International Business – Environments and Operations
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT Two major aspects of any society that have an enormous impact on the way business is conducted are the political and economic systems. The political system is designed to integrate the society into a viable, functioning unit. The economic system is designed to allocate scarce resources among com- peting users, and it...
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Democracy The ideology of pure democracy derives from the ancient Greeks, who be- lieved that citizens should be directly involved in the decision-making pro- cess. According to this ideal, all citizens should be equal politically and legally and should enjoy widespread freedoms. In reality, the complexity of society increases with the population, and full...
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Totalitarianism If democracy is at one end of the spectrum, then totalitarianism is at the other end. In a totalitarian state a single party, individual, or group of individuals monopolizes political power and neither recognizes nor permits opposition. In such a regime, the opportunity to participate in decision making is re- stricted to a...
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Contemporary Political systems All contemporary forms of government differ from the theoretical forms upon which they are built. Although pure democracy does not exist in modern nations, various forms of representative government are seen in which citi- zens vote for individuals to represent them and make collective decisions. Voting eligibility may be based on...
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Measures of Freedom The events of 1989 and 1990 continued a trend that had gained momentum in the early 1980s. According to a study by Freedom House, by 1975, most Third World democracies had disappeared. The number of countries espous- ing Marxism had expanded from 6 at the end of the 1960s to 17...
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