This article employs the relative deprivation theory in order to explain the formation of violent conflicts induced by an increase in economic inequality. By using the frustration-aggression hypothesis, the author attempts to illustrate how the rise in inequality, caused by changed economic structure, can be transformed into violence, often accompanied by material and human casualties. In addition to the theoretical framework, the article relies on empirical studies carried out by using relative deprivation as a starting point. Finally, the author observes indications that inequality-induced conflicts could soon take place in developed and developing countries, which is why new models of development and economic policies must be implemented and thus used as conflict-preventing mechanisms.
In my paper I try to analyze Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty‑First Century as a history book. Thus, the following questions have been posed: at the intersection of which streams, tends, and traditions of the contemporary historiography could one place Piketty’s oeuvre? What can be said of those elements of the book that can be labeled as historical epistemology: source work, conceptualization of the object of study, etc.? As an attempt to revive serial history, does it inherit the baggage of “misdeeds” against which the entire movement of cultural history rose up? What role does the concept of longue durée play in the book? The historical aspects of Piketty’s thought have the potential to spark controversy among professional historians, but it is one of its many virtues.
Internet-based social media sites have been increasingly used to organize political activism across the globe. Given recent events in Egypt where Wael Ghonim's role as social networker, Google executive, and activist coalesced at the center of an information-based revolution, or the much publicized use of BlackBerry Messenger to organize protests, riots, and looting in England, it is difficult to ignore the effect social networks have had on major political events. Beginning with a review of some of the key historical and conceptual accounts of the political implications of the Internet and social media over the last ten years, this article provides an analysis of how the political use of social media in recent events in Egypt and England has been represented by the mainstream western media.
There are many signs that our democracies are undergoing a transformation: populism, an erosion of civic participation in political parties, to replace citizens’ decision- making with expert knowledge, and the growing power of super-wealthy people. Urbinati grasps these problems in terms of three phenomena: technocratic depoliticisation, populism, and plebiscitarianism. This article argues that the central issue in contemporary democracies is wealth and inequality, and that is why we need a fully developed concept of oligarchy. Although Urbinati tries to take oligarchy into account, she does so mainly in relation to media ownership. This article considers oligarchy as a phenomenon typical for the contemporary era, and analyses it in the context of the development of Czech society during the last decade. The article adapts Jeffrey A. Winters’ oligarchy theory to the Czech context, effectively connecting political and societal spheres. Finally, the article suggests that only a re-conceptualised theory of democracy enriched by the theory of oligarchy can provide an effective starting point for addressing the pitfalls of the transformations of democracy.
W pierwszej części artykułu zaprezentowano dyskusję na temat problematyki definiowania i pomiaru wzrostu gospodarczego oraz spójności ekonomicznej i społecznej. W dalszej, metodologicznej części artykułu przedstawiono wskaźnik produktywności pracy, jako propozycję alternatywnej miary rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego oraz spójności społecznej, ekonomicznej i terytorialnej. Wskaźnik ten przede wszystkim stanowi informację na temat kapitału instytucjonalno-intelektualnego, czyli zdolności gospodarki do tworzenia dobrych instytucji. Gospodarka oparta jest na pracy, a na produktywną pracę pozwala odpowiednio rozwinięty instytucjonalnie system gospodarczy. Wskaźnik ten integruje zarówno poziom technicznego uzbrojenia pracy, rotacji aktywów, rentowności aktywów oraz poziomu opłacenia pracy. Część ostatnią, empiryczną stanowią wyniki analizy produktywności pracy, regionalnego zróżnicowania produktywności pracy oraz relacji między poziomem produktywności kraju a poziomem zróżnicowania regionalnej produktywności pracy w pięciu europejskich krajach. Z badań wynika, że prezentowany wskaźnik jest łatwy w interpretacji i może stanowić podstawę tworzenia wiarygodnych rankingów państw. Ponadto wyniki badań wskazują, że wskaźnik produktywności pracy może stanowić alternatywną miarę spójności ekonomicznej. Wykazano bowiem silną odwrotną korelację między wartością wskaźnika a jego zróżnicowaniem regionalnym. Zatem wskaźnik ten może służyć pomiarowi zakresu realizacji paradygmatu zrównoważonego wzrostu.
