Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Emigration: Emigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to permanently settle in another. It involves the voluntary departure of individuals or groups from their homeland. See also Refugees._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Albert O. Hirschman on Emigration - Dictionary of Arguments
Krastev I 28 Emigration/Hirschman/Krastev: In his most famous work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, published in 1970, Hirschman contrasted two strategies that people adopt when confronted with an unbearable status quo. People can ‘exit’, that is, they can vote with their feet, expressing their displeasure by taking their business elsewhere. Or they can decide to ‘voice’ their concerns by staying put, speaking up, and choosing to fight for reform from within. Krastev: For economists, exit is the favoured method for improving the performance of producers and service providers. It is the strategy employed by the average consumer. Because they can inflict debilitating revenue losses on poorly performing businesses, customers who threaten to switch suppliers can induce a ‘wonderful concentration of the mind’ in a company’s managers akin to what Samuel Johnson attributed to the prospect of being hanged. This is how exit (and the threat of exit) can help improve the performance of firms. But having experienced political tyranny first-hand in 1930s Europe, Hirschman also knew, like Michnik, that oppressive governments can reduce domestic pressure for change by granting the noisiest and most prominent activists an opportunity to exit.(1) >Emigration/Michnik. Krastev I 29 In 1990, Hirschman spent a year in post-communist Berlin and decided to revisit his theory of exit, voice and loyalty in an attempt to understand the demise of the German Democratic Republic.(2) He focused first on the unique possibility of defection open to East Germans alone among all members of the Warsaw Pact. East Germans who managed to leave or escape, unlike Poles who did the same, would become neither linguistically isolated émigrés nor branded as betrayers of the nation. The GDR, in Hirschman’s view, did not have its 1956, 1968 or 1980 because most of those dissatisfied with the regime dreamed of absconding privately rather than organizing to voice their grievances collectively. 1989: (...)contrary to expectations that the ‘safety valve’ of emigration would drain the energy from civic engagement, the very scale of the departures increased rather than decreased pressure on the regime. Indeed, it drove the disenchanted millions who stayed behind to take to the streets and demand change in the hope of convincing their fellow citizens to stay. The downfall of the GDR was a case where mass exodus and the fear that it Krastev I 30 might continue triggered a society-wide outburst of voice and demands for political reform at home. Rather than some East Germans leaving and others staying, the entire country relocated to the West. Eastern Europe/Krastev: In the rest of Eastern Europe, the story unfolded quite differently. There are no signs today that East and West Europeans – from Bratislava and Bucharest to Lisbon and Dublin – see themselves as ein Volk, a single people with a shared identity, even if they all presumably aspire to a European normality. 1. A. Michnik. „Why You Are Not Emigrating … A Letter from Białołęka 1982’ in Adam Michnik, Letters from Prison and Other Essays (University of California Press, 1987). 2. Albert O. Hirschman, ‘Exit, Voice, and the Fate of the German Democratic Republic: An Essay in Conceptual History’, World Politics 45:2 (January 1993), pp. 173–202._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
PolHirschm I Albert O. Hirschman The Strategy of Economic Development New Haven 1958 Krastev I Ivan Krastev Stephen Holmes The Light that Failed: A Reckoning London 2019 |
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> Counter arguments against Hirschman
> Counter arguments in relation to Emigration
