West European Countries and Their Foreign Policy in the Views of the Russian Liberals of Mid-to-Late Nineteenth Century

The article analyses the perception of the mid-to-late nineteenth-century Russian liberals of the West European states and their foreign policy of the time towards Russia. The article discloses the main features and differences in assessing the West and Russia as its part. It allows to reveal such features in Russian liberalism as common provisions and values typical of world liberal theory and a number of special features which resulted in developing different schools of liberal movement in Russia. The article underlines that the range of liberal ideas varied from selective borrowing of some elements of the western political system to their complete adaptation in Russia. The article focuses on the opinion of a number of national-oriented Russian liberals of the time who put forward a priority task to modernize the country, to implement liberal reforms, but not to strengthen its foreign policy power which, according to them, prevents improving well-being of the people and social stabilization.

The study allows to define a main vector of the ideological pursuit of the Russian liberals, the part of whom tried to enroot the liberal ideas in the backward peasant country.     

Anti‐cosmopolitan liberalism: Isaiah Berlin,Jacob Talmon and the dilemma of national identity

ABSTRACT. The debate between contemporary cosmopolitans and advocates of nationalism is hardly new. Nevertheless, much of it is based on the erroneous assumption that cosmopolitanism should be seen as an outgrowth of liberalism, and that both should be considered as the complete conceptual opposites of nationalism. In this article I focus on two of the post‐war Jewish anglophile intellectuals who took part in this debate during the Cold War years: the Oxonian liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909–97) and the Israeli historian Jacob L. Talmon (1916–80). I use their examples to argue that the dividing line between cosmopolitans and advocates of nationalism should not be regarded as signifying the distinction between liberals and anti‐liberals; in fact, this debate also took place within the camp of the liberal thinkers themselves. I divide my discussion into three parts. Firstly, I examine Berlin's and Talmon's positions within the post‐war anti‐totalitarian discourse, which came to be known as ‘liberalism of fear’. Secondly, I show how a sense of Jewish identity, combined with deep Zionist convictions, induced both thinkers to divorce anti‐nationalist cosmopolitanism – which they regarded as a hollow, illusionary ideal associated with impossible assimilationist yearnings – from the liberal idea. I conclude by suggesting that, although neither man had ever developed a systematic theoretical framework to deal with the complex interactions between ethno‐nationalism, liberal individualism and multiculturalism, Berlin's vision of pluralism provides the foundations for building such a theory, in which liberalism and nationalism become complementary rather than conflicting notions.     

Liberalism and nationalism in Russia. Boris Chicherin as a modernist nationalist

This article investigates the link between nationalism and liberalism in Russia by looking at the way the leading spokesman of early Russian liberalism, Boris Chicherin, combined liberal ideas with notions of nation‐building and the idea of the nation as a modernising phenomenon. The article argues that the young Chicherin, at least in the formative years of the 1850s, had an instrumental approach to liberalism. Liberalism served a specific purpose – to integrate the people and shape a community of active citizens so that Russia could modernise. Chicherin was concerned with the formation of a modern nation‐state rather than the establishment of popular rule or political rights. In this sense, his thinking fits well into what, in the context of the Ottoman Empire, has been called modernist nationalism.     

Introduction: Liberalism in the Early Nineteenth-century Iberian World

Summary

This essay is an introduction to a special issue on ‘Liberalism in the Early Nineteenth-century Iberian World’. The essay reviews why Iberian intellectual history, particularly liberal political thought, has been neglected in English-language scholarship. It offers suggestions for the incorporation of Portuguese and Spanish language texts into the broader canon. The essay then outlines persistent debates common to the study of liberalism in both Iberian and other national contexts, in an effort to instigate a dialogue between intellectual historians of Spain and Portugal and their counterparts elsewhere. It concludes with a consideration of the geopolitical forces, cultural trends, and social conditions that encouraged the forging of transnational liberalism in the early nineteenth century.     