EN
The first part of the article presents a discussion on the issues of defining and measuring economic growth as well as economic and social cohesion. In the further, methodological part of the article, the indicator of labour productivity is presented as a proposal of an alternative measure of social and economic development as well as social, economic and territorial cohesion. This indicator is primarily information about institutional and intellectual capital, which means the ability of the economy to create good institutions. The economy is based on work, and productive work requires a properly developed institutional economic system. This indicator integrates technical equipment of labor, assets turnover, returns on assets, and the level of human capital remuneration. The last, empirical part presents results of the analysis of labour productivity, dispersion of regional labor productivity and the relation between the level of national labour productivity and the level of dispersion of regional labor productivity in five European countries. The research shows that the presented indicator is easy to interpret and can be the basis for creating reliable rankings of countries. In addition, research results show that the labor productivity indicator can be an alternative measure of economic cohesion. A strong inverse correlation was found between the value of the indicator and its regional dispersion. Thus, this indicator can be used to measure the scope of the implementation of the sustainable growth paradigm.
W pierwszej części artykułu przedstawiono istotę kapitału intelektualno-instytucjonalnego. Jest to część kapitału danego kraju, służąca finansowaniu zasobów intelektualnych i instytucjonalnych. Jakość tych zasobów przyczynia się do zrównoważonego wzrostu gospodarczego. W drugiej części podano zasady pomiaru kapitału intelektualno-instytucjonalnego. Wiarygodnie określony poziom tego kapitału stanowi informację na temat realizacji paradygmatu zrównoważonego rozwoju. Do pomiaru kapitału intelektualno-instytucjonalnego wykorzystano wskaźnik produktywności pracy, wyprowadzony w oparciu o koncepcję analitycznej funkcji produkcji. Jest to funkcja siedmiu zmiennych, odzwierciedlająca rzeczywisty sposób komponowania czynników wytwórczych w procesie powstawania produktów oraz ich rynkowej realizacji. Wskaźnik ten integruje zarówno poziom technicznego uzbrojenia pracy, rotacji aktywów, rentowności aktywów oraz poziomu opłacenia pracy. Celem polityczno-gospodarczym jest dążenie do zrównoważonego wzrostu kraju, który odzwierciedla stabilny wzrost wskaźnika produktywności pracy. Pogłębioną analizę harmonijności wzrostu gospodarczego może stanowić analiza produktywności pracy w regionach. W ostatniej części pracy podano wyniki pomiaru produktywności pracy w Polsce w podziale na województwa. Uzyskane wyniki wskazują, że poziom produktywności pracy wynosi 2,12 i jest typowy dla krajów rozwijających. Zarazem wskazują na znaczący dystans do krajów wysoko rozwiniętych, w których poziom tego wskaźnika przekracza 3. Z kolei wyniki pomiaru regionalnej produktywności pracy wskazują na kolejny problem, jakim są duże różnice w wartości wskaźnika. Potwierdza to nierównomierny rozwój Polski.
EN
The first part of this article presents the essence of intellectual-institutional capital. It is part of the capital of the country which finances intellectual and institutional resources. The quality of those resources contributes to the sustainable growth of an economy. The second part provides rules of measuring of the institutional-intellectual capital. Reliably stated level of this capital is an information regarding implementation of the sustainable development paradigm. In order to measure intellectual-institutional capital, labor productivity indicator was used, derived based on the concept of analytical production function. This is a function of seven variables, reflecting the actual way of composing of production factors in the process of products formation and their market realization. This indicator integrates technical equipment of labor, assets turnover, returns on assets, and the level of human capital remuneration. The pursuit of sustainable development is a politically- -economic goal, which reflects stable increase of the labor productivity factor. In-depth analysis of the sustainability of economic growth can be provided by regional labor productivity analysis. The last part of the paper presents the results of measuring labor productivity in Poland by region. The results indicate that the level of labor productivity is 2.12, what is typical for developing countries. At the same time, the results indicate significant distance to developed countries, where the value of labor productivity exceeds 3. In turn, the results of the measurement of regional labor productivity indicate another problem, reflected in large differences between regions. It proves the development of Poland to be uneven.
