...In a way, communism is an extreme form of socialism. Many countries have dominant socialist political parties but very few are truly communist. In fact, most countries - including staunch capitalist bastions like the U.S. and U.K. - have government programs that borrow from socialist principles. "Socialism" is sometimes used interchangeably with "communism" but the two philosophies have some stark differences. Most notably, while communism is a political system, socialism is primarily an economic system that can exist in various forms under a wide range of political systems. Comparison chart | |Communism |Socialism | |Philosophy |From each according to his ability, to each according to |From each according to his ability, to each according to| | |his needs. Free-access to the articles of consumption is |his contribution. Emphasis on profit being distributed | | |made possible by advances in technology that allow for |among the society or workforce to complement individual | | |super-abundance. |wages/salaries. | |Economic System |The means of production are held in common, negating the |The means of production are owned by public enterprises | | |concept of ownership in...
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...Iraq & Vietnam: A comparison and contrast Kirkland Young HUMN 410 Professor Harris 11/17/09 Introduction Many pundits who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq now compare it to the invasion of Vietnam by viewing the daily attacks on U.S. soldiers as indications of repeating mistakes that were made in Vietnam. In their view, “the United States has yet again stumbled into a foreign quagmire – a protracted and indecisive political and military struggle from which they are not likely to remove themselves without considerable loss of life and currency.” (Terrill, p. 1) However, profound differences separate the domestic and international objectives of the Vietnam and Iraq wars even though there are many similarities these similarities can be misleading. The Vietnam War was over the spread of communism in the Indochina region of the world. The French and the Japanese had been thoroughly conquered by the Vietnamese led by a Ho Chi Minh who had an overwhelming amount of support from his compatriots. In 1954 the president of the U.S.A. attempted to divide the country of Vietnam into two opposing governments. Selecting a former Vietnamese official named Ngo Dinh Diem and planting him in South Vietnam to oppose the elections that would unite the country. This was done because an intelligence estimate showed that the election would be won by Ho Chi Minh and thus would give “control of the associated states (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) in the region – the three parts...
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...ON ISLAM and INEQUALITY Introduction Fish (2011) in his book named “Are Muslims Distinctive: A Look at the Evidence.” discusses whether Muslims show any systematic differences on individual and country levels in various issues such as democracy, large scale violence, corruption, tolerance and social inequality. In terms of inequality, Fish compares Muslim and non- Muslim countries in relation to gender and income inequality. As a result of his data analyses he concludes: “On gender based inequality Muslims lag; on income inequality they lead” (Fish, 2011: 228). I consider the finding about income inequality as an unexpected one because in the income inequality literature, religion in general and Islam in specific are not commonly considered as potential determinants. Fish`s proposed causal mechanism makes his study even more suspicious because his references are anecdotal and his reasoning is culturalist. This is why, I decided to investigate his findings deeper and conduct a test on his claims that Muslims are culturally more egalitarian than Christians. The plan of this paper works in the following way: I will start with a literature review and continue with a brief summary of Fish`s data analysis and his major claims about the causal mechanism behind the relationship between Muslim culture and egalitarian state policies. Afterwards, I will continue with my alternative replication of Fish`s regression analysis with a different dataset which measures inequality in an...
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...Herman Melville (1819-1891) Context and Background “Bartleby the Scrivener” was written in 1853, born in New York City, he was considered an “1870 writer”. Melville was one of the first American writers able to make a living off writing. People were interested in reading fiction, and “Moby Dick” was not common or appealing to the general population but holds merit today. He wrote “relatable” fiction, and people liked to read travel logs and exciting adventure stories (escapist literature). Moby Dick is not a relatable story due to the context of the scenarios, but it is considered an artistic novel because it is obscure and challenging. Melville wrote in two different modes; strange, difficult and unrealistic compared to relatable, realistic fiction. Bartleby the Scrivener contains elements of both; it is set in a New York office yet still continues weird elements. It was meant to be accessible and was considered “Great Literature” because it is symbolic, subtle and ironic. Bartleby the Scrivener * The boss is governed by the obligations of Wall Street, but also contains sympathetic traits towards Bartleby. Bartleby, who we do not know, is insane, stubborn, or stupid, and his behaviour is left up for interpretation. * Historical context: In the right hand corner of America, the Puritans went from England to settle in this area for religious reasons. New York was founded by the Dutch and they intended to set up a trading post. War was fought between these 2 groups,...
