(Political) rhetoric of Reaction
Perversity-Thesis
Futility-Thesis
Jeopardy-Thesis
| Hirschmann, Albert O. (1991). The Rhetoric of Reaction. Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. S.7. |
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According to the perversity thesis, any puposive action to improve some feature of the political, social, or economic order only serves to exacerbate the conditions one wish to remedy. The futility thesis holds that attempts at social transformation will be unavailing, that they will simply fail to „make a dent.“ Finally, the jeopardy thesis argues that the cost of the proposed change or reform is too high as it endangers some previous, precious accomplishment.
