Rules Exceptions And Social Order

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

This is a study of how and why politics is amoral. It deals especially with what the author terms Machiavellism—the disregard of moral scruples for political ends that leads to the justification and use of deception and force in all aspects of political life. A comparative cultural study, it examines the theory and practice of politics in ancient China, ancient India, Renaissance Italy, and modern Europe, as well as tribal cultures, in order to test how widespread such political amorality has been throughout history. Scharfstein concludes that political or ethical theories that do not view Machiavellism as inseparable from political life are inadequate to human affairs and of doubtful relevance to politics. In reaching this conclusion, he explores such topics as why people readily accept political violations of truthfulness and fairness; whether decisive philosophical arguments have been advanced against Machiavellism; whether the use of deception in politics is in politicians' own best interests; and whether the prevalence of Machiavellism rules out the likelihood of a better political future.

This book discusses sustainable housing issues in urban areas throughout the Global South, revealing their complexity in terms of urban dynamics, housing markets and human interactions with the environment. Its main focus is on the location of graves within private residences, cemeteries in the immediate vicinity of private residences, and the implications of these factors for renters’ choices and rents. The book addresses the economics of land use for graves in connection with housing choices and the implications for the rented sector of the property market. By means of several model-based simulations, it demonstrates that the neoclassical economics remedy to the negative externality of graves in or near private residences remains generally unacceptable. Providing readers with a clear understanding of tenants’ priorities in their choice of housing, as well as a new approach to the negative externality of graves in the rented sector, the book will be of interest to policymakers, urban planners, investors in residential housing and land economists alike.

However, unlike conventional legal theory, this volume seeks to provide an answer in terms of a general social theory: a methodology that answers this question in a manner applicable not only to law, but also to all the other complex and highly differentiated systems within modern society, such as politics, the economy, religion, the media, and education. This truly sociological approach offers profound insights into the relationships between law and all of these other social systems.

At the end of the twentieth century, many fear that the bonds holding civil society together have come undone. Yet, as the noted scholar Dennis Wrong shows us, our generation is not alone in fearing a breakdown of social ties and a descent into violent conflict.

Critical Issues in Social Theory is an analytical survey of persistent controversies that have shaped the field of sociology. It defines, clarifies, and proposes solutions to these &"critical issues&" through commentary on the writings of such influential social theorists as Hobbes, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Merton, Parsons, and Schutz. Instead of being just another history, or another classification of theories, Rhoads's four-part model allows him to focus attention on issues that remain at the core of sociological theory today. First, Rhoads analyzes the controversy over positivism as the proper methodological model for the study of human society. Is there one science, of which sociology is a branch, or do the peculiarities of sociology's subject matter require a modification of the scientific method borrowed from the natural sciences? Rhoads next considers the relationship of individuals to society and its structures. Does society have a mode of existence distinct from its members, or is it merely an abstraction derived from the characteristics of individuals? Third, a discussion of social order raises the question of whether social order is the consequence of rules and their underlying moral values, or the product of continuous construction based on self-interest. Finally, the relative importance of consensus and conflict in social relationships is addressed. Is society better understood as a community united by beliefs, values, and rules, or is the social dynamic of continual conflict over beliefs, values, and rules more fundamental? In coming to grips with these issues, the author in some instances takes sides and in others arrives at a synthesis of diverse perspectives. In the final chapter he points to the limitations on the possibility of rational action that come to light in the clashes over these basic issues.

"...richly documented and pathbreaking..."--Choice

This book develops a psychoanalytic theory of political correctness and the pristine self, which is defined as a self touched by nothing but love. It explores the damage that political correctness can do to social order. Applications include the breakdown of social capital, the financial crisis, and Occupy Wall Street. Long an issue for conservatives, alarm over political correctness has now spread to the liberal side of the political spectrum. As Schwartz argues, all have reason to be concerned. The psychology that underlies political correctness has the potential to be extremely destructive to social organization on every level. Schwartz discusses the primitive roots of political correctness and, through the use of case studies, shows its capacity for ruination. The book focuses on a transformation in the idea of the self, and specifically the rise of the pristine self. The problem is that, in truth, the world does not love us. This puts the pristine self at war with objective reality.