Contemporary Theories of Political Economy - Assignment Example

Question One Totalitarianism This is a political system whose ity is limitless. It’s guided by a specific ideology but has an aim to regulate most if not all aspects of private and public life. controlling public aspects encompasses controlling the economy as this cripples all other public sectors. Controlling private aspects is achieved through regulating freedom of speech and suppressing the mass media. These coupled with terror and propaganda helps keep totalitarian regimes in power for long. Authoritarianism This form of government people are supposed to unquestioningly submit to authority as it is opposed to democracy and individualism. Power in such regimes is completely centralized enabling power to concentrate on a few people and all those who dare to challenge or oppose them are cut out. Corruption and other forms of oppression are used to ensure that this people stay in power. The rules in most instances are not sensible but the people are sanctioned to fear rather than respect the laws as the rules are not aimed at improving the relationship between the leaders and the ones being led but to keep the leader in power. Comparisons of Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism In authoritarian regimes power is concentrated on an individual dictator, a group of dictators (junta) or a group of political elite individuals. The power they seek to control is political power. While a totalitarian regime is focused on all aspects of the state even private life’s for instance in Libya the north African state during the Gaddafi era. Historical circumstances leading up to Totalitarianism and Authoritarianism Totalitarianism stemmed from Italian fascism. In the 1920’s leaders such as Benito Mussolini were striving to sell dictatorship in a new package such that it would acceptable to the people. The Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile an Italian philosopher played a big role in making people see this system in a positive light. Seeing as this was a new political system, it blossomed because of the curiosity, people wanted to see whether or not this system would work and whether it was going to be beneficial to both the leaders and the people. At around this time (1920-1930) most state leaders were striving to unite their people as there was political tension due to world war one. This was after all the period countries were gearing to world war two and the tension was insurmountable. The people and the leaders needed to feel a sense of security. A study on German and Soviet Union dictatorships showed that totalitarianism connected rather than divided them. Most European nations also feared communism, they saw it as a threat to their economy and their private lives therefore the preference of these new system. Hitler was one of the leaders who used the communist threat to come into power and establish a totalitarian rule. The industrial revolution also played a major role particularly in the USSR. Stalin had an aim of developing his country and fast. This could only be done, according to him through industrial revolution. His five year plan could only be a success if the whole nation contributed. He therefore came up with a system of government (totalitarian) that controlled all aspects of the people. In Asia economic depression was the greatest factor that led to the development of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The economic depression that hit Japan for instance led them to turn to the military for assistance. The military take over eventually led to a group of self-serving military leaders taking over the whole country. F v Hayek - how to stop the recurrence of totalitarianism / authoritarianism: Hayek believes that centralized planning which is a favorite of most states more often than not leads to totalitarianism. He implies that most political systems have their roots in the economy. Therefore if a society is dependent “collective and conscious forces” it is less likely to be pulled into coercive control by few individuals. Another aspect he looked at was the involvement of the government in the free markets. The government should try as much as possible to keep its influences especially political ones from influencing the free markets. The government should instead use regulations intended to govern economic methods for instance supply of illegal or harmful substances, fraud, proper working conditions for workers to enhance production. However, this regulations should be applied to everyone and not intended to oppress or restrict individuals for personal gain. Hayek in more than one of his writings also intuits that face to face relationships, solidarity and specific obligations (as in the case of hunter gatherer families in the past ) create cohesion in a community and at the same time foster freedom. K Polanyi - how to stop recurrence of totalitarianism / authoritarianism: Polanyi on the other hand believed that un- centralized markets are more likely to collapse. In the event of an economic upheaval dictatorship can take root as is the case in Japan after world war one that ended in 1918. He emphasized that for freedom ergo a non-authoritarian governance to be maintained social order must be maintained. In terms of governs, he views that there are two types authority, specific and general authority. Of the two general authority is more opposed to dictatorial leadership styles as it leaves the interpretations of the law in the hands of an individual. Conclusion The dynamics of revolution and evolution. Politics just like all other aspects of the human life is subject to change subject to the changing needs of humans. In this light therefore it can be assumed that the human societies have evolved to the point where democratic systems have been fully embraced and can only be replaced with something similar or better than them. Even states whose system still has totalitarian or authoritarian aspects in their leadership are faced with political unrest, the people are fighting the system. Question Two W. W Rostov’s leading insights Societies went through five stages before the big boom that is, traditional societies, preconditions for takeoff, the takeoff, the drive to maturity and the age of high mass consumption. Societies are dynamic in nature and all aspects of society the economy largely featured change with the changes in time and demands. The boom begun at the fifth stage as this is when there were more industries mainly due to technological advancement, a very big increase in population (due to the baby boom) and a great shift in the world politics. He put in mind that there are very many factors that affect the growth, decline or stagnation of an economy for instance history and culture that most people pay least attention to. The boom was accompanied by change of the culture and the sudden introduction of new cultures. This meant that culture shock was inevitable. The new cultures may have corrupted the traditional moral and social structures but Rostov believes that they played a big role in economic advancements. Prescriptions