World Journals, Database of Academic Research Journals | Read eBooks online

An Exhibit on Politics

Power

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl...
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The Republic (by Plato)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Ten Days that Shook the World (by Reed, John)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (by Wollstonecraft, Mary)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
Art of War, The (version 2) (by Sun Tzu)

Power: An Exhibit on Politics

This virtual exhibit examines the history of political ideologies and the on the application of personal and political power within the context of social and resource control. Throughout history, man has struggled for both control, and sovereignty. The concepts of freedom and independence have been great inspiration for writers throughout millenia. These documents are located in the following Collections: Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Government, Law, Literature...among many other volumes of influential works.

The Social Mind

In Twentieth Century Political Thought, political philosopher Joseph S. Roucek draws from E.A. Ross and C.H. Cooley to say that the state has a “social mind” that prescribes forms and obligations to all associations, and shapes the societal composition. The modern discourse of political struggles is that political victors become the leading creators of the “social mind” that control the order of the defeated. This discourse is common in the study of politics that shape modern nations and international relations today (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

The Review of the Management of Our Affairs in China, Since the Opening of the Trade in 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839 discusses the history of British influence in China’s opium trade. According to the author, the British collaborated with elite Chinese bureaucrats and merchants, creating profits for a few, but much havoc in the country (; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839, Captain Eliot). The aggression of foreign powers entering into China for their own trade interests transformed the country into German, Russian, British and French “spheres of influence” (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). In this context, the “social mind” in China was actually being influenced by foreign powers rather than according to the interests of the Chinese themselves. According to China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Paris became the site for the Peace Conference that brought together the world’s leaders to end the World War I (China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Far Eastern Political Science Review). Wellington Koo and Cao Rulin represented China. Koo demanded an end to imperialist policies in China (“V.K. Wellington Koo,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). However, Western powers refused his claim. China was the only country that did not sign the Paris Peace Conference Treaty. This led to the May Fourth Movemen t in China (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

Sovereignty

The writer, Roucek, also states that the indispensable elements of states are populations, territory and sovereign power. The quantity and quality of a population legitimizes a ruling power’s territorial administration. Sovereignty is described as political leaders raising the flag, erecting government buildings and instituting police and army forces to defend their territory. In the words of J.W. Burgess, the original, absolute, unlimited power of the state over individual and collective subjects that reside in that territory (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek). This concept of sovereignty is demonstrated in the the writings of Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. He believed that a state’s stability is always subject to threat.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in a time when France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland battled Italian city-states for regional influence and control (“Niccolò Machiavelli,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a 16th-century political treatise which argued that there is a benefit to leaders using violence to achieve stability and security, also known as sovereignty (The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli). However, political sovereignty may also be born from the social, economic and psychic forces emerging out of the population. According to Popular Sovereignty, in order for a peaceful state to be achieved, informed individuals need to be willing to work toward it. It is the responsibility of the the institutions and laws to support the development of informed individuals who will in turn advocate for popular needs and interests (Popular Sovereignty, Charles Anthony).

Ideology

Roucek adds that the state’s power is founded upon territorial residence and control of vital economic items, such as property. Smaller political units called city-states evolved into states. Ancient monarchies expanded into empires. The ideological leadership of states can be absolutist, tyrannical, representative, democratic, socialistic, militaristic and industrial. Other ideological forms include aristocracy and democracy, theocracy, physiocracy and plutocracy. These differences in governments reflect the techniques that dominant groups use to exercise their power (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

New political ideologies are adopted by groups as contexts shift. In 1835, French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, documenting his travels to America and illuminating the amorphous nature of the state (“Alexis de Tocqueville,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Through this book, he wanted to inform France about its changing position in the global arena due to the rise of Anglo-America as an emerging imperial power. De Tocqueville observed how state practice of aristocratic politics was giving way to a new ideal called democratic politics: American democracy allowed people to come together for the common cause of creating their political society according to civil laws, while also expanding across the North American continent (Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville).

Another type of political ideology is socialism, which would critique dominant political orders such as U.S. imperial power. In Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina wrote that imperialism is the height of capitalism as it animates the economic, social and political forces that structure capitalism to exploit workers. Thus, the death of capitalism is an opportunity to practice Revolutionary Socialism, in which proletariat workers depend upon themselves to produce their own needs, in order to change the elite-controlled society (Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina).

Works Cited

“Alexis de Tocqueville.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Anthony, Charles. Popular Sovereignty. London: Longmans, Green & Company, 2010.

Captain Eliot. Review of the Management of our Affairs in China, 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1840.

Far Eastern Political Science Review. China at the Peace Conference, August 1919. Canton: Diplomatic Association, 1919.

Fraina, Louis. Revolutionary Socialism. New York: The Communist Press, 1918.

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

"May Fourth Movement." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Roucek, Joseph S. Twentieth Century Political Thought. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1946.

“V.K. Wellington Koo.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Political Collections

Political matters refer to the calculation of forces that seek to assert power over territory and population. The Nature of Organized Power: An Exhibit on Politics features Roucek’s concepts such as the “social mind,” “sovereignty” and “ideology” to explore how a particular definition of order asserts its power over territory, and circulates its ideals to generate public consent of that order. However, this order is always shifting, as different political ideas co-exist and compete for the manifestation of their ideal reality.

Explore other books on politics in these collections.