Some Reflections on Michael Walzer's Politics and Passion

Abstract

Michael Walzer's new book, Politics and Passion, is the attempt of a major liberal political theorist to modify the essentially triumphalist individualist thrust of much of liberalism. It is written in the spirit of the later work of John Rawls, who tried to listen to the communitarian critique of liberalism and then incorporate it in his more modest version of liberalism instead of letting it coopt liberalism. That effort, though, is much more carefully and extensively worked out by Walzer than by Rawls. Nevertheless, Walzer cannot accept any central normative role for religion in the life of a liberal polity, especially for the type of family-central, traditional community presented by Judaism and Christianity. Since most communitarians are religious, it is arguable whether they can accept the political role religion have been assigned in the liberal project by Walzer. Indeed, it can be argued that Walzer, like almost all liberals, assigns a much too ultimate role for freedom, making it the end of liberal striving and seeing it in opposition to and escape from more traditional forms of social life. It is thus argued that the individual freedom Walzer sees as transcending (although never completely) familial-religious community can be better achieved there, functioning more modestly and realistically as one of the best means to the common good and, therefore, not in opposition to it.     

Conditionnement economique et conditionnement mental dans le monde du travail parisien a la fin de l'ancien regime: Le privilege corporatif

This essay contests the notion that there was a necessary and fundamental opposition between republicanism and liberalism during the post-Revolutionary period in France. Constant's writings of the Restoration years show his abiding interest in both the construction of viable political institutions and the promotion of a vibrant political life. Worried about what he saw as growing authoritarian trends within the liberal camp, Constant wrote about the need to keep political liberty alive in commercial republics. His refutations of Auguste Comte and the Saint-Simonians, and his writings on religion, should be seen as offering pointed lessons to fellow liberals about the crucial importance of both politics and the moral values promoted by religious freedom.     

German modernity,barbarous Slavs and profit‐seeking Jews: the cultural racism of nationalist liberals

This paper examines emblematic texts by two important protagonists of post‐1848 liberalism in Germany, Gustav Freytag and Heinrich von Treitschke, focusing on their treatment of Jews and Poles. The paper analyses the social content of their statements and argues that the elements of anti‐Semitism and anti‐Slav racism that they contain were motivated by the specific kind of nationalist liberalism that frames their affirmation of the process of modernisation. This affirmation was directed against the Poles on the one hand, seen as backward Easterners who had to be pushed into civilisation by Prussian–German colonialism, and, on the other hand, the Jews, largely perceived as representing the wrong kind of modernity against which benign (supposedly German) modernity had to be protected. At the same time, the image of the Jew in Freytag and Treitschke also participates in that of the backward Easterner, permitting to see undesirable, allegedly Jewish aspects of modernity also as distortions resulting from an alien and ancient culture. This analysis has consequences for theorisations of both liberalism and nationalism: it suggests that the racism and anti‐Semitism of nationalist liberals were intrinsically related to core aspects of the liberal world‐view rather than being merely contingent opinions held by particular individuals. It also indicates that the nationalism of many German post‐1848 liberals was ethnic as well as liberal. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature discussing the illiberal aspects of liberalism as well as the shortcomings of the long‐established conceptual dichotomy of ethnic vs. liberal nationalism.     

民初“自由”报刊的自由观

在近代中国,尽管不能断言标名“自由”的报刊必定奉行自由主义,也有主张自由主义的报刊不以“自由”为标签,但那些自称为“自由”的刊物,显然应是考察近代中国自由主义历史轨迹的重要凭借。清季自由观念逐渐传播普及,以自由为名号的人士日渐增多。继《申报》开辟“自由谈”栏目,民初至少出现了9家标名为“自由”的报刊,主要分为两类,其一为自由党系统在各地的机关报,其二为以游戏文章追求思想、言论、出版三大自由的报刊。二者在反对各地政权的舆论压制时坚决维护言论自由,但政治上并未高揭自由主义的旗帜,其形象的社会观感亦不甚佳。此后直到抗日战争爆发,才再度出现以“自由”为名的报刊数量激增的情形,自由主义成为部分报刊的思想旗帜和政治目标。     

自由主义与加拿大宪政改革

在19世纪上半期加拿大建立责任政府的过程中,自由主义观念起了重要的促进作用.这不仅表现在自由主义思想对加拿大殖民地人政治意识觉醒的推动上,更表现在英国社会与政坛对英帝国与移民殖民地关系认识的改变上.由于美国独立的教训,维护帝国统一和防止殖民地与母国分离,曾是英国人心中一个不解的结.因此,旧观念支配下的英国统治集团,几乎一致地拒绝了达勒姆关于授予殖民地责任政府的建议.随着英国自身现代政党制度的确立和自由贸易的实现,新的自由主义帝国观开始形成,并直接推动了加拿大的宪政改革.     

