The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (296 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics Online
Authors: Iain McLean
BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics
3.39Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
World Trade Organization
(WTO)
(WTO)
The Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the auspices of
GATT
established the World Trade Organization. Upon ratification of the Round's Final Act by members, the WTO replaces GATT as the global multilateral trade organization.
GU
GATT
established the World Trade Organization. Upon ratification of the Round's Final Act by members, the WTO replaces GATT as the global multilateral trade organization.
GU
X
xenophobia
Literally, fear of foreigners or strangers, though the term is often used to refer to attitudes of hatred or contempt rather than pure fear. Xenophobia is different from
chauvinisme
in French or
jingoism
in English, which both suggest an excessive patriotism or national self-esteem, because it consists primarily of negative attitudes towards the outside group.
Xenophobic emotion has always played a part in the outlook of groups and communities. Its persistence defies the ideological universalism of most of the dominant movements of ideas, such as liberalism and socialism, in the past two centuries and drives the more doctrinaire political phenomena of racism and nationalism. Xenophobic tendencies seem most prominent where familiar structures and traditions have broken down, as in Germany after 1918 or Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the collapse of communism. They tend to manifest themselves in hostility towards immigrants and Jews.
LA
chauvinisme
in French or
jingoism
in English, which both suggest an excessive patriotism or national self-esteem, because it consists primarily of negative attitudes towards the outside group.
Xenophobic emotion has always played a part in the outlook of groups and communities. Its persistence defies the ideological universalism of most of the dominant movements of ideas, such as liberalism and socialism, in the past two centuries and drives the more doctrinaire political phenomena of racism and nationalism. Xenophobic tendencies seem most prominent where familiar structures and traditions have broken down, as in Germany after 1918 or Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the collapse of communism. They tend to manifest themselves in hostility towards immigrants and Jews.
LA
Y
Young Hegelians
A label attached to those disciples of
Hegel
in Germany who sought to develop and expand the dialectical spirit of Hegel's philosophy beyond the limitations of Hegel himself. ‘Old’ Hegelians, by contrast, saw the Hegelian system as the final and complete manifestation of that philosophic spirit. Nowadays, a list of the most famous of the Young Hegelians would certainly include,
inter alia
, Karl
Marx
, David Strauss , Ludwig
Feuerbach
, Bruno Bauer , Arnold Ruge , Max Stirner , and Moses Hess .
JH
Hegel
in Germany who sought to develop and expand the dialectical spirit of Hegel's philosophy beyond the limitations of Hegel himself. ‘Old’ Hegelians, by contrast, saw the Hegelian system as the final and complete manifestation of that philosophic spirit. Nowadays, a list of the most famous of the Young Hegelians would certainly include,
inter alia
, Karl
Marx
, David Strauss , Ludwig
Feuerbach
, Bruno Bauer , Arnold Ruge , Max Stirner , and Moses Hess .
JH
Z
zero-sum game
A contest in which one player's loss is equal to the other player's gain.
Games may be divided into two classes, zero-sum and non-zero-sum. The class where the sum of the winnings of all the players is the same in all outcomes may be called ‘constant-sum’. But as pay-offs can always be mathematically rescaled, it is convenient and normal to call them ‘zero-sum’. In any change of outcome in a zero-sum game, the gain of the gainer(s) exactly equals the loss of the loser(s). Most games in the ordinary sense, without selective outside intervention, are zero-sum. Chess and football are zero-sum, and remain so even if an outside body awards a fixed prize for winning. But a football game where the participants are bribed to produce a score draw, or a Scrabble game where there is a prize for the highest aggregate score, would be examples of non-zero-sum games. ‘Non-zero-sum’ is preferable to ‘positive-sum’ and ‘negative-sum’. Although these labels are commonly used, they are usually misleading and sometimes wrong, as they fail to specify what the positive sum is being compared with.
In 1944, J. von Neumann and O. Morgenstern proved that all two-person zero-sum games have a unique equilibrium in which each player plays that strategy which minimizes his or her losses for any possible strategy by the other player ( see also
minimax
;
maximin
). This is mathematically elegant but of limited practical use, although it shows that there exists a unique best strategy for chess. Luckily, that strategy has not yet been found.
The importance of zero-sum games in politics is more informal. In a zero-sum game there is no scope, in the long run, for co-operation among the players, although if there are more than two of them there is much, often infinite, scope for temporary coalitions of some players against the rest. Thus coalition games are zero-sum. Some writers view other political games as zero-sum, for example arms races or industrial conflict(s). This always leads to gloomy prognoses because there is no scope for long-run co-operation.
Non-zero-sum games offer scope for co-operation among the players to achieve one of the outcomes which is best in aggregate. This is true whether the game is regarded as co-operative or non-co-operative. Even in a non-co-operative game such as
prisoners' dilemma
, players may reason about each others' reasoning. In repeated plays of non-co-operative games, they may send each other signals by their actions which enable the players to co-ordinate their actions on a co-operative (higher) equilibrium ( see
supergame
). Most political games other than coalition games are probably best regarded as non-zero-sum.
Games may be divided into two classes, zero-sum and non-zero-sum. The class where the sum of the winnings of all the players is the same in all outcomes may be called ‘constant-sum’. But as pay-offs can always be mathematically rescaled, it is convenient and normal to call them ‘zero-sum’. In any change of outcome in a zero-sum game, the gain of the gainer(s) exactly equals the loss of the loser(s). Most games in the ordinary sense, without selective outside intervention, are zero-sum. Chess and football are zero-sum, and remain so even if an outside body awards a fixed prize for winning. But a football game where the participants are bribed to produce a score draw, or a Scrabble game where there is a prize for the highest aggregate score, would be examples of non-zero-sum games. ‘Non-zero-sum’ is preferable to ‘positive-sum’ and ‘negative-sum’. Although these labels are commonly used, they are usually misleading and sometimes wrong, as they fail to specify what the positive sum is being compared with.
