Ideal Social Order Research Articles

Pope Benedict on Capitalism, Marxism, and Globalization

This article presents some of Pope Benedict XVI’s thoughts on economic matters, drawing from his writings and speeches before and after his election to the Papacy. He has spoken on numerous occasions about Marxism, capitalism, and, more recently, globalization, which can be thought of as an extension of capitalism. While he is harshly critical of Marxism, his criticisms of capitalism are more moderate, though he maintains a number of reservations about it, and draws parallels between the two systems. In both Marxism and capitalism he sees an attempt to construct a social order on reason alone, and he contrasts this with a Catholic vision of the social order in which reason is united to virtue in the service of moral values. He is generally supportive of globalization, though he has expressed concern about its effects on families and on the poor, as well as its effects on inequality and monopoly power. (Ed. Note: It should be noted that this article was completed, and the current volume of the Review in production before Pope Benedict’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released.) For some time now the Catholic world has been anticipating a new encyclical on Catholic social teaching from Pope Benedict XVI. Throughout his career, both as pontiff and prior to election, when Joseph Ratzinger was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Benedict has commented on economics and society. These comments are most often on capitalism, Marxism, and, more recently, on globalization and their relationship to the Catholic vision of the social order. This essay is an attempt to organize these remarks, to identify common themes among them, and to present them as a coherent whole, both to reflect on what Benedict has already said regarding economic issues and to offer a framework for interpreting the encyclical when it eventually is published. “Capitalism,” as Benedict uses the term, is founded in utilitarianism and classical liberalism. Capitalism can largely be characterized by the following propositions: it is possible to construct an ideal social order on reason alone, where reason takes the form of economic principles; reality is essentially material in nature; freedom means the ability to do as one wants; man’s welfare or happiness is understood to be the satisfaction of his wants, which increases the more his wants are satisfied; and businesses satisfy man’s wants in the market

Kemalist Perspectives in Early Republican Literary Utopias

AbstractThe aim of this study is to explore the nature of Turkish literary utopias written in the early republican period. As a study in history and literature, it contextualizes the ideal social order envisioned in these works. My main argument is twofold: First, I claim that these works reflect Kemalism as an ideal system. They presuppose that the present regime has in itself the dynamics that enables an ideal social order and that this ideal social order can be attained by getting rid of the practical irregularities that prevent a full-fledged realization of the present regime. With these presuppositions, they serve the efforts to turn Kemalism into a hegemonic discourse. Secondly, through a detailed analysis of these texts, I argue that Kemalism has not been a monolithic discourse, but rather that it contained different and sometimes competing currents.

"Culture Education" and the Challenge of Globalization in Modern Nigeria

If is the process of knowledge acquisition, emphasizes the peculiar means and methods of instruction by which a society imparts its body of values and mores in the pursuance and attainment of the society's collective vision, aspirations, and goals. Thus, anyone who demonstrates a degree of knowledge of his or her societal values and general education is said to be educated. In other words, education, as intended here, presupposes conscious and refined methods of acquisition and/or dissemination of the knowledge of societal values, philosophy, hermeneutics, and so on. Culture is the means by which skills are developed in such areas as language, oral traditions and customs, music, dance, rituals, festivals, traditional medicine, foodways, and architecture, as well as the internalization and socialization of societal values and skills by individuals in a way that engenders cultural adaptability, flexibility, and societal cohesion. Thus, ultimately refers to a people's pedagogy of cultural values, the teaching methodologies and means of dissemination, the acquisition of culture for the purpose of socialization, and the promotion of an ideal social order.

The Tragic Vision of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm

Rosmersholm has a readily perceptible line of action that takes Rosmer and Rebecca step by step toward going ‘‘the same way that Beata went’’ (398/547, 436/582),1 although we may not be sure how some of these individual steps work precisely. Early on, Rosmer still cannot walk on the bridge from which his wife Beata threw herself into the mill-race, and he is not eager to tell Kroll about his changed views on social, political, and religious matters, but he insists that he is entirely at ease concerning Beata’s death and Kroll’s hostile reaction. His tranquillity is shattered during Act Two by the new information about Beata that Kroll and Mortensgard provide and by Rebecca’s shocking response to his proposal of marriage. Rosmer, as he emphatically insists to Rebecca, is now overcome with guilt and convinced that he will never be able to fulfil his dream of creating an ideal social and political order in the land by ennobling all those capable of intellectual and spiritual growth. Kroll’s probing of Rebecca’s age and origins in Act Three shatters her sense of well-being as well. This apparently makes her more responsive to Rosmer’s suffering, for she promises to restore him to his happy state of innocence and then confesses that he should feel no guilt for Beata’s suicide because it was she who caused it by luring Beata into it. Rather than having its intended effect, Rebecca’s confession destroys Rosmer’s dream and puts both him and her in deep despair. In an attempt to free himself from despair, Rosmer demands proof from Rebecca of her love for him and faith in him and of his having fulfilled his dream at least to the extent of ennobling her. This proof is her going to her death in the mill-race, and when she agrees to do it, he decides to join her. But what are we to make of this line of action? How are we to get to the bottom of it?