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...Berend (2000) – From Plan to Market, From Regime Change to Sustained Growth in Central and Eastern Europe * After the state socalism collapsed in Central and Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, the Washington consensus of 1989 (a broadly accepted set of criteria for a reform program) was adopted as a blueprint for the process of transformation. * Central elements: * Macro-economic stabilization (for countries with significant inflation and indebtedness) * New institutions * Legislation * Price and trade liberalisation * Radical privatization * Most of the “transformatology“ literature is based on the assumption that the elimination of deformed non-market economies, a restoration of market, and private ownership, paired with a laissez-faire free market system would automatically solve all major economic/social problems of the transforming countries. * The economic crisis within the Central and Eastern Europe area started much earlier – in the mid-late 1970s when growth slowed significantly and the terms of trade for the state socialist countries began to deteriorate (1973 first oil shock 20% decline, for some even 26-32%) Schumpeter’s theory of “structural crisis”: advancements in technology lead to decline of the old leading sectors and export branches based on old technology, generating wide-ranging slow-down and decline and causing an economic crisis even in rich, advanced countries. However, although rising new technology...
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...PROJECT 2010 India and China: A study in comparison [pic] Neetika Chakraborty Roll number-818 Economics (H) Third Year Acknowledgment I would like to thank my third year teachers- Ms. Nandini Kumar and Mrs. Meeta Kumar for their superior reaching capabilities and constant support. They have always been there to answer every query and help me out with research material whenever I required it. This project would not have been possible without them. This project would also not have been possible without the vast amount of data which was made available through the database of the reserve bank of India and the central bank of the Republic of China. Furthermore, I am indebted to the huge quantity of information available on the internet which was an important part of my initial research. INDEX 1. Introduction 2. Political Evolution ❖ China ❖ India ❖ Drawing a comparison 3. International Trade ❖ China ❖ India ❖ Bilateral trade between India and China 4. Population Trends ❖ Drawing a comparison 5. Conclusion 6. Bibliography Introduction China’s and India’s rapid growth and economic policies, as well as their role in International trade and capital markets, have generated a large amount of interest and research. Much of the attention focuses on their growth prospects and on their faculty to influence global governance. Two salient characteristics of China...
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...Reviews Koichi Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002. 275 pp., including references and index. ISBN 0-8223-2891-7. In this book, Koichi Iwabuchi, a Cultural Studies scholar based in Japan, explores intellectual discourses, marketing strategies and audience consumption of Japanese popular culture in a transnational Asian context. In other words, he examines Japan's encounter with a 'modern' Asia by focusing on the diffusion of its commercialized popular culture. This has been made possible by the globalization of media, which itself encouraged an incipient expansion of a hitherto largely domestic-oriented Japanese media production system to other Asian markets. There have been two results from this expansion of mediated popular culture. In the first place, it brings into question the assumed hegemony of American mass culture (from Disney to McDonald's) and shows how, in East and Southeast Asia at least, Japanese contemporary culture is extremely significant – especially in the global cities of Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore and so on. Second, and more troubling so far as Iwabuchi is concerned, Japan's 'return to Asia' from the 1990s, when it began reasserting its Asian identity, contains echoes of World War II colonialism since Japanese tend to regard themselves as 'above' other Asian countries because of their superior technology and production capacity...
