Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Boxes
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgment
- Introduction
- Part A Understanding Emancipative Values
- Part B Emancipative Values as a Civic Force
- Part C Democratic Impulses of Emancipative Values
- Part D Emancipative Values in Human Civilization
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Boxes
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgment
- Introduction
- Part A Understanding Emancipative Values
- Part B Emancipative Values as a Civic Force
- Part C Democratic Impulses of Emancipative Values
- Part D Emancipative Values in Human Civilization
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
There is greater dependence of governments on the governed who need to be highly motivated if a complex state-society is to function well. . . . Even if the pressure is diffuse, the sentiment of the mass of the population . . . is today a stronger factor in the power balance of a state society than ever before.
– Norbert Elias 1984 [1939]: 229The Theme: Freedom Rising
From the dawn of our species until recently, most people lived in poverty and insecurity, and their lives were short. Worse, with the onset of civilization, people were subjected to overlords. Ever since, state organization was tailored to perfecting human exploitation and, for millennia, growing state capacities meant increasing oppression of freedoms (Diamond 1997; Nolan & Lenksi 1999). Indeed, abandoning original freedoms was the very definition of civilization (Elias 1984 [1939]). Only recently did this trend begin to reverse itself. The first signs occurred with the English, Dutch, American, and French revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Grayling 2007). These liberal revolutions brought a game change in history: tyranny, although it continues to exist, is no longer safe; in fact, it is receding at an accelerating pace (Modelski & Gardner 2002).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Freedom RisingHuman Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation, pp. 1 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013