How did Witte's and Pobedonostsev's visions of Russia and its path Essay

How did Witte's and Pobedonostsev's visions of Russia and its path differ Could either of them have saved autocracy - Essay Example Ivan III wiped out the idea of democracy by annexing territory of both principalities of their kingdom, ensuring that no united political power would be able to oppose their total authoritarian rule. The leader drew a firm support of the Russian Orthodox Church to legitimize an autocratic rule (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). The people of Russia would therefore feel the effects of this rule in later years during the time of reign of both Alexander III and Nicholas II of between 1880 and 1905. Many Russians suffered due to autocratic rule at these times and later it resulted to the Russian Revolution. During the time of these two rulers, the people of Russia ran to extreme poverty due to existence of famine, lack of education, the people lived under poor working condition in cities, there were limited industries even though society that is more agrarian could be noticed no development could be hastened. Due to autocracy, the Russian empire was deteriorated politically, economically, and socially. There were no industries and most of the people were peasants with high level of illiteracy. Most of the citizens were still under the slavery of wealthy property owners. The government still had no defined legal or constitution as well as parliament thus as a result no elections could be conducted. For efficient and smooth run of the entire vast empire, the Tsar appointed various ministers to help him rule. People were denied freedom of speech thus grievances could not be aired to the Tsar. The first round in the struggle to define a direction of Russia’s development was between the conservative stability proclaimed by Pobedonostsev, which elaborated on maintenance of Russia’s natural institution and massive industrial change driven by Witte that emphasized on the introduction of European institutions (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). The two men experienced a reversal of their early

The Tyranny of the Majority Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Tyranny of the Majority - Essay Example Gayism and lesbianism are two practices strictly prohibited in the Arab world, and any one seized in the practice or openly advocates to have practiced it face dire consequences. Massad observed that the supporters of gay international movement have produced literature used to disseminate information about gays and lesbianism in the Arab world. Moreover, Mossad noted the oppression in which most gays and lesbians leave in the Arab world, and most of them do not dare come out, though there are reported numerous cases of male homoeroticism. The fact that people fear coming out openly as gays or lesbians explains the precarious situation of these people in the Arab world, where culture is held conservatively, and all expected to tow a single line of culture and religion. In fact, Mossad remarks that the concept of homosexuality in the Arab world is considered unfamiliar as people do not expect to have any homosexuals or lesbians among their societies. Amar explains the perceptions of most leaders in the society towards those considered undertaking odd practices within a society. The Brazilian purity campaigns targeted prostitutes in all Brazilian cities. The prostitutes were considered an eye sore and a bad image to the cities and the country at large and had to be removed. As Amar explains, the main motive behind the massive sweeps of prostitutes in Brazilian cities was to facilitate the country clean its name not to be associated with promotion of sex tourism and prostitution. 4 The use of the church, provincial military police, feminist groups and international organizations, though obligated to help poor people involved in prostitution  targeted  getting rid of prostitutes from cities. On the contrary, the aim was not offering help to prostitutes to change their lives towards more sociable behavior. In this case, the police  were  the â€Å"moral guardians of the society and the campaigns were aimed at â€Å"disciplining the public sociability.5 This was a case of tyranny of the majority; they forced norms and values to others regardless of their views and perceptions. For many years, the American whites had protected the purity of the white race by discouraging and even criminalizing any sexual association between with whites and immigrants from Asia or Africa. Shah reported the surveillance of the borderlands that brought an ambiguity of contingency to protect American men from threats posed by different groups of masculinities, considered fo reign and degenerate.6 Therefore, racialization increased construction of masculinity in America  based on racial and sexual topologies necessary for  checking any relationships between their males and foreign immigrants. The immigrants were considered impure and a threat to the purity for the whites. Moreover, Naber explains the efforts to create Arab cultural identity especially among daughters in families.7 As Naber remarked, when a daughter rejected the concept of Arab womanhood even after migrating to a