Can democracy survive in the 21st century? : oligarchy, tyranny, and ochlocracy in the age of global capitalism / / Ronald M. Glassman

• Autore: Glassman Ronald M.
• Pubblicazione: Cham, Switzerland : , : Springer, , [2021]; ©2021
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (271 pages)
• Disciplina: 321.8
• Soggetto topico: Democracy; Capitalism
• Nota di contenuto: Intro -- Preface -- Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny in Historical Perspective -- The Modern Transition -- Theoretical Framework -- Weberian Methodology -- Aristotelian Theory -- Feminist Theory -- The Comparative-Historical Framework -- Durkheim´s Theory of Anomie and Social Deviance -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1: Introduction: The Origins of Democracy -- Humans in the Scientific State of Nature -- Democracy in Tribal Societies -- Despotism in Tribal Confederations: Kings and Priests -- The Power of the Priests: Theocracy and the Divine Kingship -- Human History Becomes the History of Kings and Conquests -- Part I: The Rich Against Democracy -- Chapter 2: Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny in the City-States of the Ancient World -- City-States of the Ancient World -- Pre-Greek City-States of the Middle East -- Trade-Capitalism Emerges in the Independent City-States -- Rich Merchant Oligarchs -- Oligarchy Predominates in the Pre-Greek City-States -- The Ancient Greek City-States -- The Heavy Armored Hoplite Phalanx Empowers the Middle and Working Class and Their Warriors Assembly -- The Spectacular Rise of Greek Trade-Capitalism and the Emergence of Economic Classes -- Class Distinctions Based on Wealth -- The Emergence of Rational-Legal Authority: The Rise of Science and Secular Law -- Education and the New ``Aristocratic´´ Elite -- Chapter 3: Renaissance Italian City-States: The Triumph of Oligarchy and Tyranny -- The Arabic Golden Age Precedes the Italian Renaissance -- The Italian Renaissance -- Oligarchy and Tyranny Triumph -- Chapter 4: Oligarchy and Democracy in the German and Dutch Trade-Capitalist and Reformation City-States -- Democracy Emerges in the German and Dutch Market City-States and Is Reinforced by the Reformation -- Calvinism Legitimates the Rich as ``God´s Stewards on Earth´´: Oligarchy Gains Legitimacy. ; Chapter 5: Oligarchy and Democracy in the Dutch Republic and Great Britain: The Emergence of Representative Democracy -- The Dutch Republic -- Oligarchy, Democracy, and Monarchy in Great Britain -- Puritanism Against the Church of England -- Democracy Against Oligarchy and Monarchy -- Oligarchy and Grandiose (Yet Limited) Monarchy Characterized Great Britain into the Twentieth Century -- Science, Law, and the Limitation of Power: British Political Theory -- Chapter 6: The Structure of High Technology Global Capitalism -- Global Capitalism: Multinational Production and Transnational Coordination -- Global Capitalist Enterprises are Connected by Contract Law and Patent Law -- Economic ``Imperialism´´ Links Global Corporations to Raw Materials Extraction in Developing Nations -- Oligopoly, Monopoly, and Competition in the Global Capitalist System -- Who Controls the Giant Oligopolistic Corporations, and, Why Does It Matter? -- Corporate and Financial Managers Take Salaries, Bonuses, and Stock Options That Are Much Too High -- Global Capitalism: Outsourcing and Automation -- Chapter 7: The Realignment of the Political Parties in the Advanced Capitalist Nations -- The Old Left and the New Left -- The Old Capitalist Parties and the New High-Tech Capitalist Parties -- Chapter 8: Global Capitalism vs. Geo-Political Nationalism -- The World Is Economically Linked -- The World Is Politically Divided -- Chapter 9: The Managerial and Entrepreneurial Rich Take a Huge Percentage of the Wealth to Themselves -- Fair Wealth Distribution After World War II -- The 1960s Radical Movements -- The Backlash Against the Sixties Radicalism -- The High-Technology Revolution Spawns a Class of Global Billionaires -- How the Rich Avoid Paying Taxes and Override Progressive Income Tax -- Capital Gains Taxes on Stock Income -- Hidden Bank Accounts. ; Why Is the Withholding of Taxes by the Rich Disastrous Economically and Politically? -- Extremes of Wealth Destabilizes Democracy -- Are the New Rich of the Twenty-First Century an Aristocracy? -- The Democratization of Education -- The Meritocracy and the New Middle Class -- Is There Anything Good About the Aristocratic Lifestyle? -- Chapter 10: Taxing the Rich -- The Progressive Income Tax Revitalized -- Raising the Capital Gains Tax Above 15% -- The Financial Transaction Tax: The Tiny Tax That Generates Billions in Revenue -- The Value Added Tax and a Luxury Sales Tax -- Hidden Bank Accounts -- Conclusions on Oligarchy of the Rich -- Preventing Oligarchy from Over-Influencing and Over-Riding Democracy -- Campaign Finance Limits -- Limiting Lobbying -- Part II: The Poor Against Democracy -- Chapter 11: Aristotle on the Problem of a Majority Poor -- The