The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (92 page)
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factors of production
The main inputs involved in the production of goods and services. Sir William Petty (1623–87) is generally credited with making the first proper attempt to define land and labour as factors of production. The factors of capital and entrepreneurship were added by the French
physiocrats
. ‘Land’ includes resources within the land such as mineral deposits like coal and iron ore. Labour is the human effort, whether manual or mental, that contributes to production. Capital is usually denoted as machinery or tools which are used in combination with labour for the purpose of making goods. There can be fixed or circulating capital. The former relates to goods such as buildings or machinery while the latter refers to the stock of goods a firm has ready for use in the future. Capital is the only factor of production which itself is created in the production process. Entrepreneurship refers to the managerial, innovative, and risk-taking qualities which an individual displays when combining the other factors of production in order to generate output. The returns or payments to each of these factors are rent for land, wage for labour, interest for capital, and profit for entrepreneurship.
IF
physiocrats
. ‘Land’ includes resources within the land such as mineral deposits like coal and iron ore. Labour is the human effort, whether manual or mental, that contributes to production. Capital is usually denoted as machinery or tools which are used in combination with labour for the purpose of making goods. There can be fixed or circulating capital. The former relates to goods such as buildings or machinery while the latter refers to the stock of goods a firm has ready for use in the future. Capital is the only factor of production which itself is created in the production process. Entrepreneurship refers to the managerial, innovative, and risk-taking qualities which an individual displays when combining the other factors of production in order to generate output. The returns or payments to each of these factors are rent for land, wage for labour, interest for capital, and profit for entrepreneurship.
IF
false consciousness
In its crudest form, false consciousness implies a misperception of reality, or of one's relationship to the world of which one is part. On this reading, Plato's myth of the cave (
Republic
, bk. 7) might be said to be an account of false consciousness, as might
Rousseau's
infamous claim (
in The Social Contract
) that those who oppose the general will might be ‘forced to be free’.
Although he did not use it himself, the term is usually associated with
Marx
, and subsequently with Marxism, especially of the Frankfurt School variety. In Marx, the focus tends to be on the relationship of consciousness to reality as it is mediated through the prevailing mode of production (i.e. capitalism). It follows from this that false consciousness can be overcome only by addressing its economic source. The question is, how is it possible to have knowledge of a consciousness which is false?
The danger with the concept of false consciousness lies in the possibility it affords to those willing and able to take it, to impose a ‘correct’ perception on those who are deemed to exist in such a state. This danger can be avoided only if it is the case that ‘truth’ and ‘falsity’ are self-evident. One response to this problem is to appeal to the method of analysis which is to be used. The assumption is that the method of analysis, because it is objective, itself escapes ideological taint. This in part explains Marxism's need to present itself as scientific, although the extent to which scientific analyses are themselves free from ideological dressing has itself been questioned, notably by Thomas Kuhn . See also
falsifiability
.
AA
Republic
, bk. 7) might be said to be an account of false consciousness, as might
Rousseau's
infamous claim (
in The Social Contract
) that those who oppose the general will might be ‘forced to be free’.
Although he did not use it himself, the term is usually associated with
Marx
, and subsequently with Marxism, especially of the Frankfurt School variety. In Marx, the focus tends to be on the relationship of consciousness to reality as it is mediated through the prevailing mode of production (i.e. capitalism). It follows from this that false consciousness can be overcome only by addressing its economic source. The question is, how is it possible to have knowledge of a consciousness which is false?
The danger with the concept of false consciousness lies in the possibility it affords to those willing and able to take it, to impose a ‘correct’ perception on those who are deemed to exist in such a state. This danger can be avoided only if it is the case that ‘truth’ and ‘falsity’ are self-evident. One response to this problem is to appeal to the method of analysis which is to be used. The assumption is that the method of analysis, because it is objective, itself escapes ideological taint. This in part explains Marxism's need to present itself as scientific, although the extent to which scientific analyses are themselves free from ideological dressing has itself been questioned, notably by Thomas Kuhn . See also
falsifiability
.
AA
falsifiability
The test that a theory is scientific, according to the influential views of (Sir) Karl Popper (1902–94). Especially in
Conjectures and Refutations
(1963), Popper argued that science can never prove things to be true, but it can prove them to be false. It can never prove things to be true by what has been known since
Hume
as the ‘problem of induction’. ‘All swans are white’ is either part of the definition of the word ‘swan’, or a generalization about swans based on observations of all known examples. When white settlers first saw black swans in Western Australia, they could have denied that what they saw were swans. As Hobbes said, ‘True and false are attributes of speech, not of things’. However, as a purely linguistic convention, it has been agreed that black swans are swans. Therefore ‘All swans are white’ is an example of a falsifiable, and false, scientific generalization. Thus a Popperian scientist must try to formulate a generalization which the scientist believes to be true but formulates in a way that is open to falsification.
