Why Workplace Bullying is Real and How Organizations Can Tackle This Menace
What is Workplace Bullying and how it is Different from Sexual Harassment More often than not, we hear about organizations having strict policies against harassment and discrimination which are primarily dealing with Sexual and Gender based harassment at the workplace. However, there is another element of workplace harassment and it is the very real menace […]
International Business Ethics
International business ethics emerged quite late globally compared to the business ethics that came up in 1970’s. It was only in late 1990’s that the international business ethics came to the fore especially so after the economic developments that occurred on a global scale. In 1990’s many businesses from the developing countries expanded their operations […]
Types of Team Members in a High Performance Team
Types of Team Members in a High-Performance Team The key to the success of the High-Performance Teams is determined by the composition of the members of the team. The team members represent diverse functional, cultural and social backgrounds, who collaborate to achieve specific goals under pre-defined deadlines and resource limitations. The team members can be […]
Managing the Transition from Hierarchical to Network Organizational Structures
Introduction The emergence of the network-based organizational structures and a movement away from the hierarchical structures that were the hallmark of the earlier era presents its own set of challenges to Human Resource Managers (HRM) as well as Executive Leadership and Senior Management. The key aspect of the transition from hierarchy to network and from […]
Reinsurance Programs – Meaning, Need and its Benefits
In the previous articles, we have already studied about what reinsurance is. However, we have assumed that most ceding insurance companies buy only one reinsurance policy in order to cover their risks. However, this is not the case in reality. In real life, ceding insurance companies have very complex portfolios. As a result, they need […]
In earlier centuries, it was the norm for kings to rule and kingdoms to reign supreme. The modern day concept of the nation state is a relatively new phenomenon when one considers the arc of history.
For instance, it was only during the time of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe for the concept of the nation state to be born.
The leading thinkers of that era speculated on the social contract between man and the state and posited the idea that a form of a nation state that takes care of its citizens by giving them rights and at the same time by placing certain responsibilities on them. This was the guiding principle behind the Treaty of Westphalia that gave birth to the rise of the modern nation state.
Hence, the modern conception of the nation state is said to be the Westphalian norms of governance.
Of course, the 17th and 18th centuries witnessed the birth of the nation state only in Europe and the United States where the American Revolution brought forth the concept of a state. It was after the Civil War between the North and the South that the overriding theme of unification and the birth of the American state known as the United States of America came into existence.
As for the other parts of the world, they either were ruled by Kings and Princes or were colonized by the Western powers.
Countries like India were under the dominion of the British who ceded independence only in the aftermath of World War Two.
Talking of World War Two, it can be said that it was the decisive turning point in the history of humanity as the end of the war brought forth into existence many nation states.
The growth of the modern nation state picked up pace after the war and during the 1960s when many African states became independent from their colonial rulers. Further, with the spread of modern communication technologies, it was easier for the indigenous people to rise up as a unit and overthrow their colonial masters thus accelerating the birth of the modern nation state.
However, it has to be noted that despite these changes, the concept of the nation state has been under attack from both globalization and internal fissures. This is a rather sad aspect of the modern day nationality as globalization has meant that nation states cede power to the giant conglomerates and corporations and at the same time the resistance to globalization in the form of revolts leads to corrosion in the authority of the state.
Finally, the recent Arab Spring has again raised hopes about the spread of freedom and the desire of the peoples of the world to be governed by representative democracies instead of by authoritarian rulers. It is with the hope that the retreat of democracy would be temporary and the age old yearning of the human spirit to be free would be actualized that this article ends.
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What is Compassionate Capitalism and Why We Need it in These Times of Planetary Crisis ?
February 12, 2025
