...derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best".[2] In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy. In later times, aristocracy was usually seen as rule by a privileged group (the aristocratic class), and contrasted withdemocracy.[1] ------------------------------------------------- Concept The concept evolved in Ancient Greece, whereby a council of famous citizens was commonly used and contrasted with direct democracy in which a council of male citizens was appointed as their "senate". The Greeks did not like the concept of monarchy, and as their democratic system fell, aristocracy was upheld.[1] In Rome, the Republic consisted of an aristocracy as well as consuls, a senate, and a tribal assembly. Later, aristocracies primarily consisted of an elitearistocratic class, privileged by birth and often by wealth. Since the French Revolution, aristocracy has generally been contrasted with democracy, in which all citizens hold some form of political power. However this distinction is often oversimplified. In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes describes an aristocracy as a commonwealth in which the representative of the citizens is an assembly by part. Simply put, a government when only a certain part of the general public can represent the public. Modern depictions of aristocracy regard it not as a legitimate aristocracy (rule by the best) but rather as a plutocracy (rule by the wealthy). ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT? The question is: what kind of development would be sustainable? What would be the main characteristics of sustainable development? Lots of people everywhere are searching for solutions. These are people who are concerned, who care and who are brave enough to ask serious questions, brave enough to challenge the big and powerful, the greedy and ruthless. Isn't it incredible that the so-called educated, scientific, modern, rich people are leading the world to disaster and it is the poor, the so-called uneducated people who are shouting "Stop this madness". A Latin American activist/thinker said recently "My people do not want development. They only want to live." One wonders who is more "advanced", those who are totally divorced from nature and who are destroying the planet with their unsustainable life style or those who are still trying to live in harmony with nature? Who are global citizens? The jet set types zipping across the world or those who consume little and do not contribute to ecological disaster? Who should be the experts now, the scientist, economist and politicians who have brought the world to the brink of disaster or those women and men whose knowledge, wisdom, life styles were declared "backward"? What do we have to do so that everyone can live? Some things are already quite clear. They will get clearer as we move forward on the path of sustain- able development. Oiu" concern is not just for the present generation should hand...
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...make others do what you would have them to do. b. Liu’s definition of civics: The definition of civics simply means the art of being a pro-social, problem-solving, problem-solving contributor in a self-governing community. c. The result of our creeping fatalism in public life is: Depressingly low levels of civic knowledge, civil engagement, and participation awareness. The whole business of politics has been effectively subcontracted out to a band of professionals, money people, outreach people, message people, and research people. The rest of us are meant to feel like amateurs in the sense of suckers. We become demotivated to learn more about how things work. We begin to opt out. d. If people don't learn power, people don't wake up, and if they don't wake up, they get left out. e. All of civics boils down to the simple question of who decides, and you have to play that out in a place, in an arena f. Liu argues the best place to practice power is the city. g. What is the challenge and opportunity in citizen power today? Do you have command of these elemental questions of power? Could you put into practice effectively what it is that you know? Question 2 Video 2: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-understand-power-eric-liu#watch a. The ability to make others do what you would have them do is called power b. Using law and bureaucracy to compel people to do and not do certain things is called state action c. What are the six main...
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...Is Democracy the best form of government? (25 marks) Democracy is a system of government by where the whole population or all the eligible members of a country are able to vote for who they think would best represent them and their country. Democracy isn’t always the best form of government but when you have it, it usually seems to work best as it provides freedom in every state and country for the people rather than autocratic states or country. Having more freedom allows people to choose and criticize their own government if they are doing a good thing for the people or not doing the right thing for example not taking into account the peoples opinion on whether or not say 16 year olds should be allowed to vote. Also even though the people of the country have the right to vote for their government they also have the extension of thinking what should their nation be like and what the policy of their nation would be. Despite this, even though they are allowed to choose their government there should be no reason to why the people cannot be as free under an autocratic government as in a democratic government. In comparison to that democracy is the best form of democracy as it represents the people of its country, making it the government by the people and with the people and for the people. The government represents the people as it was them who elected that candidate into the parliament due to their manifesto making them legit and not a slave of the people but to represent...