It is undisputed that fewer and fewer people own and control more and more of the total material wealth of the world, and conversely, that more and more people—the vast majority of mankind—own and control less and less of it, which situation is rapidly worsening. This paper identifies and examines the primary instrumental cause (i.e., prescinding from human avarice) for that phenomenon, which we argue is the usurpation of the sovereign right of money creation, known as seigniorage (from the Old French seigneuriage, “right of the lord to mint money”). This usurpation has been accomplished by a cunning and complex banking technique known as fractional reserve banking, which enables banks to make loans based on the fraudulent representation that they possess sufficient reserves to back the loans (described in detail in the article). Originally considered criminal, and its practitioners even subject to the death penalty, over the last three centuries by hook or by crook fractional reserve banking has been legalized in nearly all the nations of the world, to the benefit of bankers and the harm of all other economic sectors and the public. The article then examines the deleterious effects of fractional reserve banking on capitalism, and how its extirpation may be accomplished, thereby reforming capitalism—“which is not of its nature vicious”—into a more just economic system. Finally we note how socialism—in any of its various stripes—is radically contrary to the private ownership of material goods necessary for proper human liberty, and rooted as it is in the purely materialistic notion that man should be subject to the State or society in order to to maximize production, cannot be acceptably reformed. Economics is not necessarily a zero sum game: even when vitiated by fractional reserve banking capitalism will result in greater total wealth, but shared more and more unequally, whereas socialism inevitably results in less total wealth, recalling Winston Churchill’s apt observation that: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of the miseries.”
This study is aimed to investigate economic inequality among older people in the European Union based on empirical data. The object of the research is older people, which in the framework of this study includes persons aged 65 and over. The novelty of this study is a scientifically based conceptual understanding of economic inequality among people, which [economic inequality] is broader than just income inequality. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fact that the authors did not investigate the economic performance of older people in comparison with other age groups or the general population (there are many studies devoted to this), but they investigated economic inequality among older people versus economic inequality in other age groups / in the general population (subject to data availability). The methodological basis of this research is formed by three approaches to conceptual understanding of economic inequality among people: the income-wealth approach, the resource-capital approach and the capability approach. The analysis of statistical and sociological data for the EU countries in the framework of complementary methodological approaches made it possible for the authors to conclude that both income and wealth are distributed among older people as unequally as this also occurs in other age groups of the population. The only statistically significant difference that the authors managed to identify concerns the capability to convert the economic resources at the disposal of people into economic capital: among older people there is more inequality in the degree of capitalization of economic resources than among younger people. Thus, in the European Union, economic inequality (except for only one its aspect ñ the degree of economic resources’ capitalization) is not a distinctive feature of the age group of older people, but is practically the same as in other age groups or in the general population. Empirical evidence suggests that economic inequality is not accumulated over the course of a lifetime, but rather carries over from one period of life to another.