The Popperian method is dominant but not unchallenged in empirical politics. All empirical work that uses statistical methods is explicitly or implicitly falsificationist in its approach. All statistical tests are based on rejecting the hypothesis under consideration unless the probability that the relationship observed arose by chance is small, usually less than 5 per cent. Other schools of thought argue that some aspects of political life may be unobservable, and the hypothesis that they exist unfalsifiable, but that they remain important topics of study. See also
false consciousness
; community power.
The Popperian programme has also been challenged on the grounds that scientists do not actually follow it, although they are trained to present their results as if they had. The most influential such critique has been Thomas Kuhn's
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(1962). Kuhn's critique does not undermine the falsificationist programme by as much as its literary adulators argue. Although it cannot be ignored by historians of science, it has had no impact on the way in which results continue to be presented and argued over.
Conjectures and Refutations
(1963), Popper argued that science can never prove things to be true, but it can prove them to be false. It can never prove things to be true by what has been known since
Hume
as the ‘problem of induction’. ‘All swans are white’ is either part of the definition of the word ‘swan’, or a generalization about swans based on observations of all known examples. When white settlers first saw black swans in Western Australia, they could have denied that what they saw were swans. As Hobbes said, ‘True and false are attributes of speech, not of things’. However, as a purely linguistic convention, it has been agreed that black swans are swans. Therefore ‘All swans are white’ is an example of a falsifiable, and false, scientific generalization. Thus a Popperian scientist must try to formulate a generalization which the scientist believes to be true but formulates in a way that is open to falsification.
The Popperian method is dominant but not unchallenged in empirical politics. All empirical work that uses statistical methods is explicitly or implicitly falsificationist in its approach. All statistical tests are based on rejecting the hypothesis under consideration unless the probability that the relationship observed arose by chance is small, usually less than 5 per cent. Other schools of thought argue that some aspects of political life may be unobservable, and the hypothesis that they exist unfalsifiable, but that they remain important topics of study. See also
false consciousness
; community power.
The Popperian programme has also been challenged on the grounds that scientists do not actually follow it, although they are trained to present their results as if they had. The most influential such critique has been Thomas Kuhn's
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(1962). Kuhn's critique does not undermine the falsificationist programme by as much as its literary adulators argue. Although it cannot be ignored by historians of science, it has had no impact on the way in which results continue to be presented and argued over.
Fanon , Frantz
(1925–61)
Theorist of revolution whose ideology is most clearly enunciated in his last book,
The Wretched of the Earth
. Born in Martinique, he studied medicine in France, specializing in psychiatry. He joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Algeria in 1956, later serving as diplomatic representative in several African states. To Fanon colonialism was a system of racial oppression all the more insidious because its impact was mental as well as physical, distorting attitudes and behaviour alike. Genuine liberation could not therefore be achieved by peaceful negotiation, as was attempted elsewhere in Black Africa in the 1960s, but only as a result of protracted violence involving direct, collective action by the masses as in Algeria. Even then Fanon had reservations about nationalist movements, on account of their privileged, urban, middle-class leadership, susceptible to colonial penetration. The only reliable revolutionary force was the peasantry, with nothing to lose and retaining the capacity for spontaneous protest and explosions of violence. Fanon died of leukaemia before Algeria finally acquired its independence in 1962.
IC
Theorist of revolution whose ideology is most clearly enunciated in his last book,
The Wretched of the Earth
. Born in Martinique, he studied medicine in France, specializing in psychiatry. He joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Algeria in 1956, later serving as diplomatic representative in several African states. To Fanon colonialism was a system of racial oppression all the more insidious because its impact was mental as well as physical, distorting attitudes and behaviour alike. Genuine liberation could not therefore be achieved by peaceful negotiation, as was attempted elsewhere in Black Africa in the 1960s, but only as a result of protracted violence involving direct, collective action by the masses as in Algeria. Even then Fanon had reservations about nationalist movements, on account of their privileged, urban, middle-class leadership, susceptible to colonial penetration. The only reliable revolutionary force was the peasantry, with nothing to lose and retaining the capacity for spontaneous protest and explosions of violence. Fanon died of leukaemia before Algeria finally acquired its independence in 1962.
IC
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