Capitalism And Concepts Of Power And Justice

The manner in which our society is run is very unique and not the same everywhere an individual travels. There are different types of leadership that are practiced within the society and this usually varies from one region to another (Samuelson, 2015). Capitalism is one type of ideology that has been used for so long to run some countries. This paper comprehensively discusses capitalism ideology and how it is related to other factors such as power, order, and justice.

Capitalism is an ideology that has existed for so long from the time that it grew out of European feudalism. Capitalism can be traced to the emergence of mercantilism and agrarian capitalism during the earlier days of the Renaissance. Adam Smith is considered to be the founder of capitalism. He came to realize that mercantilism was not a change and developmental force, but a system that was bringing imbalances in various nations and making them not to advance effectively (Magstadt, 2017). Therefore, he came up with ideas for a free market which led to capitalism. By definition, capitalism is an economic or political system where the business or private individuals own capital goods. One important feature of capitalism is that it is not based on collective or public ownership of the production means. The other central feature of capitalism it emphasizes on achievement rather than equality. This happens because capitalism creates classes where the rich remain to be richer while the poor people continue being poor in their social status.

In capitalism, it is the factors of production that exercises power over other groups of people in the society. One major advantage about capitalism is that it gives the private actors an opportunity to own properties (Samuelson, 2015). This is very important as it reduces the cases of monopoly and mistreatment of people. There is usually high rates of competition and this is something that leads to higher quality services in the justice services. A common ethos of individuals is reciprocity and not sharing resources communally. From this, we can derive that the human nature is derived from competition, people are naturally competitive as it is unveiled by the capitalism system. Professionals will work hard to achieve the highest levels of justice qualification leading to reliable decision making. No one wants to be left irrelevant or behind and this pushed for honest and quality decisions in the justice system.

Furthermore, human nature in capitalism is hierarchical. This is where individuals strive to form hierarchies of dominance leading to the formation of various leadership levels. This is reflected in the manner in which people are ruled. There is always an order in which things are done and someone cannot just wake and then do what they feel. Different orders have been set in the society on how things need to be done, for instance, the manner in which elections are carried out. Standard qualifications will be made for various leadership slots. The ruling class will be formed based on various factors such as wealth, education attainment and many more (Magstadt, 2017). Through this, the order will remain intact and someone will only have the rights to do what they qualify for. To add, the hierarchies of dominance gives power to the ruling class or those that own the factors of production within the society. Power is the capacity of an individual or group of people to influence others. The competition between ruling classes will contribute to higher performance and empowering people to be more productive.

References

1. Magstadt, T. M. (2017). Understanding politics: Ideas, institutions, and issues. Australia: Cengage Learning. Reading Chapter 1 & 2
2. Samuelson, R. J. (2015). The spirit of capitalism. Foreign Aff., 80, 205.