Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Political Science 100 - Midterm Review
Political Science 100 - Midterm Review
Plato – Thrasymachus
Holds view that “justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger”.
Justice being a false term solely employed by politicians: democracy, tyranny, etc. have
their own definitions of justice, virtually any regime will claim to be just and fair.
States that justice is those in power, exercising their power over those without it.
The rulers use their laws to take advantage of people.
Example: segregation was once used to take advantage of many African Americans. Was
once written in law as being just, now is considered severely unjust. Thus, it is all
subjective to those creating the laws.
Foucault’s ‘Five Important Traits’ That Characterize the “Political Economy of Truth”
1. Truth is centered on the form of scientific discourse and the institutions which produce it.
2. It is subject to constant economic and political incitement.
3. It is the object, under diverse forms, of immense diffusion and consumption (circulating
through apparatuses of education and information whose extent is relatively broad in the
social body).
4. It is produced and transmitted under the control, dominant if not exclusive, of a few great
political and economic apparatuses (university, army, writing, media).
5. It is the issue of a whole political debate and social confrontation (‘ideological’
struggles).
Social Tyranny:
People realised it didn’t make sense for one individual to rule a collective group of
people, so they adapted the idea of a temporary leader elected out of the most popular
party.
Those involved were people who represented a majority of the population ruled over
the minorities, this power was considered the “tyranny over the majority” or social
tyranny.
Now the society represented can execute their own rules as well, which may be at fault
when it improves their well-being and not the minorities: because majority is happy with
one mandate, it is harder for the minority to be protected from it.
Beck – Idea that “the Retreat of Investors is what Constitutes the Nucleus of Global
Economic Power
“Investment capital is the equivalent of firepower”.
Retreating investment capital is equivalent to use of firepower against a nation.
- Without capital coming from investor, a nation could face economic downtrends, causing
the nation to lose say in the global community.
- By leveraging this tool, an investor can affect political decisions.