The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (276 page)
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Authors: Iain McLean
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Thirteenth Amendment
Thomism
three-line whip
Thucydides
(460–
c.
404BC)
Thucydides's account of
The Peloponnesian War
between Athens and
Sparta
is one of the classic pieces of writing on war. Thucydides, who was himself a failed Athenian admiral, wrote a detailed history of the war which, unlike the writings of his contemporaries, explained events by reference to the interplay of personalities and power rather than by the divine intervention of the gods. Above all, his account is written from a realist perspective which seeks to explain and understand rather than to moralize about war, although he does moralize implicitly and explicitly about the domestic pressures for war.
His analysis of the origins of the war is strictly realist: he refers to various complaints of Athens and Sparta against each other but notes that such complaints disguise the true cause, which was ‘the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta’. In the Mytilenian Debate and in the Melian Dialogue he represents the dilemmas which confront statesmen in war. In the Melian Dialogue the Athenians, who have occupied the small island of Melos, demand unconditional surrender from their opponents on the grounds of the superiority of their power which renders the Melians powerless to resist. The arguments used by the Athenians in persuading the Melians to surrender are immediately familiar to modern realists. The Melians are finally all killed or sold into slavery.
The eventual defeat of Athens by Sparta is explained by Thucydides by the decline in the wisdom of Athenian statesmanship after the death of Pericles and a disastrous expedition to Sicily which caused, to use a modern term, an ‘overextension’ of Athenian power.
PBy
c.
404BC)
Thucydides's account of
The Peloponnesian War
between Athens and
Sparta
is one of the classic pieces of writing on war. Thucydides, who was himself a failed Athenian admiral, wrote a detailed history of the war which, unlike the writings of his contemporaries, explained events by reference to the interplay of personalities and power rather than by the divine intervention of the gods. Above all, his account is written from a realist perspective which seeks to explain and understand rather than to moralize about war, although he does moralize implicitly and explicitly about the domestic pressures for war.
His analysis of the origins of the war is strictly realist: he refers to various complaints of Athens and Sparta against each other but notes that such complaints disguise the true cause, which was ‘the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta’. In the Mytilenian Debate and in the Melian Dialogue he represents the dilemmas which confront statesmen in war. In the Melian Dialogue the Athenians, who have occupied the small island of Melos, demand unconditional surrender from their opponents on the grounds of the superiority of their power which renders the Melians powerless to resist. The arguments used by the Athenians in persuading the Melians to surrender are immediately familiar to modern realists. The Melians are finally all killed or sold into slavery.
The eventual defeat of Athens by Sparta is explained by Thucydides by the decline in the wisdom of Athenian statesmanship after the death of Pericles and a disastrous expedition to Sicily which caused, to use a modern term, an ‘overextension’ of Athenian power.
PBy
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, refers to the main square of Beijing city, where all big rallies have been held since the revolution of 1949. On 4 June 1989 it was the scene of the brutal suppression of a political demonstration led by students. The event was witnessed worldwide on television.
The demonstration began as a students’ memorial tribute to Hu Yaobang , the most radical and democratic member of the reformist Communist leadership, whose views had been opposed by conservative elements in the Chinese Communist Party leadership. The protest was an attempt to strengthen the more prodemocratic wing of the regime, led since Hu's death by Zhao Ziyang . An earlier protest of 1978–9 had been intended to express support for Deng Xiaoping , who was then widely believed to be in favour of political reforms, but Deng had been alarmed by the radical demands of a small minority of the dissidents and had agreed to their suppression. The 1989 protest expressed disillusionment with Deng's ambivalent attitude to democratization.
The explicit demands of the demonstrators were on the whole moderate; they sought little more than greater responsiveness on the part of the government to grievances arising from the operation of economic reform and greater freedom for the press to expose corruption and other abuses. Several factors, however, led to overreaction by China's ageing leaders. First, most of them had been victimized by the Red Guards during the
Cultural Revolution
and were worried that the student protest might escalate, as it had in 1966. Second, the protesters had provocatively chosen their time to coincide with Gorbachev's visit, and the regime suffered the humiliation of being unable to receive him with appropriate dignity. Third, the students were joined in the square by representatives of newly formed independent trade unions whose avowed model was
Solidarity
. Fourth, when troops were moved into the capital to restore order, a million Beijing workers and others rose to defend the students, and the army units suffered much abuse and indignity before they reached the Square. Fifth, the protest in the capital was taken up in all China's largest cities. Sixth, the students erected, in full view of worldwide television, a statue called the Goddess of Democracy which bore a strong resemblance to the Statue of Liberty. Finally, and paradoxically, the grip of the Communist Party of China had hitherto been so effective that the Chinese police had no experience of crowd control; hence the army was brought in and it behaved as armies do.
The result was a ghastly blunder, as well as a vicious crime, for which no Beijing leader has been willing to take full personal responsibility, and which occasioned far greater humiliation for the leadership than anything offered by the student's movement.
The political consequence was that the conservative faction was able to dismiss Zhao Ziyang who had shown sympathy with the demonstrators. The conservatives then attempted to halt the process of economic liberalization, but the economic cost was so immediately apparent that they had to retreat and accept Deng's economic policies. Political repression, however, has since been viciously sustained.
JG
The demonstration began as a students’ memorial tribute to Hu Yaobang , the most radical and democratic member of the reformist Communist leadership, whose views had been opposed by conservative elements in the Chinese Communist Party leadership. The protest was an attempt to strengthen the more prodemocratic wing of the regime, led since Hu's death by Zhao Ziyang . An earlier protest of 1978–9 had been intended to express support for Deng Xiaoping , who was then widely believed to be in favour of political reforms, but Deng had been alarmed by the radical demands of a small minority of the dissidents and had agreed to their suppression. The 1989 protest expressed disillusionment with Deng's ambivalent attitude to democratization.
The explicit demands of the demonstrators were on the whole moderate; they sought little more than greater responsiveness on the part of the government to grievances arising from the operation of economic reform and greater freedom for the press to expose corruption and other abuses. Several factors, however, led to overreaction by China's ageing leaders. First, most of them had been victimized by the Red Guards during the
Cultural Revolution
and were worried that the student protest might escalate, as it had in 1966. Second, the protesters had provocatively chosen their time to coincide with Gorbachev's visit, and the regime suffered the humiliation of being unable to receive him with appropriate dignity. Third, the students were joined in the square by representatives of newly formed independent trade unions whose avowed model was
Solidarity
. Fourth, when troops were moved into the capital to restore order, a million Beijing workers and others rose to defend the students, and the army units suffered much abuse and indignity before they reached the Square. Fifth, the protest in the capital was taken up in all China's largest cities. Sixth, the students erected, in full view of worldwide television, a statue called the Goddess of Democracy which bore a strong resemblance to the Statue of Liberty. Finally, and paradoxically, the grip of the Communist Party of China had hitherto been so effective that the Chinese police had no experience of crowd control; hence the army was brought in and it behaved as armies do.
The result was a ghastly blunder, as well as a vicious crime, for which no Beijing leader has been willing to take full personal responsibility, and which occasioned far greater humiliation for the leadership than anything offered by the student's movement.
The political consequence was that the conservative faction was able to dismiss Zhao Ziyang who had shown sympathy with the demonstrators. The conservatives then attempted to halt the process of economic liberalization, but the economic cost was so immediately apparent that they had to retreat and accept Deng's economic policies. Political repression, however, has since been viciously sustained.
JG
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