“Savages Who Speak French”: Folklore, Primitivism and Morals in Robert Hertz

Hertz’s analysis of the Alpine cult of Saint Besse apparently marks a break from his studies of death, sin and the left to folkloric studies. This analysis helps one to understand the personality of Robert Hertz. His sociological curiosity about folklore reveals his ambiguous position in social sciences at the beginning of the twentieth century. His text appears to be a variation from the Durkheimian norm, but another reading could suggest that Hertz continued and went beyond Durkheimian thought to something between sociology of the modern world and engaged socialism. Through this study, Hertz linked his political ideals, his work in ethnology and his desire for social involvement. The cult of Saint Besse perpetuated as much religious tradition as local identity. The Alpine people were presented in the text as wilful perpetuators of an ideal social order, whose loss for his contemporary city dwellers Hertz feared. The alpine Other, marked by a material and moral backwardness, represented for activist and socialist Hertz one of the paths of balanced social organization that stabilized the identity of a group across time if it fit rather well into the folkloric stereotypes of the beginning of the twentieth century. Finally, by linking events in Herz’s life (e.g., the accidental Alpine death of his father), this article suggests that the legend of Saint Besse embodied several recurring motifs in Hertz’ career: the accidental deaths of saint and father by falls, the military role of the saint and of Hertz himself.

Parchment Barriers Revisited

At first glance the U.S. and South African bills of rights appear radically different. Rights the United States codified in 1792 were exclusively civil and political, while South Africa, in 1996, recognized the full panoply of modern rights: economic, social and environmental, as well as civil and political. Such differences can be deceiving as both bills have important similarities. Both were political documents with origins in a complex and difficult social milieu. Both were post-colonial attempts to express a vision of an ideal new political and social order and to establish the rules to guide its realization. Though separated by two hundred years and created in vastly different contexts of rights consciousness, both documents were born in a spirit of compromise and conflict. They were less the result of doctrinal purity than of political struggle. Only with appropriate political will can the legacy of both bills be a genuine commitment to human rights leavening the force of political expediency and creating polities where bills of rights are more than just “parchment barriers” to tyranny.

Moral order, language and the failure of the 1930 recreation plan for Los Angeles county

In the autumn of 1927, a Citizens' Committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce hired the Olmsted Brothers and Bartholomew and Associates firms to produce a plan for improving the county's parks, playgrounds and beaches. Bold, comprehensive, and over two years in preparation, their 1930 proposal was environmentally determinist at its core, promising an ideal social order in the region after the creation of sufficient recreational spaces. The Committee and their consultants, however, were largely unsuccessful and most of their proposals languished for two reasons. First, the plan suffered diminished public support by neglecting half the traditional justifications for parks. It emphasized the material benefits of parks but disregarded their impact on public behaviour. Second, the plan's mode of presentation was inappropriately technocratic for its audience, emphasizing the rationality and calculation of planning science over the emotional attraction and beauty of landscape art. The latter would have been more fitting because the plan was aimed at an inexpert public rather than a professional planning department.

VISIONS AND REVISIONS: VILLAGE POLICIES OF THE MING FOUNDER IN SEVEN PHASES

Pursuing a vision of an ideal social order, the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang (r. 1368-1398 as the Hongwu emperor) created a new state that aimed at controlling and shaping society. But society also shaped the state-building policies. A chronological account of how the early Ming regime built village institutions shows, first, that many policies initially accommodated existing social formations, and second, that Zhu frequently revised his stance. Discussions of Zhu's creation of the Ming state often consider the reign as a whole, or split it in two at 1380. But such analyses gloss over the details of village policies that are confusing, complex, and self-contradictory. Different laws described the same institution differently, and local leaders with various titles were charged with overlapping functions. Institutions were proposed, rejected, and then established anyway; or were established and then abolished, sometimes to be re-established later. Surveyed year by year, the contradictions make sense: the laws fall into definite phases. The revisions took account of resistance to the laws. AsJohn Dardess has shown, Zhu understood that resistance as individual recalcitrance, stupidity and wickedness, but his own texts also suggest that it was the product of working social networks. Zhu's response to resistance echoed its disruption of the hierarchy, solidarity and immobility he hoped to impose, thereby undercutting his own original blueprint for state and society. Resistance, therefore, revised the autocrat's vision from the beginning.

Near-death utopias: Now or later?

By viewing near-death experiences (NDEs) in the context of the quest for an ideal society, Kellehear offered hope for positive social change and insight into the social, rather than purely personal, meanings of the NDE. However, his approach raised issues of the interpretive research process generally. As with any research, near-death studies are influenced by investigators' questions, interests, and assumptions. Despite the reasoning behind Kellehear's position, he grounded his analysis not in the data, but rather in his typology of ideal societies. I suggest we look first for indications of ideal social order in near-death narratives and only later compare them with types of utopias.

