Immiseration (19TH CENTURY- )

Theory within Marxism of steady decline of condition of working class. The theory is now widely abandoned, save by those who argue that the working class has become relatively worse off. It is now more common to read of the opposite process of embourgeoisement. Karl Marx In Karl Marx’s early writings of the 1840s, he was influenced by David

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Impacted pluralism (20TH CENTURY)

Pessimistic theory of pluralism. A politics characterized by the pursuit by groups of their various interests which used to give something to everyone and achieve negotiated compromises, but which has changed to a situation where competing interests are deadlocked, and neither the public interest nor that of groups is served. Source: S H Beer, Britain Against Itself

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Imperialism (20TH CENTURY)

Economic explanation of overseas expansion of European nations. Originally developed by the maverick British economist John Atkinson Hobson (1858-1940) and the Russian Marxist Vladimir I. Lenin (1870-1924). Imperial expansion resulted from the exhaustion of domestic markets, industrial nations propping up their economies at the expense of those parts of the world which, through military domination, they

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Incrementalism (20TH CENTURY)

A theory of the manner in which governments make decisions. Policies are changed bit by bit in response to changing circumstances, rather than as the result of grand plans or wide-ranging rational calculations. Those who fear change see incrementalism as a slippery slope to disaster; those who want revolution view it as an impediment to progress.

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Individualism (20TH CENTURY)

Theory opposed to collectivism. Human social life is to be understood in terms of the actions of individuals, who are the basic units of society. Complementarily, the basis of moral reasoning consists in the rights of individuals, rather than of groups, societies, or nations. Source: David Miller et at., eds, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford,

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Industrial democracy (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of workers’ control. Political democracy should be paralleled or complemented by industrial democracy. Individual factories or workshops should be managed by those answerable to, and elected by, the body of workers; and within whole firms or industries, processes similar to those in representative democracy should operate. Source: Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (Cambridge,

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Inevitability of gradualness (19TH CENTURY)

Theory of socialism associated with Fabianism. Socialism was not the result of revolutionary conflict, or of confrontation with the existing order. It arose naturally out of the processes of industrial society as the most efficient way of managing them. Socialism was thus both inevitable and gradual. Source: Rodney Barker, Political Ideas in Modern Britain (London, 1978) Geology and biology

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Interests (20TH CENTURY)

Account of politics derived from but not limited to Marxism. As members of groups, classes, and so on, people have interests which can be identified by the outside observer. These interests are real whether individuals or whole groups are aware of them or not, and enable commentators to detect success, exploitation, and so on, in the

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Internationalism (20TH CENTURY)

An attempted application of ethical considerations to international politics. A view opposed to realism in international relations, which seeks to understand international affairs by reference to interests wider than those of the particular national participants, and in terms of interests common to all. Source: Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newnham, The Dictionary of World Politics (Hemel Hempstead, 1990) Origins

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International morality (20TH CENTURY)

Theory applying moral considerations to international politics. International relations can and should be conducted with reference to shared ethical values. There is disagreement as to the usefulness of the theory, or the existence or power of such shared values. Source: Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newnham, The Dictionary of World Politics (Hemel Hempstead, 1990) Morality (from Latin: moralitas, lit. ‘manner, character,

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International system (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of international politics as a system. International relations are to be understood not as the interaction of individual states, but rather as the relations of parts of a system which has a reality distinct from the actions of particular nations. There is thus an analogy with systems theory in the analysis of domestic politics. Source:

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Iron law of oligarchy (1912)

Theory of social organization set out by German social scientist Robert Michels (1876-1936) in his study of the internal politics of the German Social Democratic Party. ‘He who says organization, says oligarchy.’ As soon as people form organizations, power in those organizations gravitates upwards towards the permanent officials or officers. A second, subordinate law suggests that

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Justice

Theory of the morally appropriate way of resolving social differences. There is no one theory of justice. One view is that justice involves avoiding or preventing harm to people; another that it involves treating people according to their deserts; another that people should be treated according to their needs; another that they should be

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Just war

Ethical assessment of war, often discussed by medieval Christian theorists. Whilst war causes injury, some wars are justifiable (ius ad bello) if their object is morally justifiable, and if there is a proportionate relation between ends and means (ius in bello). Source: David Miller et al., eds, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford,

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King’s two bodies (MIDDLE AGES)

Medieval theory of divine authority of kings. The king had two ‘bodies’, one of which was the ordinary mortal one, the other infused with the divine right to govern which marked off the monarch from other men. Source: E H Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies (Princeton, 1957) Background The King’s Two Bodies is described by historian Paul Monod as

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Legal positivism

Application of theory of positivism to law. Law consists simply of the enforceable commands of government. It does not depend for its validity on any other criteria, and there are no religious or normative values by which it can be deemed invalid. Source: David Miller et al., eds, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford, 1987)

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Legitimacy (20TH CENTURY)

The view that systems of government either are or ought to be justified, and not simply based on coercion. There are two versions of the theory of legitimacy, one deriving from political philosophy, the other from history and political science. The first seeks for principles which would oblige people to obey government, and then

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Legitimacy crisis (20TH CENTURY)

Mixture of theories of legitimacy and of crisis theory, associated in particular with the German social scientist Jurgen Habermas (1929-). Modern capitalist societies are undergoing a legitimacy crisis whereby support for both government and economy is systematically eroded. Habermas’s account of the impending legitimation or legitimacy crisis includes all forms of social relationships, both political and economics, and argues that

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Leninism (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of politics, socialism, and revolution of the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924). States are tailor-made for the societies they govern. Socialists cannot therefore adapt a capitalist state to socialist or communist purposes, but must replace it with a new structure, the dictatorship of the proletariat. In working for this end, the working class might not be sufficiently aware of their

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Liberal democracy (19TH CENTURY- )

Theory of limited government and individual right sunder democracy. In order for democracy to be effective or meaningful as ‘rule by the people’, there must be constitutional limits on government and constitutional guarantees of the civil and political rights of citizens. This will ensure, or at least encourage, freedom of expression, opinion, and publication, and the free, frequent and informed

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