The Return of Mess O’Potamia: Time,Space, and Politics in Modern Uses of Ancient Mesopotamia†

Taking its cue from Jon Stewart's satire on the Da'esh insurgence, the essay explores how the term ‘Mesopotamia’ is used in contemporary discourse on Iraqi conflict, and particularly, how the term is used to construct a complex set of temporal and spatial differences and identities.

Building on the seminal work of Zainab Bahrani, Rune Rattenborg, and Sara Pursley, the essay explores different aspects of the term ‘Mesopotamia’ and their various political consequences. It is argued that the idea of a single ‘Mesopotamian’ culture both effaces the internal differences between the various cultures of ancient Iraq, and constructs an external difference from subsequent Iraqi history. It is further shown that ‘Mesopotamia’ only came to refer to the land ‘between the rivers’ in comparatively recent times, and only definitively so during World War I. Lastly, it is argued that the attempt to base the modern unity of Iraq on ancient Mesopotamia is misguided, and sidesteps the complex history of how Iraq came to have its current form.

These various temporal and spatial threads are brought together in a final analysis of the reactions to the destruction of the ancient Iraqi past by Da'esh in 2015 and during the US occupation in 2003.     

近代中国自由主文视域中的革命观念——以“胡适派学人群”为中心的考察

辛亥以来,革命浪潮席卷国中。在近代中国救亡图存的特殊历史情境下,自由主义者对革命表现出了颇为复杂的实际认知。从自由主义者的十月革命观感、对革命内涵的认知、对暴力革命的批评、质疑及推崇渐进改革道路等方面来看,自由主义者是"广义的革命"论者,他们并不一般地反对社会革命与政治进步。在近代中国的不同历史时期,自由主义者对革命表现出了一定程度上的灵活性和变通性,而非绝对地加以反对。近代中国自由主义视域中的革命观终究受其渐进改革的政治理念所支配,而其与近代中国国情与社会实际的隔膜则是其难以产生重大社会影响的主因。     

Fiasco: The Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance That Never Was and the Unpublished British White Paper, 1939–1940

This article is about the Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations in 1939 for an alliance against Nazi Germany and about how the British government later tried to represent those negotiations to public opinion. The first part of the essay presents the Soviet point of view on the negotiations and how the British and French governments, though mainly the British, reacted to Soviet alliance proposals. It is a fresh representation of the Soviet perspective from published and unpublished Russian language sources.

The second part of the essay focuses on how the British sought to represent the abortive negotiations through a white paper, placing the blame for failure on the Soviet Union. France opposed publication because, however carefully prepared, the white paper showed that the Soviet side had made serious alliance proposals with precise, reciprocal undertakings which the British government was reticent to entertain. The French were all the more annoyed because the white paper omitted to underline that they had been more receptive to Soviet proposals.

The trilingual, multi-archival evidence presented in the first part of the essay effectively supports the French perception of the white paper and more generally of the failed tripartite negotiations.     

Iraqis exiled in Australia since 2003

This article explores the sociopolitical attitudes and behaviours of a sample group of Iraqi refugees who have been granted protection in Australia since the Iraq War of 2003. It looks at whether individuals in the sample are engaged with the political system in Australia, or are disaffected or alienated by it. The analysis shows that a majority of the sample are apathetic to or alienated by Australia's liberal–democratic political system, the very system that is supposed to be their primary means of inclusion. Such findings suggest that, for this particular sample, the political community and system in Australia lack the reflexivity necessary to recognise new forms of political agency. Instead, it fosters sociopolitical conditions that tend to preclude positive settlement outcomes and the emergence of substantive political membership and representation for these individuals.

本文考察了2003年以来在澳大利亚避难的一组伊拉克人的社会政治态度和行为,看他们是介入还是疏离于澳大利亚的政治制度。本文的分析显示,样本组的大多数人对于澳大利亚的自由民主政治制度是麻木或疏离的。而这个制度号称是接纳这些难民的主要津梁。这说明,对于这个样本来说,澳大利亚的政治共同体和政治制度还缺乏承认新政治主体的反省,容易妨碍积极的定居结果,缺少针对这些个体的实实在在的政治参与和代表性。     

Liberal party performance and polarisation

Nagel and Wlezien's ‘vacant centre’ theory suggests that parties close to the centre tend to do better when a political system is highly polarised, creating an empty space in the political market. Cross-nationally, this does not seem to be true when overall system polarisation is used as the independent variable: indeed, there seems to be a slight negative relationship. The farther apart conservative and social democratic parties are, however, the better that liberal parties tend to do. This parallels Nagel and Wlezien's findings for Great Britain specifically.

