Word: consensus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...provide a lesson for the U.S. in one crucial respect. The nation's power elite, which shapes and guides the course of the economy as a whole, practices a democratic ideal that individualistic Americans claim as their own but often seem to ignore: the spirit of compromise and consensus. This has enabled the group-oriented Japanese to apportion wealth and nurture growth in one of the world's most cramped and populous countries...
...Consensus building sometimes takes years, but when urgent action is needed the government resorts to "administrative guidance." That is a sort of friendly persuasion by which the government officially "recommends" certain action, leaving the follow-through to industry itself. In 1978, for example, the Carter Administration strongly pressured Japan to cut its U.S.-bound color-television shipments. To prevent companies from engaging in a disruptive price war by rushing for shares of the smaller U.S. market, the Japanese government ordered the industry to reduce color-TV shipments to the U.S. by 50%. The administrative guidance was enforced by the industry...
...Social Democrat and the Liberal consensus had greater respect for democracy than any other ethic that preceded it or has followed it," Williams said. She said the introduction of the one-man-one-vote system in Great Britain is an example of positive steps taken by Western governments to reduce inequalities...
...technique for solving problems--identify the issue, form a committee, gather differing views, and find a solution--as systematic, judicial or legalistic. Under Bok's almost Japanese style of confrontation-avoidance, conflicts are bureaucratized and thrown into committees where "reasonable people," one of Bok's favorite phrases make consensus decisions. "Significant changes," Bok says, "depend on taking into account the views of different groups. It is important not to have a lot of controversy," he continues, because "change only comes when you get a sense of what will command respect and at least give everybody's views an adequate hearing...
...settlement policy is clearly the most troubling issue for Jewish Americans. Though there is a general consensus that Jews should have the legal right to settle in any part of the West Bank and Gaza, the timing and seemingly punitive nature of the Cabinet's latest moves have aroused sharp criticism. Fumes Irwin Goldenberg, president of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation-Council: "I think it's ridiculous what Begin's doing." Theodore Mann, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, offers a slightly more reserved assessment: "A good many American Jews are offended...