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Self & Society
Theorizing Why Governments Work or Do Not by Cherrie Lynn Lipsett I am only half through Amy Chua’s book, "A World on Fire - How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability" but cannot restrain myself from speaking any longer. I find the book chalked full of facts which are accurate although I don’t think her analysis of why certain events have taken place in certain countries are accurate and fit her theory. Russia is one place where I think she has completely inaccurately analyzed the facts. Maybe other countries also but I am just not as familiar with what has happened in those countries and why, as I am with what is going on in Russia as I do have the input of people high up in the Russian government and not with people high up in other country’s governments. I think Mrs. Chua has run all around a phenomena but does not accurately come up with a big picture theory. However her work has gotten me thinking and I am going to try to present a big picture theory which I would not have been able to do or would not have thought on the issue enough to do if it were not for her book. Therefore, I think her book is an important piece of work and do feel Mrs. Chua is a thinking and very intelligent person. I don’t think Mrs. Chua has studied the scientific method for making theories or has had any social sciences such as psychology or most importantly sociology. I think without a well rounded education it is hard to come up with a good theory on issues, especially if working in the soft science fields of economics, business, marketing, etc. You must know the scientific method and have a basis in psychology and sociology if you want to work in the before mentioned fields in my opinion. If Mrs. Chua had taken to heart the scientific method she would have realized her theory was flawed as she herself even contradicts her theory in certain parts of her book. However I want to state that I find that an excellent quality in Mrs. Chua. That she is able to see that all places mentioned didn’t fit her formula perfectly yet she presents all countries anyway and even states well what is happening in this country doesn’t fit the formula completely. And it was her honesty and trying to accurately portray happenings in countries that got me to thinking there is a theory here to come up with but that she just misses the theory. Now to my theory: Well first of all this is an old theory but with a new twist that Mrs. Chua has noticed. The theory basically is that the masses in a country cannot be governed if they do not allow themselves to be. The masses can always overthrow those who govern. We have seen this through out history with the U.S. Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, the numerous revolutions in Russia and on and on. Now I don’t know if anyone has ever analyzed why and when people overthrow their governments. People overthrow their governments when the majority sees a dramatic negative change in a short period of time in their life style. Now the important thing here is in a short period of time being less than 20 years, I believe. I could be come up with formulae by some enterprising mathematician as to the functions of dramatic change and the amount of time that this change can happen in without causing an uprising of the populace. The two factors would be change in income and/or culture and time. The change function would be a negative change in income or life style and a change in cultures and traditions. Fact: · all peoples resist a negative change in income (or lifestyle) and all peoples resist a drastic change over a short period of time in traditions and culture. As I stated, a mathematical formula could be formulated to represent this phenomena. There is enough history on earth to do this, I feel. Anyone who has studied sociology would know these facts I think. Any time you study the soft sciences of economics, business, history, etc. you are studying people and societies basically and should have a good background in psychology and sociology to make any kind of relevant theories in the soft science fields. Theory in Present World Context Democracy is what I would call an enabler of this theory or phenomena. Globalization would be classified as a contributing factor but neither democracy nor globalization are necessary. These are however, the two main factors which are causing this theory to become apparent in this period of history on Earth. People of nations through out the history of Earth have overthrown their leaders whether an ethnically different minority or not and whether the society was a monarchy or democracy. The reasons why the masses overthrow their leaders as seen through out history on earth are as stated: 1. A drastic change over a very short period of time in financial situation, and 2. A dramatic change over a short period of time being pushed on a populace in values, culture and traditions. Or a combination of both as we see now. Of course, those in charge are always blamed whether it is their fault or not. Human beings try to make sense out of their lives. There has to be reasons things happen. Those in charge either caused what demise have frightened, confused and enraged the masses or could have stopped the event from happening. This is logical and rational to some extent especially if the leaders have not properly prepared the populace or have not convinced the populace they are trying to do something about their extremely dire situations. And many times leaders are partly responsible or totally responsible. Democracy Now I said Democracy is an enabler of this phenomena. The reason being democracies usually give the masses the following freedoms: 1. Freedom of Speech 2. Freedom of the Press 3. Freedom to assembly. These freedoms enable a charismatic leader of the populace to unite the populace and to convince, enrage, and embolden the populace to rise up against their leaders to of course put the charismatic leader of the masses in charge. Also in a democracy you vote for a leader. Voting requires the people running to unite a majority of the people to vote for him or her. Therefore, you have created a reason for a person to use some issue or idea to rouse the populace to change leadership. Globalization Globalization is a contributing factor as it gives the idea or issue to unite the peoples on. It is a fact that globalization has made the populace of many countries poorer over a very short period of time and has caused cultural shock to many societies. Now the overthrow of political establishments can and has happened in a monarchy but happens less often as people usually do not have freedom of speech or freedom of the press and can not gather in large groups. Also any charismatic leader is killed by the reigning power before he becomes too popular. Also it is a known fact that the groups in power try to divide the populace into small groups so as to control them and discourage them from becoming one big group and rising up against the reigning power. Take the British Empire for instance. We see even to this day in India you have a caste system which was created by the British to keep the populace divided so they do not unite against the reigning power. So monarchs did and do things to help ensure the populace does not rise up against them. The phenomena of overthrow by the populace of the establishment is easier facilitated in a small country as the charismatic leader can travel through out the country with less money and news can travel faster. The problems in a large country is enraging all the populace in the critical time period something like this has to happen in and a problem of finances to do this. Also when the reigning power is of a different ethnicity than the majority it is easier to rise the populace up against the reigning power due to in group and out group behavior of humans as stated in all beginning sociology textbooks. That is humans just seem to have an innate fear or distrust of those different from them. I think it is due to the fact that for most of the time that humans have been on earth they have not had the ability to travel or to see (TV) different ethnicities or cultures. As humans become more mobile and intermingle this fear and distrust of those different will disappear but that will take a few more generations before it happens in the majority of human beings. Democracy and globalization does not have to cause the overthrow and killing of in power different minorities. It is the way democracy and globalization is instituted in these countries that this has happened in that is the problem and not democracy and globalization per say. 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