The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (107 page)

See
Gulf Co-operation Council
.

 
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Gross domestic product: the aggregate output of the
factors of production
in a country, regardless of who owns the factors. See also
GNP
.

 
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Terms introduced into social science by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies in 1887. Most commonly translated as ‘community’ and ‘association’ or ‘society’, the concepts refer not only to idealized types of society but also more broadly to forms of social organization and social relationships. The movement from
Gemeinschaft
to
Gesellschaft
indicates the idealized transition from small, rural, tightly-knit communities in which kinship ties and traditional values predominate, to an associational impersonal industrial society based on the rational pursuit of self-interest and contract characterized by heterogeneity and diverse belief-systems.
The spread of industrialization in the nineteenth century made such binary divisions appealing and similar distinctions are found in the work of Maine (from status to contract),
Bagehot
(from custom to law), and most famously
Durkheim
(from mechanical to organic solidarity). Although such distinctions are often represented in terms of evolutionary societal development, the concepts can also be applied to characterize relations within a society. In this way family relations can be thought of as pertaining to
Gemeinschaft
whilst commercial and legal dealings assume more the character of
Gesellschaft
. Within international relations, theorists interested in developing the notion of
international society
have recently drawn on Tonnies' distinction to help explain the origin of the society of states.
PBm 

 
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A series of contributions by feminists in the field of politics and political theory has focused on the way the public political arena is excluding of women's issues, concerns, and participation. Starting from Mary Wollstonecraft's concern with women's rights in the public sphere, shared in France by
Condorcet
and his wife Sophie de Grouchy , to the slogan of second-wave
feminism
—‘the personal is political’—feminists have sought greater access to institutional politics, and to reconstitute the political world. While the concern of liberal feminism has been improving access of women to institutions of public power, through improved educational facilities,
equal opportunities
legislation, and antidiscrimination politics, and therefore challenging political
patriarchy
from within, other feminists, especially Marxists and radical groups, have challenged the very linking of the political to public. They believe that the reason why women have been systematically excluded from the political arena is because of the false distinction that has been made and sustained by patriarchy between the public and the private worlds. Feminists have also challenged the institutionalized, delegational form of politics in this context, emphasizing the importance of participation
per se
. Black feminists have contributed to the debate on politics by insisting upon the importance of race in Western societies, which does not allow them to participate in political life both as women and as black persons. Third World women have focused on struggles against imperialism and colonialism as part of the feminist political project, but have also organized around issues of class, ethnicity, and the environ-ment. Feminist groups have historically struggled with the question of alliancemaking with other groups. While some have wanted women's groups to be exclusive to women, others have sought alliances with men on specific issues affecting both sexes.
SR 

 
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See
GATT
.

 
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