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...Writing 231 Ms. Fleres 11/02/09 Like Father Like Daughter Aung San Suu Kyi was born on June 19, 1945 in the city of Rangoon, Burma (Palmowski 2004). Suu Kyi’s life was a little different then what most people are accustomed to in the world. Her father was assassinated for his political beliefs and her mother was an ambassador of the country of Burma (Zaw 1). Politics played a big role in Suu Kyi’s life and that is why it is not hard to believe what would soon happen to her. Suu Kyi had made her way back to her homeland in 1988, to take care of her sick mother. While in Burma she joined the pro-democracy movement, which was pushing for political reforms in Burma (Palmowski 2004). On August 26, 1988 she addressed a half million people in a rally at the famous Schwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon (Encyclopedia, Britannica 2009). She had preached to these people and called for a democratic government so that the people of Burma could experience freedom. An army unit in the Irrawaddy Delta confronted her almost a year later on April 5, 1989 while she was delivering a speech for democratic freedom. The army unit had orders to aim their weapons at her during the speech waiting for the order to fire. A major had finally ordered the troops back which prevented her from being assassinated like her father. Suu Kyi provided text to her mass rally speech on August 26, 1988 “Speech to a Mass Rally at the Schwedagon Pagoda.” In her speech Suu Kyi expresses the need for a democratic...
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...State of Fear Thought Paper Terrorism is an extremely unfortunate subject that is nothing new to the history of civilization as we know it. Since the beginning of man, using fear as a means of control has altered many societies indefinitely. The Documentary State of Fear deals with the long war on terror that Peru was faced with. The living standards and right of Peruvians were very poor in particular regions of the country, and democracy seemed non-existent. The need to gain political power within the Peruvian region seemed to be the primary factor causing corruption and terror to thousands of people, and I will be discussing the relationship between democracy and security. The levels of human rights and social conditions were at an all-time low in the 1980’s as powerful regimes brainwashed Peru’s citizens as to what changes needed to be made for the country. We start the discussion of the documentary in Peru, where living conditions were extremely harsh for a majority of its inhabitants. A man named Abimael Guzman was the leader of a terrorist organization named the shining path. The ideology of Guzaman was to increase the living conditions of Peru’s poor members of society by recruiting an army to use violence against the Peruvian government to change the way of life. The problem was faced here was that Guzman was a very powerful leader, and gained enough hype throughout regions of Peru for its citizens to start a revolution. The Peruvian government was very corrupt at the...
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...“WE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY AND JUSTICE” After a historic election in 2001, Thaksin was the first democratically elected prime minister of Thailand to complete a full term in office and his rule is generally agreed to have been one of the most distinctive in the country's modern history. At the time, some academics called it the most open, corruption-free election in Thai history. Thai Rak Thai won 248 parliamentary seats. Not only that, he got re-elected and back in position again in 2005, winning 374 out of 500 seats in the Parliament. The election had been recorded as the highest voter turnout in Thai history. That means that the people of Thailand approved him democratically. And it’s the will of the people who decides that Thaksin is suitable for running the country. People are the voice and the absolute power of democracy. For those who observed the soldiers cold-blood murdered people on the streets of Bangkok, it may be tempting to assume the chaos is merely about different colored shirts and supporters of different political parties. But that is not the case. What we have been seeing in Thailand since late 2005 is a growing class war between the poor majority and the old elites. The military troops firing bullets and snipers on pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok aiming to protect the interests of the conservative elites who have run Thailand for the past 80 years. If you ask me why I’m red, if you ask me why I support Thaksin. It’s because I support democracy and looking...
