Erastianism (16TH CENTURY- )

Named after the Swiss theologian ERASTUS (1524-1583). The state should exercise supremacy over the church. Source: Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982) Erastianism, doctrine that the state is superior to the church in ecclesiastical matters. It is named after the 16th-century Swiss physician and Zwinglian theologian Thomas Erastus, who never held such a doctrine. He opposed

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Escalation (20TH CENTURY)

A theory of war which asserts that in military encounters there is a tendency (which can be checked or avoided) for each action by one side to be met by a more violent response by the other. Hence a conventional war can escalate into a nuclear one. Source: David Robertson, The Penguin Dictionary of

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Essential contestability (20TH CENTURY)

A number of concepts in political theory, such as power or ‘freedom’ are debated by people whose fundamental conceptions or values are so at odds that no resolution is possible. Thus there is no ‘true’ meaning to such terms. Source: Alan Bullock, Oliver Stallybrass, and Stephen Trombley, eds, The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 2nd edn

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Essentialism

A belief about human nature. There are ‘essential’ features of human character which constitute the timeless and universal foundations of human nature. Depending on the version of this theory, this essence may divide people into males and females, or leaders and led; or unite them as all equally aggressive, or self-seeking, or co-operative. Source: Maggie Humm,

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Evolutionism (19TH CENTURY- )

Optimistic theory of history. Human society is steadily and slowly developing by successive improvements, either by reform and adaptation, or by the NATURAL SELECTION of superior values and institutions. Also see: THEORY OF EVOLUTION, dialectical materialism, social Darwinism Source: Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982) 19th-century teleological use Before its use to describe

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Exclusion theory (20TH CENTURY)

Also referred to as social closure theory. Groups maximize their own benefits by excluding non-members. At the same time they establish their identity as much by excluding non-members as by defining the characteristics of membership. Identity thus depends on the identification of ‘outsiders’ or ‘enemies’. Source: Frank Parkin, Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique

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Exit, voice and loyalty (1970)

Theory of dissidence described by American political scientist Albert Otto Hirschman (1915- ). Those who are dissatisfied with the policies or general character of an organization have three choices: they can leave (exit); they can oppose (voice); or they can keep quiet (loyalty). Source: Albert O Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (Cambridge, Mass., 1970) Summary The

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Fabianism (19TH CENTURY- )

British theory of socialism associated with the Fabian Society; particularly with its leading early members Beatrice and Sidney Webb (1859-1943 and 1858-1947). Named after Roman general Q Fabius Maximus Verrucosus ( -203) – nicknamed ‘Cunctator’ meaning ‘the delayer’ – who won his battles by slow attrition of the enemy. Capitalist societies are evolving peacefully towards the

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False consciousness (19TH CENTURY- )

Marxist theory of ‘deception’ of the working class. Members of the working class in capitalist societies have interests which would rationally lead them to revolutionary action against the system. However ideology creates a ‘false consciousness’ which hides this reality from them. They therefore require leading into ‘correct’ political activity by a vanguard party, a central concept of Leninism. Also see: bolshevism

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Fascism (20TH CENTURY)

Named after Italian Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Advocacy of deferential national unity under a leader, without the liberal or democratic forms of politics and government which are regarded as an obstacle to the implementation of the national will. Ordinary people, rather than being democratic citizens, are to be organized in corporations according to the

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Federalism

Theory of divided legislative power. Government and legislation are best divided between a federal state and its constituent states, departments, or areas. Such division of power is normally regulated by a written constitution, with a supreme or constitutional court to adjudicate in disputes between the overall federal states and the separate component states. Source: K Sawer,

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Feminism

Analysis of exploitation of women, and proposals for alternatives. The varieties of feminism are very great. All involve the assumption that, as a matter of observable fact, women are a category oppressed and exploited by men as a category. Both the accounts of this division, and the proposals for reform, revolution, or transformation differ

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Fetishism

The attribution of qualities, often religious or magical, to material objects. A concept most familiar by its adaptation within Marxism as ‘commodity fetishism’. Source: Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982) Historiography The term “fetish” has evolved from an idiom used to describe a type of object created in the interaction between European travelers

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Feudalism (MIDDLE AGES)

A medieval theory in which society was deemed to be held together by ties of loyalty and obligation between persons in a hierarchy. The essential currency was land and military service, the former held in return for the latter. Feudalism was a hierachy of lords and vassals, and it was possible to be both

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Foco theory (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of revolution associated with the Cuban guerrilla leader and politician Che Guevara (1928-1967). It is not necessary to wait until revolutionary conditions have developed, since a dedicated small group can ignite a revolution, thus creating both the uprising and the conditions which make it possible. Foco theory thus goes further than either detonator theory or Leninism in its reliance on revolutionary elitism.

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Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels, the eldest son of a successful German industrialist, was born in Barmen on 28th November 1820. As a young man his father sent him to England to help manage his cotton-factory in Manchester. Engels was shocked by the poverty in the city and began writing an account that was published as Condition

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Ideas – To identify the categories inherent in our own subjective thinking is at the same time to identify objective reality’s fundamental character or meaning. – ‘The idea’, ‘reason’, or ‘God’ = the full actualization of which is spirit – is reality’s fundamental character. – The stages both of nature and of human activity

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Gatekeeping theory (20TH CENTURY)

Concept in systems theory. In a political system there are ‘gatekeepers’, individuals or institutions which control access to positions of power and regulate the flow of information and political influence. Feminists have adapted this theory to explain male control of language and knowledge. Source: Geoffrey Roberts and Alistair Edwards, A New Dictionary of Political Analysis, (London, 1991)

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Gaze (20TH CENTURY)

Feminist theory of presentation of women in culture. Women are presented in works of art and literature, and particularly in film, through three principal male perspectives or ‘gazes’. Each divides by gender, and treats women in a demeaning way as objects of male voyeurism. Source: Maggie Humm, The Dictionary of Feminist Theory (London, 1989)

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Gender theory (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of relative weight of NATURE AND NURTURE. The biological differences between males and females – sexual differences – account for a relatively small part of the actual differences between men and women. Most of these differences are matters not of sex but of gender which, unlike sex, is socially formed and cultivated. Differences

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