The Paradox of Independence: The Maintenance of Influence and the French Decision to Transfer Power in Morocco

This article examines the reason why France granted independence to Morocco in the autumn of 1955, in comparison to Tunisian decolonisation. Morocco had been much less prepared for independence than Tunisia and many other British colonies in Africa, including Ghana, which were equipped with stable political institutions and local collaborators, but the country nonetheless gained independence earlier than they did. Paradoxically, the lack of collaborators, resulting from internal rivalries between the nationalists and dignitaries like the pashas, explains France's hasty recognition of Moroccan independence. By doing so, France aimed to make Mohammed V, the Moroccan Sultan, a viable collaborator and to preserve political unity under his leadership and French influence.     

论托勒密埃及的专制主义

托勒密埃及*系指托勒密王朝统治时期(公元前323—前30年)的埃及。托勒密国王的人格被神化,具有至高无上的地位,享有行政、立法、司法、军事、经济、宗教文化等方面的最高权威,依靠一套庞大严密的官僚体系对国家进行专制统治。托勒密埃及的专制主义具备了专制主义的所有特征,而且与古代世界其他文明的专制主义相比,具有自己的特点。     

The Paradox of Subjective Truth

Abstract

This paper focuses in part on Jan Assmann's interpretation and refutation of Carl Schmitt's very well-known secularization theory that all significant modern concepts of the state are secularized theological notions. It will be demonstrated that Assmann attempts to counter Schmitt's conception of modern secularization by suggesting that Mosaic monotheism inaugurated a revolution by theologizing the political. By briefly exploring Assmann's interpretation of Egyptian religion, it will be argued that a conception of the political as distinct from the theological characterized the political form of ancient Egypt. This leads to a discussion of Assmann's argument that Schmitt's conception of the friend/enemy distinction should be understood as an aberration of the political form of ancient Egypt and therefore viewed as a category of political illegitimacy. In order to illustrate this, attention will first be drawn to Assmann's distinction between primary and secondary religion. This is followed by a discussion of Assmann's notion of the structural transform of the political by theology, which then moves specifically into his argument for the intellectual origins of Schmitt's concept of the political. It will be attempted throughout this paper to bring conceptual clarification to Assmann's notion of theologization by relating it to the question of political theology currently taking place in France and the English-speaking world. Towards the end I offer a number of criticisms of Assmann's notion of theologization.     

弗兰克思想的转航与悖论--兼评《白银资本》及其在中国引发的争议

《白银资本》标志着弗兰克新的世界体系论的初步确立。在这本书中,弗兰克把中国看做世界经济体的中心,重塑了1400—1800年的世界历史。他的观点在中国学界引起了广泛的争议。的确,弗兰克的理论具有自身难以克服的悖论,但我们不应忽视《白银资本》在方法论上的启示意义。     

The Paradox at the Heart of American Conservatism

Abstract

This essay considers the state of American conservatism focusing initially on social and political institutions and concluding with a few comments on conservatism as an intellectual movement. A paradox is described as lying at the heart of American conservatism: the economic policies supported by conservatives promote economic conditions that are the main causes of the social problems conservatives lament most loudly.     

The Liberal Paradox and the Politics of Asylum in Australia

This article interprets the politics of asylum in Australia in light of what James Hollifield calls ‘the liberal paradox’; that is, the trend amongst contemporary states towards greater transnational open-ness in the economic arena alongside growing pressure for domestic political closure. It begins with an outline of Australia's recent history of economic reform and of the discourse of globalisation that has been employed to legitimise the changes wrought by this transition. Focusing on the period from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the article provides an account of anxieties associated with these changes and an analysis of government strategies to secure the support of disaffected sections of the electorate. Asylum policy is analysed in this context. The article shows how the policing of asylum seekers constitutes performances of political closure designed to assuage those made vulnerable by Australia's neoliberal economic trajectory. It argues that these politics of asylum are indicative of the tensions between transnational engagement and territorial closure faced by neoliberal states more generally.