Top 100 books on Politics

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl...
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The Republic (by Plato)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Ten Days that Shook the World (by Reed, John)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (by Wollstonecraft, Mary)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
Art of War, The (version 2) (by Sun Tzu)

Top 100 books on Government

Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches :... (by Lincoln, Abraham)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535)
Lao-Tzu : A Study in Chinese Philosophy (by Watters, Thomas)
Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Grea... (by Allan, Mary Ann)
The Works of Aristotle : Volume 12 (by Aristotle)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Between Past and Future : Six Exercises ... (by Hannah Arendt)
1581 : The Dutch Declaration of Independ... (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Declaration of Colonial Rights : Resolut...
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Mayflower Compact
The Declaration of Arbroath

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Journal of Ethnobiology. Volume: v. 16-17 1996-97 (by Center for Western Studies (Flagstaff, Ariz.))
The Positive School of Criminology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Current Anthropological Literature Volume 1 (by American Anthropological Association)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (by Lowie, Robert Harry)
The Scope of Social Anthropology; A Lect... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
Kon Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft (by Thor Heyerdahl)
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological... (by Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ire...)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Catalogue of Works on European Philology... (by Quarich, Bernard)

Top 100 books on Biographies

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, V... (by Twain, Mark)
Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, V... (by Sherman, William Tecumseh)
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Scul... Volume Vol. 8
A Life of William Shakespeare (by Sidney Lee)
The Celtic Twilight (by Yeats, William Butler)
Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Ki... (by Hawk, Black)
The Story of My Life (by Helen Keller)
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, Gene... (by Philip Henry Sheridan)
Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians a... (by Plutarchos, Donato Acciaiuoli)
Autobiography of John Stuart Mill (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau (by Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
The Diary of a U-Boat Commander (by King-Hall, Stephen, Sir)
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Scul... Volume Vol. 10
My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick D...
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of... (by Equiano, Olaudah)

Top 100 books on History of India

Indian Constitutional Reforms : Governme... (by India. Home Department)
The Laws of Manu
The Raghuvanca, The Story of Raghu's Lin... (by Kalidasa)
Agnes, The Indian Captive. A Poem, In Fo... (by Mitford, John)
The World's Story; A History of the Worl... (by Tappan, Eva March)
The Kingdom of Brass; Or, The History of... (by Bement, R. B.)
The Indian Scene (by J. A. Spender)
Why India is heart and soul with Great B... (by Bhupendra-Natha Vasu)
Rules of India : Lord Amberst and the Br... (by Richie, Anne. & Evans Ichards.)
Remains of Mrs. Catherine Winslow : A Me... (by Winslow, Catherine Mary Reignolds)
The Awakening of India (by Mackenzie, De Witt)
De Portugal a Calecut, Monographia Histo... (by Freitas Cavalleiro E Sousa, Augusto Eugenio De)
Report(S) (by Archaeological Survey of India)
A Catalogue of Maps of the British Posse... (by India Office)
Supplement to The Modern History of Indi... (by Thomas Maurice)

Top 100 books on Philosophy

Ethics, The (by Spinoza, Benedict de)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding ... (by John Locke)
Summa Theologica - 01 Pars Prima, Initia... (by Aquinas, Thomas, Saint)
The Dhammapada, the Sutta-nipâta, Score ... Volume Vol. X (by Müller, F., Max)
Pensées (by Pascal, Blaise)
Select Orations of Cicero.. (by Cicero, Marcus Tullius)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (by Hume, David)
An Introduction to Zen Taoism and Its Pr... (by Rosenthal, Stan)
Divine Wisdom (by Swedenborg, Emanuel)
Discourse on Metaphysics, Correspondence... (by Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm)
Dhammapada, The (by Unknown)
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ... (by Hume, David)
Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals (by Kant, Immanuel)
The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and in P... (by Unamuno, Miguel)
The Ethics (by Spinoza, Benedict de)

Top 100 books on Sociology

Wanted, A Young Woman to Do Housework, B... (by Barker, Clara Helene)
Civic Education : Sociological Foundatio... (by David Snedden)
A Far Country (by Churchill, Winston)
Folkways (by Sumner, William Graham)
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociolog... (by Macdonald, James Ramsay Ed)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
A History of Social Thought (by Emory Stephen Bogardus)
Outlines of sociology (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Pure Sociology : A Treatise on the Origi... (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
A Theology for the Social Gospel (by Walter Rauschenbusch)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
Quaker Hill; A Sociological Study (by Wilson, Warren Hugh)

Top 100 books on Economics

Communism in the United States (by Browder, Earl Russell)
Classless Capitalism (by Stern, Frederick Martin.)
Autobiography of Mother Jones, The (by Jones, Mary Harris)
The Morality of Capitalism
Alfred Weber's Theory of the Location of... (by Weber, Alfred)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
A Treatise on Political Economy : Or the... (by Jean Baptiste Say)
Conquest of bread, The (by Kropotkin, Peter)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 (by Bellamy, Edward)

Top 100 books on Law

Human Rights (by Carter, Jimmy)
Principles of English Law : Founded on B... (by Campbell, Robert)
John King of England (by John T Appledy)
Nuclear proliferation : future U.S. fore... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Inter...)
Meditations, The (by Marcus Aurelius)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Introduction to Roman Law (by Hadley, James)
Crime and Custom in Savage Society (by Malinowski, Bronislaw, 1884-1942)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
The Idea of a League of Nations; Prolego... (by League of Nations Union)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
Sacred Text : the Age of Reason Volume IV (by Paine, Thomas)
Terrorism, The Future, And U.S. Foreign ... (by Lee, Rensselaer)
Sovereign Immunity : Hearing before the ... Volume Part: 1 (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On Indi...)