w. 42

Thursday, 14 October

Timeline quiz

Ek2: Industrial Revolution (chapter 25)

Sa2: Imperialism (chapter 27)

The short film on industrialism I showed in class:

 

Monday, 12 October

Ek2: Enlightenment (see Thursday, w. 41)

Sa2: Industrial Revolution

Further information connected to the Enlightenment:

As one of the key issues connected to the Enlightenment, I presented this slide when I discussed the idea of “the separation of power.”

This concept regarding the need to separate the three branches of government is one of the critical ideas of the Enlightenment. History shows us over and over that when these powers are not separated that abuse virtually always occurs.

One example involves Louis XIV -- the French king who built the palace of Versailles and worked to gain absolute power within his kingdom. One of the richest noblemen in France was the Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet. With the wealth that Fouquet amassed – through a position he acquired via his family contacts and corrupt transactions – he was able to build up a lifestyle that rivaled even that of the king. Sadly (for Fouquet), this ended up being his downfall. Fouquet built a chateau – Vaux-le-Vicomte – that in its architectural beauty and gardens was so marvelous that Louis ended up bring Fouquet up on charges of what we would today call embezzlement. After a drawn-out trial, Fouquet was found guilty. Louis made certain that the sentence was a lifetime sentence. And Louis promptly went about employing the architect and landscape architect responsible for Vaux-le-Vicomte to work on Versailles.

The point is that in France there was not a clear separation between the branches of government, thus allowing Louis to have a hand in both executive power as well as the court systems, so that he could be certain that his “enemy” was found guilty and given a life sentence.

A more modern example can be found in the show trials typical of the Soviet Union. Trials were not for the purpose of presenting evidence and arguments that would be evaluated by impartial judges or juries; they were theater (where the outcome was known before the trial started) intended to publically humiliate, control behavior, and to legitimize the government’s totalitarian policies.

In Masha Gessen’s book The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, she writes that many of the practices of the former Soviet Union have re-emerged in Putin’s Russia: “. . . the courts existed to do the bidding of the head of state and dole out punishment as he saw fit to those he saw fit to punish.” (p. 251).

Abuse of power is found in all states. But there are different degree. The organization Transparency International works to track corruption in governments. They create fantastic infographics. Here's are some examples: