Research Schools and Pluralism

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The view of the world is different in the mind of every individual, but at times these views correspond establishing research schools. In the world of politics, research schools have different ontological and epistemological assumptions which allows them to view the state and power differently. Their primary concern is to figure out the nature of the world and be able to figure out what one is going to focus on and disregard. The four main research school are pluralism, rational choice, institutionalism and Marxism. Pluralism embraces societal values, culture and interests which they believe are the driven force of political outcomes. Rational choice focuses on the individuals’ self interest and self awareness and believes that an individual is the fundamental power in society. Institutionalism owes the worlds’ functions to rules, norms and law and centralizes the state as the most important actor in modern society. Finally, Marxism believes in the power of class structures affecting humans in society. All of these research schools have opposing views on how the world operates and how it should operate in different circumstances. This paper will examine research schools of Marxism and pluralism that are poles apart in regards to their beliefs on the origin of power in society.THESIS Pluralism expresses the importance of the individual’s interests which develops a need to participate in civil society and influence politics. # On the other hand, Marxism reveals the structural and unequal power buried within social classes that enables one group to be more powerful than another.# The principles of both of these research schools will be applied and analyzed in the Federal Government’s policy with regards to the regulation of the Ca...

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...under the Finance Minister Paul Martin, this proposal was rejected and representatives of the proposal felt ‘political persecution’.# Martin believed that there was insufficient evidence that the banking system will be enhanced post-bank merger, and discarded the issue of foreign competition.# The government also feared future failures within the system which will be much more difficult to restore,# “the bigger they get, the harder they’ll fall.”# The banks disagreed and claimed that if this merger did not take place the chances of Canada as global financial centre would deteriorate and it would be absolutely unfavourable for businesses in the long term.#

According to pluralists, the bank merger proposal has disregarded the interests of the public who own the shareholders of the market economy and therefore the public’s outlook on this issue must be considered.#

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