LV
Šis pētījums ir veltīts ekonomiskās nevienlīdzības izpētei gados vecāku cilvēku vidū Eiropas Savienībā un balstās uz empīriskajiem datiem. Pētījuma objekts ir vecāka gadagājuma cilvēki, kas šī pētījuma ietvaros iekļauj personas no 65 gadu vecuma. Pētījuma novitāti veido zinātniski pamatota konceptuāla izpratne par cilvēku ekonomisko nevienlīdzību, kas [ekonomiskā nevienlīdzība] ir plašāka nekā ienākumu nevienlīdzība. Šī pētījuma unikālā iezīme ir tā, ka autori pētīja nevis gados vecāku cilvēku ekonomisko stāvokli salīdzinājumā ar citām vecumgrupām vai iedzīvotājiem kopumā, bet gan tieši ekonomisko nevienlīdzību vecāka gadagājuma cilvēku vidū salīdzinājumā ar ekonomisko nevienlīdzību citās vecumgrupās vai iedzīvotāju vidū kopumā (atkarībā no datu pieejamības). Šī pētījuma metodoloģisko pamatu veido trīs pieejas cilvēku ekonomiskās nevienlīdzības konceptuālai izpratnei: ienākumu-bagātības pieeja, resursu-kapitāla pieeja un spēju pieeja. Statistisko un socioloģisko datu analīze par Eiropas Savienības valstīm augstākminēto metodoloģisku pieeju ietvaros ļāva autoriem secināt, ka gan ienākumi, gan bagātība vecāka gadagājuma cilvēku vidū tiek izkliedēti tikpat nevienmērīgi kā citās iedzīvotāju vecumgrupās. Vienīgā statistiski nozīmīgā atšķirība, kuru autoriem izdevās identificēt, attiecas uz cilvēku spēju (vai iespājamību) viņu rīcībā esošos ekonomiskos resursus pārvērst ekonomiskajā kapitālā: gados vecāku cilvēku vidū ekonomisko resursu kapitalizācijas pakāpe tiek izkliedēta nevienlīdzīgāk, nekā gados jaunu cilvēku vidū. Tādējādi Eiropas Savienībā ekonomiskā nevienlīdzība (izņemot tikai vienu tās aspektu - resursu kapitalizācijas pakāpi) nav vecāka gadagājuma cilvēku vecumgrupas īpatnība, bet ir praktiski vienāda visās vecumgrupās. Empīriski dati liecina par to, ka ekonomiskā nevienlīdzība neuzkrājas dzīves gaitā, bet gan tiek pārnesta no viena dzīves perioda uz otru.
RU
Данное исследование посвящено изучению экономического неравенства среди пожилых людей в Европейском Союзе и проведено на основании эмпирических данных. Объектом исследования являются пожилые люди, к которым – в рамках данного исследования – относятся лица от 65 лет и старше. Новизну исследования составляет научно#обоснованное концептуальное понимание экономического неравенства между людьми, которое [экономическое неравенство] шире, чем просто неравенство доходов. Уникальной особенностью данного исследования является то, что авторы изучали не экономическое положение пожилых людей в сравнении с остальными возрастными группами или населением в целом, но именно экономическое неравенство среди пожилых людей в сравнении с экономическим неравенством среди других возрастных групп или населения в целом (в зависимости от наличия данных). Методологическую основу данного исследования составляют три подхода к концептуальному пониманию экономического неравенства между людьми: подход «доход-богатство», ресурсный подход и подход возможностей. Анализ статистических и социологических данных по странам Европейского Союза в рамках дополняющих друг друга методологических подходов позволил авторам сделать вывод о том, что и доходы, и богатство распределяются среди пожилых людей настолько же неравномерно, насколько это происходит и в других возрастных группах населения. Единственное статистически значимое отличие, которое удалось выявить авторам, касается способности (или возможности) превращать имеющиеся в распоряжении людей экономические ресурсы в экономический капитал: среди пожилых людей наблюдается большее неравенство в степени капитализации экономических ресурсов, чем среди более молодых людей. Таким образом, в Европейском Союзе экономическое неравенство (за исключением лишь одного аспекта – степени капитализации экономических ресурсов) не является особой отличительной чертой возрастной группы пожилых людей, а практически одинаково во всех возрастных группах. Эмпирические данные показывают, что экономическое неравенство не накапливается в течение жизни, а скорее переносится из одного жизненного периода в другой.
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