In 1944, J. von Neumann and O. Morgenstern proved that all two-person zero-sum games have a unique equilibrium in which each player plays that strategy which minimizes his or her losses for any possible strategy by the other player ( see also
minimax
;
maximin
). This is mathematically elegant but of limited practical use, although it shows that there exists a unique best strategy for chess. Luckily, that strategy has not yet been found.
The importance of zero-sum games in politics is more informal. In a zero-sum game there is no scope, in the long run, for co-operation among the players, although if there are more than two of them there is much, often infinite, scope for temporary coalitions of some players against the rest. Thus coalition games are zero-sum. Some writers view other political games as zero-sum, for example arms races or industrial conflict(s). This always leads to gloomy prognoses because there is no scope for long-run co-operation.
Non-zero-sum games offer scope for co-operation among the players to achieve one of the outcomes which is best in aggregate. This is true whether the game is regarded as co-operative or non-co-operative. Even in a non-co-operative game such as
prisoners' dilemma
, players may reason about each others' reasoning. In repeated plays of non-co-operative games, they may send each other signals by their actions which enable the players to co-ordinate their actions on a co-operative (higher) equilibrium ( see
supergame
). Most political games other than coalition games are probably best regarded as non-zero-sum.
Zionism
Zion
in Hebrew refers to the citadel of Jerusalem and also to the Kingdom of Heaven. Zionism refers to the movement among European Jews in the late nineteenth century to create a Jewish homeland. This movement was largely a consequence of the anti-Semitism which Jews were experiencing. In 1897 Theodore Herzl (1860–1904) formally initiated a Zionist movement at the World Zionist Conference in Basle. Since that time there have been organized attempts to persuade Jews to emigrate to the ‘Land of Israel’, otherwise known as Palestine. It was not at first unquestioned that the Jewish state must be in Palestine; Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), later first President of Israel, was influential in establishing this objective and it was much encouraged by the declaration of the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour (the ‘Balfour Declaration’) in November 1917 that Britain favoured a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Jews continued to emigrate to Palestine in relatively small numbers and a Jewish state might have been many decades or even centuries away had it not been for the persecution and extermination of the Jews by Hitler and his allies between 1933 and 1945, which legitimized the idea of a Jewish state to Jews and non-Jews alike as the only place where Jews might feel safe from persecution.
Zionism achieved its principal aim in 1948 with the establishment of a state of Israel which acknowledged, in its ‘Law of Return’, the right of all Jews to live within its borders. Since that time ‘Zionism’ can be taken to refer to support for the continued existence of the state of Israel. Like many forms of nationalism, of which it is a special case, Zionism tolerates considerable ideological diversity: it is possible to be a religious or secular Zionist, and to believe in capitalism or socialism in the state of Israel.
Palestine was by no means unoccupied when Jewish settlement began, but populated by an Arab people, the Palestinians, who were, for the most part, forced into exile by a form of settlement which became, in effect, a military conquest ( see also
intifada
, PLO). Underlying this problem is the deeper question of the legitimacy of a national claim to territory which dates back to a dispersion of the Jews in AD 70 under the Roman Empire. Some historians have even claimed that European Jews are not, at least for the most part, descended from the original inhabitants of Palestine, but from Caucasian tribes who converted to Judaism under the later Roman Empire.
LA
in Hebrew refers to the citadel of Jerusalem and also to the Kingdom of Heaven. Zionism refers to the movement among European Jews in the late nineteenth century to create a Jewish homeland. This movement was largely a consequence of the anti-Semitism which Jews were experiencing. In 1897 Theodore Herzl (1860–1904) formally initiated a Zionist movement at the World Zionist Conference in Basle. Since that time there have been organized attempts to persuade Jews to emigrate to the ‘Land of Israel’, otherwise known as Palestine. It was not at first unquestioned that the Jewish state must be in Palestine; Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), later first President of Israel, was influential in establishing this objective and it was much encouraged by the declaration of the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour (the ‘Balfour Declaration’) in November 1917 that Britain favoured a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Jews continued to emigrate to Palestine in relatively small numbers and a Jewish state might have been many decades or even centuries away had it not been for the persecution and extermination of the Jews by Hitler and his allies between 1933 and 1945, which legitimized the idea of a Jewish state to Jews and non-Jews alike as the only place where Jews might feel safe from persecution.
Zionism achieved its principal aim in 1948 with the establishment of a state of Israel which acknowledged, in its ‘Law of Return’, the right of all Jews to live within its borders. Since that time ‘Zionism’ can be taken to refer to support for the continued existence of the state of Israel. Like many forms of nationalism, of which it is a special case, Zionism tolerates considerable ideological diversity: it is possible to be a religious or secular Zionist, and to believe in capitalism or socialism in the state of Israel.
Palestine was by no means unoccupied when Jewish settlement began, but populated by an Arab people, the Palestinians, who were, for the most part, forced into exile by a form of settlement which became, in effect, a military conquest ( see also
intifada
, PLO). Underlying this problem is the deeper question of the legitimacy of a national claim to territory which dates back to a dispersion of the Jews in AD 70 under the Roman Empire. Some historians have even claimed that European Jews are not, at least for the most part, descended from the original inhabitants of Palestine, but from Caucasian tribes who converted to Judaism under the later Roman Empire.
LA
Other books
Travesty by John Hawkes
Breakdown Lane, The by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Daring by Gail Sheehy
The Bride Wore Scarlet by Liz Carlyle
Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier
Ashes of the Realm: Book 04 - The Return of the Realm by Saxon Andrew
La tierra silenciada by Graham Joyce