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...The following text is the second chapter of ―L‘Essai sur l‘oeconomie‖ by Pierre Calame, published at Editions Charles-Léopold Mayer in 2009. Translated from French by Michael C. Behrent. Chapter 2. Globalization in Question 1. “Pro” vs. “Anti” Globalization: The New Divide For a number of years, the question of economic globalization—i.e., the interdependence of national systems of production and exchange and the ―financialization‖ of the world (revealed by the American subprime crisis in 2007)—has polarized public opinion. The problems stemming from economic globalization dominate the news: the outsourcing production in search of cheaper labor costs; the decreasing efficiency of national juridical and fiscal regulation; the waning of the very idea of sovereignty; the growing constraints within which politicians can act; the emergence of a small class of the immensely rich alongside the billions of poor; the rise of new financial actors—pension funds, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds—capable of destabilizing or seizing control of entire realms of the economy; and the emergence of China and India as new global economic actors, as their companies storm the industrial bastions of the United States and Europe. Should one be for or against globalization? Can we turn our backs on globalization, and return to national or regional systems of production and exchange that are autonomous, even autarkic? Is the large cosmopolitan corporation the new leviathan—a monster that...
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...University June 2011 Project Advisors: Professor Jason Blevins, Department of Economics Professor Jennifer Suchland, Department of Russian Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1. Macroeconomic Planning in the Soviet Union ................................................................. 5 1.1 The Early Policies of Period One ................................................................................................... 5 1.1.1 War Communism .......................................................................................................................... 5 1.1.2 The New Economic Policy (NEP) ............................................................................................... 9 1.1.3 Democratic Centralism ............................................................................................................... 11 1.2 The Significance of Economic Planning on Living Standards ................................................. 13 1.3 Five-Year Centralized Plans and Effects on National Income ................................................. 20 1.3.1 Trade Imbalances ............................................................................................
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...television on this important evening knew that everything had changed. Barak Hussein Obama had just been elected the 45th President of the United States of America, and he represented the first African American to ever win this office. To many the election was a fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for social and political equality for African Americans. Still others, including the newly elected President, reached back to Lincoln. President Obama would also, invoke the founding fathers, giving credit to the social experiment that democracy is and thus hinting to the efforts of Washington and others. The days that followed the Obama election would be filled with symbolism leading to the concert on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, and the day of service, called by the President, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the day before inauguration. The election of President Obama seemed to have brought full circle the experiment of democracy. The dreams of the founding fathers were present, the echo of Lincoln’s consequential Presidency were present, and certainly the dreams and speeches of Dr. King were front and center in this cultural moment. Yet the cultural moment represented so much more than a continuum of ideas and dreams of significant men. This moment was one of the first major societal changes in a generation. Perhaps not Ironically, the election of Barak Obama had ripple effects upon social change in the United States and what came full circle on November 4,...
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...Economics Economies of Scale Reduction in cost per unit resulting from increased production, realized through operational efficiencies. Economies of scale can be accomplished because as production increases, the cost of producing each additional unit falls. Diseconomies of Scale “Economies of scale” is a simple concept that can be demonstrated through an example. Assume you are a small business owner and are considering printing a marketing brochure. The printer quotes a price of $5,000 for 500 brochures, and $10,000 for 2,500 copies. While 500 brochures will cost you $10 per brochure, 2,500 will only cost you $4 per brochure. In this case, the printer is passing on part of the cost advantage of printing a larger number of brochures to you. This cost advantage arises because the printer has the same initial set-up cost regardless of whether the number of brochures printed is 500 or 2,500. Once these costs are covered, there is only a marginal extra cost for printing each additional brochure. Economies of scale can arise in several areas within a large enterprise. While the benefits of this concept in areas such as production and purchasing are obvious, economies of scale can also impact areas like finance. For example, the largest companies often have a lower cost of capital than small firms because they can borrow at lower interest rates. As a result, economies of scale are often cited as a major rationale when two companies announce a merger or takeover. However...
