analytical Marxism
A term sometimes applied to the writings of sociologists and social theorists such as Erik Olin Wright, Jon Elster, and John Roemer, who attempted during the 1980s and 1990s to revitalize European ...
anarchism
The doctrine associated with Godwin, Bakunin, Proudhon, and others, that human communities can and should flourish without government. Voluntary cooperation should replace the coercive machinery of ...
Castle Chamber
This prerogative court, modelled on the English Star Chamber, reflected an early modern concern for social control as well as the centralizing power of the state. An intention to separate ...
center–periphery
Describes patterns of unequal relations between relatively developed centers and less developed outlying areas within an economy or other system. Although Marxist theories of imperialism by Vladimir ...
class consciousness
In the transition from a ‘class in itself’ (a category of people having a common relation to the means of production) to a ‘class for itself’ (a stratum organized in active pursuit of its own ...
closure
Identified in the writings of Max Weber, and more recently resurrected by the British sociologist Frank Parkin, the concept emerged as an alternative to Marxist theories of inequality and of how the ...
Denis Diderot
(1713–84),French philosopher and man of letters; a leading member of the Enlightenment, and from 1746 editor of the Encyclopédie. His works demonstrated close links with English literature: he ...
Denmark
A bridge from continental Europe to Scandinavia that is sceptical about the EUDenmark is one of Europe's more physically fragmented countries. The largest part, with around 70% of the territory of ...
externalization
In psychoanalysis, a defence mechanism whereby a person unconsciously attributes inner impulses to the external world, as when a child converts unconscious angry or aggressive impulses into a fear of ...
false consciousness
A Marxist concept, referring to thinking that confirms human servitude, rather than emancipating the species essence. It refers to the purpose served by thought in the collective life of humanity. ...
France
One of Europe's most centralized states, with a distinctive and influential cultureFrance has the largest territory in Western Europe. Around two-thirds is lowlands, chiefly to the north and west, ...
Gaetano Mosca
(1858–1941)Italian sociologist. His The Ruling Class (1896) was one of the first detailed statements of the claim that even in a representative democracy there was a small circulating elite which not ...
humanism
[De]A philosophy or ethical system that centres on the concept of the dignity, freedom, and value of human beings. The belief that there is an essential human condition that emerges regardless of ...
inequality
The fact of global inequality is not disputed; the world is routinely divided into developed/developing, North/South, more/less/least economically developed, high/medium/low development, and so on. ...
intellectual property
Intangible property that includes patents, trade marks, copyright, and registered and unregistered design rights.
Jean Bodin
(c.1529–96).French political philosopher. Bodin advocated absolute sovereignty as the only effective guarantee of peace in the State, a doctrine anticipating Hobbes. His main work was Six livres de ...
John Davies
(?1565–1618),poet and writing‐master, published Microcosmos (1603), The Muse's Sacrifice, containing the famous ‘Picture of an Happy Man’ (1612), and Wits Bedlam (1617). Some of his epigrams, most of ...
limited government
The idea that political power and those who exercise it should be institutionally restrained, usually by the rule of law or constitutionalism (see constitution and constitutionalism). The principles ...
Lord Strafford Thomas Wentworth
(1593–1641)English statesman. A Member of Parliament from 1614, he entered the service of Charles I in 1628. Although he had previously opposed royal policies, he was a believer in firm government ...
Lucien Goldmann
(1913–70)Romanian-born, Paris-based Marxistsociologist of literature whose theory of structural parallels or homologies was very influential in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Bucharest, he began his ...
