POLITICAL MOTIVES ON BUSINESS Flashcards
a law that forbids US companies, subsidiaries, or citizens from bribing government officials or political candidates worldwide (except when a person’s life is in danger).
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)—
constitutes “anything of value”—money, gifts, and so forth—and cannot be given to any “foreign government official” empowered to make a “discretionary decision” that may be to the payer’s benefit.
bribe
Structures, processes, and activities by which a nation governs itself.
political system
naturally influence each other. A country’s political sys tem inspires and endorses its legal system, and its legal system legitimizes and supports its politi cal system. And a country’s legal system and political system are rooted in the history and culture of its people
Political systems and legal systems
Political system in which individuals govern regardless of the people’s support, tightly control people’s lives, and do not tolerate opposing viewpoints.
Totalitarianism
An individual or group forms the political system without approval of the people. Leaders often acquire and retain power through military force or fraudulent elections. In some cases, they come to power through legitimate means but then remain in office after their terms expire.
Imposed Authority -
Guarantees Totalitarian systems deny citizens the constitutional guar antees woven into the fabric of democracies. They limit, abuse, or reject concepts such as free dom of expression, periodically held elections, civil and property rights, and minority rights.
Lack of Constitutional
Political representation is limited to parties sympathetic to the government or to those who pose no credible threat. In most cases political opposition is completely banned and political dissension is severely punished.
Restricted Participation
- Political system in which a country’s religious leaders are also its political leaders.
Theocracy
- Political system under the control of totalitarian religious leaders.
theocratic totalitarianism
Political system that believes social and economic equality can be achieved only by establishing an all-powerful Communist Party, violently seizing control over economic resources, and eliminating political opposition.
Communism
Political system in which government owns and controls all types of economic activity to achieve social and economic equality.
Socialism
Political system in which one ethnic group imposes its will on others with whom it shares a national identity.
tribal totalitarianism
Political system in which a government grants few (if any) political freedoms and endorses private ownership of property and a market-based economy.
right-wing totalitarianism -
Political system in which government leaders are elected directly by the wide participation of the people or by their representatives.
Democracy
Democracy in which citizens elect individuals from their groups to represent their political views.
representative democracy
Structure and processes that a country uses to allocate its resources and conduct its commercial activities.
economic system
economy Economic system in which the government owns a nation’s land, factories, and other economic resources and plans nearly all economic activity.
centrally planned economy
Central planning is rooted in the ideology of collectivism. Just as collectivist cultures emphasize group goals over individual ones, a centrally planned economy strives to achieve economic and social equality for the sake of the collective, not the individual.
ORIGINS OF THE CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMY
Shortly after the former Soviet Union implemented its twin policies of glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic reform) in the late 1980s, its totalitarian government crumbled. Nation after nation in Central and Eastern Europe dismantled central planning in favor of market-based economies
DECLINE OF CENTRAL PLANNING
Economic system in which the state plays the role of the leading economic actor that exercises sig nificant control and influence over industries and many firms.
state capitalism
Economic system in which land, factories, and other economic resources are rather equally split between private and government ownership.
mixed economy
Policy of selling government-owned economic resources to private operators.
Privatization
Economic system in which most of a nation’s land, factories, and other economic resources are privately owned, by either individuals or businesses.
market economy (capitalism) -
Quantity of a good or service that producers are willing to provide at a specific selling price.
supply
Quantity of a good or service that buyers are willing to purchase at a specific selling price.
Demand
- Market economics is rooted in the belief that individual freedom and responsibilities should be placed above group concerns.
ORIGINS OF THE MARKET ECONOMY
- gives individuals access to alternative purchase options and places few restric tions on consumers’ ability to make selections.
Free choice
gives companies the ability to decide which goods and services to produce and the markets in which to compete.
Free enterprise
allows prices of most products to rise and fall to reflect the forces of supply and demand.
Price flexibility -
- Laws designed to prevent companies from fixing prices, sharing markets, and gaining unfair monopoly advantages
antitrust (antimonopoly) laws
Legal rights to resources and any income they generate.
property rights
In a market economy, the government has far less direct involvement in business than it does in centrally planned or mixed economies.
GOVERNMENT’S ROLE IN A MARKET ECONOMY
- Country’s set of laws and regulations, how its laws are enacted and enforced, and how its courts hold parties accountable.
legal system
Devotion of a people to their nation’s interests and advancement
Nationalism
- Legal system based on a country’s legal history (tradition), past cases that have come before its courts (precedent), and how laws are applied in specific situations (usage).
common law
- Legal system based on a detailed set of written rules and statutes that constitute a legal code.
civil law
- Legal system based on religious teachings
theocratic law
- Property that results from people’s intellectual talent and abilities.
intellectual property
Delivery of computing services over the internet, or the cloud
cloud computing
Intellectual property consisting of patents and trademarks.
industrial property
- Property right granted to the inventor of a product or process that excludes others from making, using, or selling the invention
patent
- Property right in the form of words or symbols that distinguish a product and its manufacturer.
trademark
- Property right giving creators of an original work the freedom to publish or dispose of it as they choose.
Copyright
Responsibility of manufacturers, sellers, individuals, and others for damage, injury, or death caused by defective products.
product liability
Tax levied on each party that adds value to a product throughout its production and distribution.
value added tax (VAT) -