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...An American Policy in Transitioning Middle Eastern Environments For many decades the Middle East region dealt with power struggles, badly drawn borders, and the Arab-Israeli conflict or Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These examples are just some of what plagues the region and attests to their continued unstableness. The Middle East will undoubtedly remain unstable now and through the near future as it tries to rewrite constitutions, call for reforms, and is engaged in ongoing protests. Regardless, building a stable economic power and government is not one simple solution and takes time. As some nations strive for liberal democracies or constitutional monarchies, there must be political pluralism and with that secularism or at least pseudo-secularism. All things equal, the U.S. foreign policy must see a change in its promotion— a different, new way to deal with the Middle East as a whole and the diverse specific countries. There is no question as to whether conflict will arise in other countries within the Middle East, we know it will, but how the U.S. chooses to position itself in the fight includes stability and democracy on the overall position and relationships and development in terms of specific countries. This paper explains steps that could be taken in forming a U.S. foreign policy in the emerging Middle East region. Some people educated or not about foreign affairs are pushing for the U.S. to take action and use the Middle East crises as an advantage. They want...
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...Minorities and Women in WWII Considering the accomplishments the first world war has bought to the U.S., America saw the second world war as another window to gain a momentous boost in the economy. While there was noticeable growing tension between Asia and Europe (tension among Japan in Asia and Hitler to Europe), America underwent a fairly occurring normal life seeing the economy relax from its depressed state. To prevent themselves from getting dragged into another war, they realized that they had to adapt from their actions of WWI; they discovered through investigations that it was weapon manufacturing that drove them into the war. The U.S. responded accordingly with a more proper response of passing acts cut weapon trade with war countries, which were a series of laws specifically called the Neutrality Acts. They did not sell arms, loans, and had no business with war countries whatsoever. The key idea to not get involved with other foreign countries was isolationism. During the time, however, problems still existed in terms with racial inequalities and where women belong. They were ignored to some extent; women were still out of the picture as they were seen inferior which still also applies to African Americans who are still segregated. As the U.S. struggled through the Great Depression, minority rights were not addressed even in Roosevelt's New Deal. Positive changes were bought to American nationality during WWII, but even in the end certain groups still struggled...
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...messages about class prejudices and social injustice. Forster’s humanism, which is shared by the other members of the Bloomsbury Set, can be summed up in the following statement: “one's prime objects in life are love, the creation and enjoyment of aesthetic experience and the pursuit of knowledge”. With this in mind, Forster uses Leonard in Chapter 6 and Margaret in Chapter 7 as his mouthpieces to promulgate his opinions on the socio-political atmosphere of the early 20th Century by contrasting the lives of the Upper classes and the Lower classes. The opening sentence of Chapter 6 begins with ‘We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.’ Forster uses the collective pronoun of ‘We’ to assume with the audience a shared upbringing of upper class and therefore a mutual attitude to the members of the lower classes. This is another example of Forster’s urbane narrative voice which he uses to introduce a concept or idea like he does in the opening to the novel; ‘One may as well begin with Helen’s letter to her sister.’ The description of the ‘very poor’ as being ‘unthinkable’, is either Forster registering his aversion to the poor or his sympathy for them as being in a society in which were he to be immersed would be to his mind, unthinkable. It is this question which I will be exploring in this essay; does Forster sympathise with the lower classes or...
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...Elbe Vargas HIST 2340 November 1, 2011 Iraqis journey to Democracy The Iraqi government was the last government to try to build a democratic government. Mostly known for its ruling dictator Suddam Hussein, it is known for having a tyrant type of government rooted in Islamic religious practices. But with the help of the United States, and other countries, Iraqis will create a new era: the era of democracy. It all started on January 30, 2005 when an Iraq election promoted and built democracy. The world was speechless by the results of the significant amount of numbers to vote for Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly. The Iraqi government took a huge risk by publically announcing that voting was a human right in practicing Democracy. The United States played a huge role in helping Iraq promote and build democracy, with the final goal of ending dictatorship. For the past twenty five years the U.S. has provided crucial support for democracy as well as a basic principle of the U.S. foreign policy. Not only has America helped Iraq turn away from dictatorship, but it has also helped other countries such as Philippines, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Ukraine toward democracy. The U.S. has grown to have the label of “leadership” stamped on them when it comes to helping other countries towards Democracy. Today electoral democracies now exist in 120 out of 192 countries that are about 63 percent of the world’s population! (Soudriette, 2005) One author however disagrees with the outcome...
