Unsurprisingly, given the Mill of On Liberty , his main concern is that poorly structured socialism or communism will suppress individuality, ie, the ability of individuals to think freely for themselves. In particular, he thinks, critics of communism a term, for the purposes of this short essay, I assume to be synonymous with socialism underestimate the capacity for public spirit among citizens that would motivate and sustain commitment to more equitable divisions of labour and profit.
Some of the proposals offered by this group of socialists are frankly odd — that houses in a socialist society should be organised in the shape of a parallelogram for example. But, as a group, these thinkers object to treating economic laws, which consign some members of society to a destitution from which it is nearly impossible to exit, as natural and therefore unalterable.
They focus their efforts on advocating for economic reform and aim to persuade members of their own social class rather than, as Marxists might do, by mobilising the poorest and most alienated of society into a revolution. They believe, in particular, that there is no good reason — there is no natural and therefore immutable reason — to live with the consequences of economic laws if we do not like the effects of these laws.
Then, as now, the way in which wealth is distributed is a political decision, which if made badly or well can produce or eliminate radical wealth inequality. One proposal endorsed in some variant by many so-called utopian socialists is the worker cooperative, and Mill believes that, properly organised, a society organised into worker cooperatives may well blend the best of capitalism and socialism. They will combine the competition that propels productivity and innovation with a fair distribution of both labour and wealth.
As he conceives them, worker cooperatives are jointly owned corporations, governed and operated by workers, who share the profits the cooperative generates.
On the contrary, Mill thinks the inevitable emergence of a stationary state, in which profits can no longer be assured to grow significantly, will prompt the peaceful emergence of worker cooperatives from capitalist ventures. In the face of dwindling profits, capitalists will willingly cede ownership to workers, in exchange for a fixed salary of their own. The worker cooperatives will operate more or less as capitalist enterprises; they engage in trade and they compete with the intention of driving their own profits up.
Only four countries—Cameroon, Malawi, Malaysia, and Mali—showed a substantial decrease in individualistic practices over time, while 34 out of 41 countries showed a notable increase.
And only five countries—Armenia, China, Croatia, Ukraine, and Uruguay—showed a substantial decrease in individualistic values over time, with 39 out of 53 countries showing a substantial increase. While the data indicated an overarching trend toward greater individualism, the researchers noted that sizable differences between countries remained through Several socio-ecological factors — including more frequent disasters, less prevalent infectious disease, and less climatic stress in poorer countries — were linked with individualism, but increased socioeconomic development was the strongest predictor of increased individualism over time.
Various aspects of development were related to increases in individualism, particularly increases in the proportion of white-collar jobs, in education levels, and in household income. Notably, China has a complex socioeconomic history, so it will be worthwhile to investigate this country in more detail in future research. Santos and Grossmann are hoping to continue this line of research, studying other predictors of cultural change, including migration and shifts in ethnic diversity, and also the potential consequences that rising individualism may have on a global scale.
All code and data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework. The complete Open Practices Disclosure is available online.
This article has received the badge for Open Data. This is a good article of Our social world today. As individualistic culture is killing us fast. It has created a big gap between the rich and poor in the African countries particularly in Nigeria. Individualism, that is the emphasis on individual rights and autonomy, has focus on the welfare of the general, inclusive group of individuals E.
Individualism versus collectivism Individualism emphasizes individual goals and rights. Collectivism emphasizes group goals and personal relationships. Share this post. Our first cultural value dimension is individualism versus collectivism. Individualism stresses individual goals and the rights of the individual person.
Collectivism focuses on group goals, what is best for the collective group, and personal relationships. Want to keep learning? This content is taken from Purdue University online course.
See other articles from this course. This article is from the online course:. The first, and perhaps most crucial, elements of culture we will discuss are its values and beliefs. Beliefs are the tenets or convictions that people hold to be true. Individuals in a society have specific beliefs, but they also share collective values. To illustrate the difference, Americans commonly believe in the American Dream—that anyone who works hard enough will be successful and wealthy.
Underlying this belief is the American value that wealth is good and important. Values help shape a society by suggesting what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sought or avoided. Consider the value that the United States places upon youth. Children represent innocence and purity, while a youthful adult appearance signifies sexuality. Shaped by this value, individuals spend millions of dollars each year on cosmetic products and surgeries to look young and beautiful.
The United States also has an individualistic culture, meaning people place a high value on individuality and independence. In contrast, many other cultures are collectivist, meaning the welfare of the group and group relationships are a primary value.
0コメント