Studied by 2 people
The Balance of Power System
A system of international relations was established at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Its purpose was to prevent large-scale destructive wars such as the Thirty Years War. It regarded all European Great Powers as theoretically equal and obliged all to collaborate to settle wars. It had two key flaws: (1) Its only mechanism to resolve disputes and re-stabilize the system was war; (2) It assumed that the European state The system was static – no new Great Powers would arise, and no old Great Powers would fall. Class example: end of thirty years war
Secularism
The rejection of a deity (such as the Christian God) as the root cause of natural phenomena; the rejection of religion as the justification for social and political systems. Class example: sir Isaac newton
Rationalism
A belief that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response; a belief that natural phenomena, including the actions of individuals and the interactions of social groups, can be understood and explained based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response. Class example:Montesquieu
Newton’s World-Machine
Newton’s rationalist, secularist conception of the world as a machine that could be understood and changed by humans. While Newton believed that the world machine was created by God, he thought that God did not exert any direct influence on the machine after its creation. This theory directly contradicted the Great Chain of Being and Divine Right Ideology. Class example:newtons machine
Bourgeoisie
Owners of the means of production (factories, industries, mines, commercial enterprises, etc.). Sometimes called "capitalists." They employ the proletariat. Class example: capitalists
Proletariat
Wage workers. They are sometimes characterized as the “working class” class example:employed the bourgeoisie
Natural Law
A belief that the moral standards that govern human behavior are derived from the nature of human beings and the nature of the world. Class example: lockes political theory
Monarchical Absolutism
A belief that the authority to run a state was in the hands of a king who ruled by divine right. It rejected the role of the church (whether Catholic or Protestant) as an intermediary between God and King. Its emergence between ca. 1500-1700 CE undermined the Church-State alliance. Class example: reformation as pathway to absolutism for some
Great Chain of Being
A medieval theory was that all matter and life were created in a hierarchal order by God and that all people had a fixed place within this unchangeable structure. Any challenge to the political or social structure was a challenge to God. Class example: static, hierarchical world
Social Contract
A theory of political legitimacy that regards governments/rulers as obliged by an unwritten contract to serve the interests of their citizens/subjects, and citizens/subjects as obliged to obey their governments/ Divine Right Ideology and Monarchical Absolutism. Class example: people transfer some rights to the government