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...wants to live in a country or area where everyone is free to do what they want, there needs to be some kind of governing that helps keep everyone from getting out of control. Different ways to handle that have been used back in ancient times. Take Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece for example, they both had ways, including the types of governing and their military force. The Greeks and Egyptians both had problems with keeping their civilization in line, and their solutions to their problem were both similar and different. One solution the Greek had for keeping their civilization in line included having a...
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...Ex 1 Using material from the article as well as your own ideas, consider what the priorities of education should be for your country and justify your reason for choosing these priorities. In Singapore, education is more or less a political and social engineering tool that prepares Singaporeans for the workplace of the future. In the 1960s, education was driven by the need for Singapore to survive as a small, independent city state with limited resources. Thus, there was a strong link between education and economic development. Given its history, it’s not surprising that Singapore still values education as part of the nation-building process. The main priority of education in Singapore should be economic growth. Singapore has no natural resources other than its own people. Given this situation, it is imperative that our human capital is completely harnessed and developed for nation building. Education, which allows for the accumulation of knowledge and skills, thus becomes vital for sustained economic growth. In this century, economies all over the world are transformed by globalization, to remain competitive, Singapore needs to transform itself into a global hub of knowledge and innovation driven industries. To achieve this, a world-class workforce that is creative, entrepreneurial and adaptable needs to be cultivated to survive the many challenges of this new century. However, as the article pointed out, education is also a personal right, an entitlement. While the government...
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...John Adams, one of the American Founding Fathers, is believed to be one of the key Americans that helped in providing what we now call our Presidential Constitution, as well as the power of democracy. John Adams did indeed become President of the United States as well. I consider him one of the political American heroes, because without him, perhaps our limited government would not be what it is today. During the late 17th century, there will still societies being ruled by a King, and the notion of a constitutional government was non-existent. Colonists in the United States did not feel content in paying taxes to their British allies. I believe the colonists did not find it common sense to be paying taxes to Britain who was several thousand miles away. I do not know how the process of paying such taxes was imposed during that time, but it must have been a very complex and time consuming issue. They could not wire their taxes electronically like we do in the 21st century. Their fastest method of traveling...
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...Master Thesis Ethnic Conflicts and Transition to Democracy in Africa: Recurrence of Ethnic Conflicts in Kenya (1991-2008) Author: Berita Musau Matrikelnummer: 0601567 Academic degree aspired Master (M.A) Vienna, August, 2008 Studienkennzahl: A 067 805 Studienrichtung: Global Studies - a European Perspective Advisor: Prof. Dr. Walter Schicho Table of Contents Dedication ……………………………………………………………………. iii Acknowledgment …………………………………………………………….. iv List of Acronyms …………………………………………………………….. v List of Tables and figures …………………………………………………….. vii Abstract in English …………………………………………………………… viii Abstract in German …………………………………………………………... ix Chapter One: Introduction ………………………………………………… 1 1.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………… 1 1.2. Problem statement …………………………………………………….. 2 1.3. Aim and objectives of the research …………………………………… 4 1.4. Research questions and hypotheses …………………………………... 7 Chapter Two: Literature review and theoretical framework ……………. 8 2.1. Literature review ……………………………………………………… 8 2.2. Transition to democracy and ethnic conflicts in Africa ………………. 12 2.3. Definition of concepts ………………………………………………… 16 2.4. Theoretical framework for analysis of ethnic conflicts ……………….. 18 2.4. Research methodology ………………………………………………... 21 2.5. Significance of the research …………………………………………... 23 Chapter Three: Background to the struggle for democracy and ethnic conflicts in Kenya……………………………………………………………. 24 3.1. A short retrospect in to Kenya’s colonial...
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