Good of the World and the Happiness of the Nations

Concern about the future and hope for peace and happiness have always been basic elements of human life and thought. Interest in the collective fate of humanity has been expressed in many forms, including that of novels which consist of both social criticism and a visionary outlook. Nineteenth-century utopian writers believed in human progress and the perfectibility of human nature and saw history as a continuous ascent towards an ideal social order. Twentieth-century authors, disillusioned by war and social, economic, and moral disasters, see humans as savage and incapable of erecting a progressive social system. Their dystopias are visions of tyranny and decay. The writings of the Bahá’í Faith, contemporary with these works, offer a new understanding of humanity’s destiny. They teach that human beings are spiritual and noble, that humanity as a whole is reaching maturity, and that social change can and will be brought about through the inner transformation of individuals and the application of spiritual, moral, and practical solutions to the problems of the world. Thus, the unity of humanity and the establishment of a new world order are God’s purpose for this age. “World peace is not only possible but inevi­table.”

The Eucharist Sacrifice and the Changing Utopian Moment in Post Reformation Christianity

In this study, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, and especially English Puritanism, is analyzed in terms of the transformation of the soteriological doctrines of Christianity. This transformation, in turn, is seen as crucial to a restructuring of utopian themes in Christian civilization. Based on the restructuring of models of social authority and of Christian community, a new vision of the ideal social order was posited. The utopian visions posited by these changes and the contradictions inherent in them are viewed as central to the emergence of modern notions of political and social praxes.

THE LOCAL COMMUNITY IN EARLY MING SOCIAL LEGISLATION: MING TAIZU'S APPROACH TO TRANSFORMATION AND CONTROL IN THE “GREAT WARNING”

The village community figured prominently in the social legislation of the early Ming Dynasty. The founding emperor's humble origins linked his destiny to the commoners of the realm, when he regarded them as the vanguard of his grand design for the control and moral transformation of society. Ming Taizu (r. 1368–98) issued numerous imperial edicts, instructions, and laws to communicate to his subjects his own perspective of the ideal social order, one which justified autocratic rule and the state's conscious manipulation of social practice. An indication of the extent to which the early Ming state was prepared to go to implement Taizu's objectives is best seen in the “Great Warning” [DA GAO], a collection of imperial pronouncements issued between 1385 and 1387. Taizu's effort to legislate his social blueprint for Ming society was a watershed in Chinese government. The text of the “Great Warning” candidly illustrates Ming Taizu's desire to make the village community the focal point of his ideal social order. These pronouncements represent the best indication of imperial intent to remold society according to Taizu's dictates and reveal a unique approach to the implementation of Ming social legislation combining mass indoctrination, ritual observances, and coercion.

Utopian Thought in the Western World

This masterly study has a grand sweep. It ranges over centuries, with a long look backward over several millennia. Yet the history it unfolds is primarily the story of individuals: thinkers and dreamers who envisaged an ideal social order and described it persuasively, leaving a mark on their own and later times. The roster of utopians includes men of all stripes in different countries and eras--figures as disparate as More and Fourier, the Marquis de Sade and Edward Bellamy, Rousseau and Marx. Fascinating character studies of the major figures are among the delights of the book. Utopian writings run the gamut from fictional narratives to theoretical treatises, from political manifestos to constitutions for a new society. The Manuels have structured five centuries of utopian invention by identifying successive constellations, groups of thinkers joined by common social and moral concerns. Within this framework they analyze individual writings, in the context of the author's life and of the socio-economic, religious, and political exigencies of his time. Concentrating on innovative works, they highlight disjunctures as well as continuities in utopian thought from the Renaissance through the twentieth century. Witty and erudite, challenging in its interpretations and provocative in the questions it poses, the Manuels' anatomy of utopia is an adventure in ideas.

The Ideal Social Order in the Arab World, 1800-1968

^^hen Napoleon's army marched on Egypt, on the eve of the nineteenth century, the Mamluk ruler and commander of the Egyptian defense forces picked from his loyal troops the most courageous soldier and ordered him to march forward to the enemy lines and challenge Napoleon, the enemy commander, to a duel. With sword drawn, fanfare blowing, and drums beating, the Egyptian hero mounted his decorated horse and advanced. As soon as the French forces knew what he was about, they ans wered with one rifle shot, and the Egyptian hero fell bleeding from a mortal wound. This is a real story, and it expresses clear ly the gap that existed between Western society and Arab so ciety at the close of the eighteenth century. For Egypt and the Arabs, the time was still the Middle Ages. For the West, it was modern times.

Economics and the Idea of Jus Naturale

I. The ethical-juristic conception of law, as well as the natural science conception of laws, affected economic thought in the eighteenth century, 205.—Separate study of the influence of former would throw light on laissez faire, 208.—II. General meaning of Jus Naturale conception in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 209.—Of no influence on economic theories of mercantilists, it shaped those of such writers as Grotius, Pufendorf, and Hutcheson, 211.—III. The philosophy of the Physiocrats. Laws of economic process as it would go on in an ideal social order, prescribed by Nature but to be achieved by human efforts, 215.—IV. The philosophy of Adam Smith. Human propensities and sentiments, with limited amount of human planning, would produce a harmonious social order, 226.—The Theory of Moral Sentiments in relation to the Wealth of Nations, 232.—V. Summary and conclusions, 239.