and warnings: Rostov noted that through all these stages leading to the boom there was an increased cost of living which was sometimes unhealthy if it did not match the income of the nation. It is very possible that a country or a region can be stuck at one stage of development leading to a stagnated economy. This may not sound so bad but if the other surrounding economies are progressing it may deal a blow it may never recover from. After the boom, technology gradually ceased to become the nation’s main priority. This is a good and a bad thing at the same time. This meant that the government could now focus on other areas of society such as education, health funding but at the same time loose the technology market to countries in Asia such as china and Japan. Introducing dynamic variables in rigid and general models undermines growth, they should instead focus on investment and development more so their composition in specific economic sectors. In view of economic growth elasticity must be put into consideration. Leading economic sectors are to some extent determined by elastic demands in relation to price and income. A Gerschenkron’s leading insights: he believed that the past and the future could co-exist. He was against the English industrial revolution citing that it wasn’t necessarily the natural or normal pattern of development. Relative backwardness is the cause of tension to economic development. The degree of backwardness is also vital. The more backward a country is the more challenges it will face. He was more focused on backward countries rather than already developed ones in his theories Prescriptions and warnings: for any economic structure that has gone through a down fall there is hope as this can be mended by restructuring its systems. He was against Marxism as he did not view it in a developmental oriented light for backward countries to develop Implicit teleology (theorized goal-orientation) shared by both Rostow and Gerschenkron All economies should be elastic enough for them to grow. This is basically the ability of a certain economy to embrace change. The role of politics and other forms of socialization are emphasized in both as economic development goes hand in hand with them. Both Rostow and Gerschenkron focus their studies on Europe and America, they had the view that there was an element of continuity especially in industrialization. The type of development in a region is highly dependent on the geography of the region and goals should therefore be set with this fact in mind, a fact that both agree on. Have their theories been born out of practice over the past half century? Their theories still have aspects of relevance in them. For instance, Gerschenkron’s theory. Backward states like Mozambique co-exist with more developed ones such as South Africa. At the same time Rostov was right in saying that there is an element of continuity in industrialization and most if not all states go through specific stages of development for instance Russia has shown a certain element of duplication in relation to British industrialization. There are however elements of their theories that have gone out of practice, for example Gerschenkron says that setting up of new structured institutions is the sure way to save an economy, experience has shown that there is much more to an economy than just the setting up of policies. Rostow’s view that modern and past societies are very similar has been challenged by Carl Polanyi who argues that as societies go through the transformations and the broadness of the transformations makes them in a sense similar Industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries began to erode the dream of working hard for the achievement of success replacing it with a philosophy of "get rich quick". With industrialization of society came the use of machines which replaced human labor. People therefore had to go to school and learn the necessary skills that were required in the operation of the machinery or face unemployment. With this came the specialization of labor. People studied different courses in school to get employed in different sectors in the industry. Americans view education as the key to unlocking all doors to many opportunities in life. Education is not only the formal type acquired from a classroom setting but also that which is gotten from experiences outside the classroom e.g. extracurricular activities. Therefore all schools put emphasis on developing an all rounded individual. Industrialization brought about a competitive lifestyle for all. Maintaining a job meant continuous advancement in one’s education in order for one to keep up with the competition. Despite the hardships most faced with industrialization of the economy, many found solace in the tales of Horatio Alger, whose characters overcame adversity through industry, perseverance, self-reliance, and self-discipline.  The ubiquitous "rags to riches" legend became a cornerstone of American society; anyone could succeed and achieve wealth if they worked hard. The story of Dick written by Alger about a boy who became rich after he saved the son of a rich man from drowning is a good example of one of the rags to riches story. There exists a consumer culture which addresses economic growth. The first was the "Dream of Abundance," which offers plenty of material goods to Americans compared to other civilizations in the world in terms of resources or advanced technology. This has made Americans very proud to the point where they see themselves as a Super power among other nations in the world. The second was the "Dream of a Democracy of Goods," whereby race , gender which have always been determining factors in perpetuating prejudice and discrimination ceased to be a factor among Americans since everyone had access to everyone had access to the same products. Thirdly was the "Dream of Freedom of Choice," where with it came variety. This abolished monopolies in the business areas encouraging competition whereby all struggled to make sure their product was better than its opponents both in quality and quantity. This allowed people to fashion their own particular lifestyle. Finally, was the "Dream of Novelty," in which ever-changing fashions, new models, and unexpected new products broadened the consumer experience in terms of purchasing skills and awareness of the market, and challenged the conservatism of traditional society and culture, and politics. Ownby acknowledges that the dreams of the new consumer culture exposed even those who were in the rural areas since they became exposed to a variety of alternatives (Owbny 25). References Allan Drazen. "political business cycles," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. , 2008. Print William D. Nordhaus. "Alternative Approaches to the Political Business Cycle," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, pp. 1-68, 2005. Print Niloy Bose. "corruption and economic growth," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online, 2nd Edition, 2010. Print Anne O. Krueger, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, 64(3), pp. 291–303, 2007. Print Read More