纳格尔和乌勒子安的“空虚中心”理论指出,在政治体系高度两极化、形成政治市场某种空虚的情况下,接近中心的政党可以做得更好。跨国地看,如果把整个系统的两极化看做自变量的话,这种说法不确,二者之间倒是有些负相关。不过,保守党和社会民主党背道而驰得越远,自由党就干得越好。这倒接近纳格尔和乌勒子安对英国情况的总结。     

Aristocratic Liberalism and Risorgimento: Cesare Balbo and Piedmontese Political Thought after 1848

The paper discusses the political thought of Cesare Balbo (1789–1853), a leading Risorgimento moderate liberal and politician, in the context of the efforts by the Piedmontese political elite to support and legitimise the constitutional regime introduced by King Charles Albert in 1848. Revising current interpretations of Risorgimento moderate liberalism as backward and provincial, it seeks to locate the political thought of Balbo and his colleagues at the heart of contemporary European, and particularly French, debates regarding liberty and aristocracy. In particular, it argues that the views of Balbo and more broadly Piedmontese moderate liberals on centralisation, the importance of a social elite to defend freedom, and equalisation, were conversant with the ideas of Guizot, Chateaubriand, Burke and Tocqueville. Their harsh condemnation of republican virtue, on the other hand, rendered their liberalism peculiar in the Italian context, where Tuscan moderate liberals continued to resort to the language of civic humanism after 1848 to defend their political and social model.     

The Australian League of Rights and the process of political conversion

An empirical study of Australian League of Rights' supporters demonstrates their intensely held ideological convictions. Such devotees commonly seek to convert others to their belief system which they regard as “sacrosanct” while other modes of thought are ill‐informed and harmful. Their proselytisation technique attempts to make the “target” doubt previously unquestioned notions, thereby creating personal anguish and conflict.

Most researchers believe strain or deprivation to be necessary factors in the conversion process although such strain need not be perceived by others. Empirical difficulties are encountered using a seven‐step model to view conversion. The model has certain serious limitations, owing to the alien position of the researcher and the inevitable post‐hoc rationalisation of respondents. Nevertheless it has some utility in the field situation and is suggested as being broadly applicable as an heuristic tool.     

Vulnerability Index: A New Approach for Preventive Conservation of Monuments

A new approach is developed for vulnerability analysis of monuments based on a matrix model and the relationships with static and structural factors, climatic conditions, air quality, urban planning and social agents for preventive conservation of cultural heritage in urban centers.

The objective is to provide tools for decision-makers in the current recession to allow them to prioritize strategies for cultural heritage preservation in a town, where territorial policies are applied and regions where restoration budget is distributed. This new tool allows to classify monuments in order to prioritize restoration and is useful in deeper analysis associated to risks assessment.

The degradation of building materials and structures is mainly due to deterioration caused by structural instability, weathering, pollution, and anthropogenic damage. The vulnerability approach of each monument (vulnerability indexes) was calculated, based on a Leopold matrix that depends on intrinsic variables and the life of the monuments. For the very first time, the influence of different deterioration agents has been balanced with a Delphi forecast based on architects’ opinions.

The result is a new pre-Artificial Intelligence tool that enables users to reproduce human reasoning to study relations between vulnerability factors, risk factors, and the historical parameters of the monuments.     

Reasonableness,Rationality and Government: The Liberal Political Thought of Mehdi Ha'eri Yazdi

Rawls formulates liberalism according to two conceptions of reasonable and rational, which, tied to two particular notions of society and person, define the basis of liberalism in Rawlsian thought. This article argues that Mehdi Haeri Yazdi's important work, Hekmat va Hokumaat, should be considered as a work of liberal theory, and shows how it endorses liberal conceptions of the reasonable and the rational. The main elements of Ha'eri's liberalism are his thesis that philosophy has priority over jurisprudence, his doctrine of contract based upon concepts of agency contract (aqd-e vekalat) and joint private ownership (malekiyat-e shakhsi-ye musha), and his defense of individualism against the alleged collectivism of Rousseau.