tal investment, research and development, and export strategies. See also CAPITALISM, COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, ZAIBATSU.
economic stabilizer Any of the institutions and practices in an economy that serve to reduce fluctuations in the business cycle through off¬ setting effects on the amounts of income available for spending (dispos¬ able income). The progressive income tax, unemployment compensation, and farm price supports all help stabilize the amount of disposable income, as do family and corporate saving.
economic system Set of principles and techniques by which a soci¬ ety decides and organizes the ownership and allocation of economic resources. At one extreme, usually called a free-enterprise system, all resources are privately owned. This system, following Adam Smith, is based on the belief that the common good is maximized when all mem¬ bers of society are allowed to pursue their rational self-interest. At the other extreme, usually called a pure-communist system, all resources are publicly owned. This system, following Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilich Lenin, is based on the belief that public ownership of the means of production and government control of every aspect of the economy are necessary to minimize inequalities of wealth and achieve other agreed-upon social objectives. No nation exemplifies either extreme. As one moves from capitalism through socialism to communism, a greater share of a nation’s pro¬ ductive resources is publicly owned and a greater reliance is placed on economic planning. Fascism, more a political than an economic system, is a hybrid; privately owned resources are combined into syndicates and placed at the disposal of a centrally planned state.
economic warfare Use of economic measures by governments engaged in international conflict. These may include export and import controls, shipping controls, trade agreements with neutral nations, and so on. Economic warfare among belligerents began with the blockade and interception of contraband. In World War II it was broadened to include economic pressure applied to neutral countries from which the enemy obtained its supplies. In the Cold War it often involved using measures such as an embargo to deny potential enemies goods that might contrib¬ ute to their war-making ability.
economics Social science that analyzes and describes the consequences of choices made concerning scarce productive resources. Economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to employ those resources: what goods and services will be produced, how they will be produced, and how they will be distributed among the members of society. Economics is customarily divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Of major concern to macroeconomists are the rate of economic growth, the inflation rate, and the rate of unemployment. Specialized areas of economic investi¬ gation attempt to answer questions on a variety of economic activity; they include agricultural economics, economic development, economic history, environmental economics, industrial organization, international trade, labour economics, money supply and banking, public finance, urban econom¬ ics, and welfare economics. Specialists in mathematical economics and econometrics provide tools used by all economists. The areas of investiga¬ tion in economics overlap with many other disciplines, notably history, MATHEMATICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, and SOCIOLOGY.
Economist, The Weekly magazine of news and opinion, founded in 1843 and published in London, generally regarded as one of the world’s preeminent journals of its kind. It gives thorough and wide-ranging cov¬ erage of general news and particularly of international political develop¬ ments that bear on the world’s economy. In accord with the views promoted by its founders and conveyed by legendary Economist editor Walter Bagehot, the publication maintains the position that free markets typically provide the best method of running economies and governments. North America accounts for about half of its total readership.
ecosystem Ve-ko-.sis-tomV Complex of living organisms, their physi¬ cal environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space. An ecosystem’s abiotic (nonbiological) constituents include min¬ erals, climate, soil, water, sunlight, and all other nonliving elements; its biotic constituents consist of all its living members. Two major forces link these constituents: the flow of energy and the cycling of nutrients. The fundamental source of energy in almost all ecosystems is radiant energy from the sun; energy and organic matter are passed along an ecosystem’s food chain. The study of ecosystems became increasingly sophisticated in the later 20th century; it is now instrumental in assessing and controlling the environmental effects of agricultural development and industrializa¬ tion. See also biome.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
ecoterrorism ► Eddington I 595
ecoterrorism or ecological terrorism or environmental ter¬ rorism The destruction, or the threat of destruction, of the environment in order to intimidate or coerce governments. The term has also been applied to crimes committed against companies or government agencies in order to prevent or interfere with activities allegedly harmful to the environment. Ecoterrorism includes threats to contaminate water supplies or to destroy or disable energy utilities, for example, and practices such as the deployment of anthrax. Another form of ecoterrorism, often referred to as environmental warfare, consists of the deliberate and illegal destruc¬ tion, exploitation, or modification of the environment as a strategy of war or in times of armed conflict. Examples include the U.S. military’s use of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and the destruc¬ tion of Kuwaiti oil wells by retreating Iraqi military forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The activities of some environmental activists also have been described as ecoterrorism. These activities include criminal trespass on the property of logging companies and other firms and obstruction of their operations through sabotage as well as the environmentally harm¬ less modification of natural resources in order to make them unsuitable for commercial use (a practice known as “monkeywrenching”).
Ecstasy Euphoria-inducing stimulant and hallucinogen. It is a derivative of the amphetamine family and a relative of the stimulant methamphetamine. Taken in pill form, it has a chemical relationship to the psychedelic drug mescaline. Developed in 1913 as an appetite suppressant, the drug was not originally approved for release. In the 1950s and ’60s, it began to be used in psychotherapy. The drug increases the production of the neurotransmit¬ ter serotonin and blocks its reabsorption in the brain; it also increases the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Stimulation of the central ner¬ vous system gives users feelings of increased energy and lowers social inhibitions. By the 1980s, parties and dances that featured Ecstasy use (known as “raves”) became popular. Despite its ban in the U.S. and the rest of the world, the drug retained a huge following, and it played an important role in the youth subculture, similar to that of LSD during the 1960s.
ectopic pregnancy \ek-'ta-pik\ or extrauterine pregnancy
Condition in which a fertilized egg is imbedded outside the uterus (see fertilization). Early on, it may resemble a normal pregnancy, with hormonal changes, amenorrhea, and development of a placenta. Later, most patients have pain as the growing embryo stretches the structure it is attached to. Rupture may cause life-threatening bleeding. A tubal pregnancy may result from obstruction of the egg’s passage through the fallopian tube. In an ovarian pregnancy, the egg is fertilized before it leaves the ovary. Implantation elsewhere in the abdomen is an abdominal pregnancy.