Case of Venezuela -- A Note on India -- Chapter 12: Africa and the Traditional Poor -- Tribalism and Islamic Terrorism Impede Democracy -- The Traditional Rural Poor in Africa -- Chapter 13: The Middle East: The Sunni-Shia Split -- Radical Islam -- Tribalism -- and Oil -- The Modern Sectors of the Cities Versus the Traditional Majority Population -- Egypt and ``The Arab Spring´´ -- Syria and Iraq: Religious and Ethnic Divisions Impede Nation-Building -- The Sunni-Shia Split -- Syria: The Assad Dictatorship and the Shia (Alawite) Repression of the Sunnis -- Iraq: American Invasion, Shia Versus Sunni, Arabs Versus Kurds -- Oil -- Chapter 14: The Poor, The Military, and Tyranny -- The Case of China: A Billion People, No Shortage of Military Recruit -- Iran, Theocracy and the Persian Guard -- The Ayatollah Muslim Theocracy and the Persian Guard Army Versus the Middle Class and Democracy -- Part III: Tyranny -- Chapter 15: The Origins of Tyranny: From the War Chief and Shaman to Divine Kingship. ; Democracy and Tyranny: Both Intrinsic to the Human Political Potential -- The Origins of Tyranny -- From War Chief to ``King´´ -- The Role of the Priesthood in the Establishment of Kingship -- The Shaman Becomes a Priesthood -- ``Benevolent´´ Kings Versus Tyrants -- Manufactured Charisma and Legitimacy -- Chapter 16: The Emergence of Tyranny Without Traditional Kingship -- The City-States of the Middle East Retain Traditional Kingship in Limited Form -- The Abolition of Monarchy and the Absence of an Institutionalized Priesthood in the Greek City-States -- The Greek City-States Rise as Trading Cities with No Kings and No Priests -- Personal Rule Without the Legitimacy of Traditional Kingship -- Herodotus and the Forms of Government -- The Critique of Democracy -- Aristotle on the Decline of Kingship and the Rise of Tyranny -- How Do Tyrants Maintain Their Power and Gain Some Modicum of Legitimacy? -- Power, Terror, Order, and Charisma -- Charisma: Real and Manufactured -- A Word on Tyranny in Rome -- The World Beyond Greece and Rome: Divine Kingship Makes Democracy Inconceivable -- Chapter 17: Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny in the Italian City-States -- Machiavelli and His Handbook for Successful Tyranny -- Chapter 18: Tyranny During the English and French Revolutions: Cromwell, Napoleon and Louis Napoleon -- The Renaissance Spreads Northward -- Cromwell as Revolutionary Democrat, Fanatical Puritan, and, Tyrant -- The French Revolution and Napoleon -- Chapter 19: From Tyranny to Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century: Fascism and Nazism, Mass Mobilization and Mass Murder -- Italy and Mussolini -- Mussolini and Machiavelli -- Manufactured Charisma and the Beginnings of Totalitarian -- Fascist Manufactured Charisma Rivals Divine Kingship as a Legitimation System -- Hitler and Germany. ; Hitler Adds Racism to the Nazi Ideology: Mass Murder and Genocide -- Chapter 20: From Tyranny to Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century: Communism-Utopian Dreams and Totalitarianism Reality -- Utopian Dreams: Karl Marx -- Marxism-Leninism: As a Model for Rapid Industrialization -- Enter Stalin: The Dream Becomes a Nightmare -- Economic Problems of Communism -- The Rise and Fall of Communism in China -- Enter Sun Yat-sen -- Mao Follows the Marxism-Leninism Model -- Mao Goes Totalitarianism -- The Capitalist Road -- Xi Jinping Institutes Technological Totalitarianism -- North and South Korea: Communism and Tyranny Versus Capitalism and Democracy -- Chapter 21: Totalitarianism: Tyranny Taken to a Terrifying Level Totalitarianism as a New Political Phenomenon -- Repression, Terror and Participation in Nazi Germany -- Stalin Copies the Nazi Program -- Technological Totalitarianism -- Xi Jinping and His Totalitarian Program -- The Roots of Totalitarianism: From Ancient Egypt to Modern China -- The Origins of the Divine Kingship -- Totalitarian Projects in Egypt and Mesopotamia -- China: Divine Kings and Confucian Officials -- Modern China and Mao´s Totalitarianism -- Xi Jinping and Modern Totalitarianism in China -- North and South Korea: Competing Models -- North Korea: Stalinism -- South Korea: Capitalism and Democracy Succeeds -- Chapter 22: Illiberal Democracy: A New Form of Modern Tyranny -- The New Nationalism Versus Global Culture -- The Revival of Traditional Religion -- Support from the Less Well-Educated -- Putin and Russia -- Viktor Orbn and Hungary -- Poland: ``Justice and Order´´-Jaroslaw Kaczynski -- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- A Note on Modi and India -- Conclusions on Tyranny: The ``Beast´´ Within Us -- Part IV: Ochlocracy: Mob Rule and Crowd Psychology in the Cybersphere. ; Chapter 23: Ochlocracy as a Critique of Democracy in the Ancient Greek World.
• Titolo autorizzato: Can Democracy Survive in the 21st Century
• ISBN: 3-030-76821-X
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910490026203321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II