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...Can Wal-Mart Survive China’s Growing Middle Class? China’s rising standard of living and its impact on the discount retail market. Abstract This paper investigates published articles, financial information and books which discuss Wal-Mart’s recent business activities in China. The activity discussed includes Wal-Mart’s increasing impact and influence on the Chinese economy as a buyer and consumer of raw materials, a manufacturer of products, and as a retailer and employer in China. This paper discusses how Wal-Mart sources its finished products and raw materials in and from China, how Wal-Mart markets to China’s middle class, and how Wal-Mart manages China’s middle-class as both its primary customer and their source of labor in China. The intent of this paper is to provide readers with a high level understanding of how Wal-Mart is conducting business in today’s China and how Wal-Mart’s manages their exposure to the various supply chains in China, its increasing dependence on products and services sourced in China and how Wal-Mart is handling China’s growing middle-class and the nationally unionized workforce in their Chinese stores. Lastly, this paper discusses how Wal-Mart’s business strategy competes and compares with Target Stores, one of their leading competitors in the discount retailer marketplace. Keywords: wal-mart, target, china, supply chain management, sourcing, global marketplace Identification. This paper discusses Wal-Mart’s history in China...
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...CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW 2.1 Human Resource Management Management in business pursuits and organizations can be defined as the process of coordinating people and processes in order to accomplish specific goals and objectives. Business management specifically includes planning, organizing, staffing, directing operations, and resourcing. Resourcing, furthermore, requires the strategic use of human, financial, technological, and natural resources in accomplishing the goals of a business entity. Because business can be usefully viewed as “systems”, business management can be seen as human action designed to facilitate useful outcomes from the system. This view allow for the opportunity to “manage” oneself, an important factor to consider before managing operations and employees. Human resources management is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. It is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. Human Resources management is the strategic approaches to the management of an organization’s most valuable asset—the people who work for that organization and who, individually and collectively, contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Simply put, human...
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...Knowledge Area Module I: Principles of Societal Development Student: Michael Moore Michael.Moore@waldenu.edu Program: PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences Specialization: Leadership and Organizational Change KAM Assessor: Dr. Javier Fadul Javier.fadul@waldenu.edu Faculty Mentor: Dr. Javier Fadul Javier.fadul@waldenu.edu Walden University February 5, 2011 ABSTRACT Breadth This Knowledge Area Module (KAM) broadens common knowledge of societal and cultural development by looking beyond economic and conflict theories for understanding other positions regarding social advancement. The Breadth Component studies societal and cultural development in terms of evolutionary, cyclical, and fundamentalist theories and demonstrates why it is important to looking beyond the popularly accepted knowledge about social development represented by economic and conflict theory. This approach provides a more robust generalization that more adequately describes social advancement, and concludes that classical researchers did not consider leadership as a social segment to be studied, that influences societal and cultural development. Leadership understanding of societal and cultural development is critical for enabling them to lead positive social change. ABSTRACT Depth The Depth section compares modern research in societal and cultural development to the theories of classical researchers in order to further develop the findings of the classical study, and to determine if leadership...
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...Bayly cab1002@cam.ac.uk 1 The History of The Indian Subcontinent From The Late Eighteenth Century To The Present Day A fifth of the world's population lives in the Indian subcontinent. While today the region’s place in the global world order is widely recognised, this is in fact only the most recent chapter in a longer history. This paper offers an understanding of the part played by the Indian subcontinent role and its people in the making of the modern world. From the decline of the great empire of the Mughals and the rise of British hegemony, to the rise of nationalism, the coming of independence and partition, the consolidation of new nation states despite regional wars and conflicts, and the emergence of India as the largest democracy in the world, this paper is a comprehensive and analytical survey of the subcontinent's modern history. The dynamic and complex relationships between changing forms of political power and religious identities, economic transformations, and social and cultural change are studied in the period from 1757 to 2007. In normal circumstances students will be given 6 supervisions in groups of 1 or 2. Key themes and brief overview: The paper begins by examining the rise of British power in the context of economic developments indigenous to southern Asia; it analyses the role played by Indian polities and social groups in the expansion of the East India Company's activities. It tracks the emergence of modern intelligentsias and their definitions of...
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