Anarchists have normally

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Anarcho-capitalism (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of unrestrained pursuit of economic self-interest. Anarcho-capitalism is the advocacy of an extreme blend of anarchism and free-market economics. Unlike anarchism, anarcho-capitalism assumes that individuals will naturally pursue their own self-interest. Unlike more mainstream advocacies of capitalist economics, anarcho-capitalism proposes doing away with government entirely and leaving all the functions normally carried out by the state, including

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Anarcha-feminism (20TH CENTURY)

Anarchism extended to take account of the oppression of women. Of all forms of coercion and authority, that based on sex is the most fundamental and the most oppressive. The liberation of women requires the ending of all forms of oppression, but must strike at the root of male oppression or patriarchy, which is both a

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Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was born in Ales, Italy, on the island of Sardinia, a relatively remote region of Italy that was mostly ignored by the Italian government in favor of the industrialized north (the problem of Sardinia had previously become part of the political activity of Giuseppe Mazzini in Turin’s senate). He was the fourth

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Aristocracy

Theory of hierarchy. Originally from the Greek ‘rule by the best’, but now attribution of quality to hereditary elites. In any society there will be a minority of people of superior skill, wisdom, experience and moral fibre. These qualities are likely to be transmitted through families and are thus to all intents and purposes

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Aristotelianism (4TH CENTURY BC- )

Theory of politics derived from the work of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Humans are naturally political, and the political life of the free citizen in the self-governing state or polisis the highest form of life, the essence of the ‘good life’. Inequalities breed envy which is disruptive of political stability. The best form of constitution is a

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Austinianism (19TH CENTURY)

Theory of law expounded by English lawyer John Austin (1790-1859). Law consists of commands issued by a sovereign. It is judged law not because we ought to obey it or because it fulfills any moral criteria, but because it is habitually obeyed. A sovereign, which can be a person or a group, is the

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Authoritarianism (20TH CENTURY)

A critical term for despotic regimes. Authoritarianism is characterized by or favoring absolute obedience to authority, as against individual freedom, and expects unquestioning obedience. Authoritarianism is a manner rather than a style of governing, which neither takes seriously nor tolerates the expression of dissenting opinion nor the pursuit of contrary policies. Sometimes used as

Authority

A theory justifying special functions or powers. Persons or institutions have authority if they possess qualities of insight, or experience, or skill which mark them off from others, and which entitle them to make decisions which those others are unqualified to make. Authority may thus justify governing others, or making pronouncements about morals, or

Autocracy

Absolute and arbitrary rule. An autocrat is not constrained by laws or coventions, and autocracy is essentially unpredictable as a form of government. Unlike authority, which implies a right or qualification to command, autocracy indicates no more than untrammelled power. Source: Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982) History and etymology Autocracy comes

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Backlash theory (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of male counterattack against feminism. Women have made slow and steady, if relatively insubstantial, advances. But in response to this a semi-consciously articulated campaign, or ‘backlash’ has developed in the last quarter of the 20th century to discredit women’s aspirations and to remove their gains, and to do so by any means from propaganda

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Bakuninism (19TH CENTURY)

Theory of revolution attributed to and derived from Russian revolutionary exponent of anarchismMichael Bakunin (1814-1876). Human nature is essentially sociable and co-operative. Religion, government and capitalism all distort human nature, and in order to allow it to develop freely and properly, the institutions that distort it must be removed by revolutionary action. Hence ‘the urge to destroy is also

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Balance of power (19TH CENTURY)

Theory of international relations. Equality of power between nations is conducive to peace, since it constrains any one nation from engaging in war with another. Thus weak nations may be promoting general stability by arming, but strong nations may destabilize balance by continuing to arm. The theory has in practice justified deeply complex calculations of comparative

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