伊拉克哈希姆王朝的"民主实践"

目前国外学术界流行着一种观点,即伊拉克存在着威权主义的政治文化,历史上没有民主实践.伊拉克历史被叙述为威权主义的延续,其政治动员依赖中央权威的巩固与加强,国家机构是鼓动民众支持政府的工具.实际上持此观点的学者只是关注了1958年以来的伊拉克历史,忽视了1921-1958年伊拉克哈希姆王朝的历史事实.本文[1]认为,伊拉克哈希姆王朝的"民主实践"表现为政党政治的发展与议会生活的变迁."民主实践"虽然随着哈希姆王朝的终结而失败,但在伊拉克历史上占有重要的地位.     

论英国都铎专制君主制的有限性

英国都铎王朝时期的君主制久享“专制”之名,但又绝非东方式的或欧洲大陆式的绝对主义君主制。由于它处在英国封建制度日趋没落、资本主义迅速发展的历史过渡时期,在“王在议会”和“议会至上”的原则已经萌芽的情况下,其权势势必受到法律和议会的限制,而带有浓重的“有限性”特点。     

The Trial of Socrates Revisited

Different sorts of people have been revisiting the trial of Socrates for almost 2,500 years: philosophers, political theorists, politicians, jurists, historians, journalists and artists. Each has his or her own agenda for reconstructing the motives of the prosecution, the thinking of the jurors, and the apparently perverse behaviour of Socrates himself. This paper examines some of the more influential approaches to Socrates (including those of his contemporaries, Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes), and attempts to set them in appropriate contexts. By way of a conclusion, there is an exploration of the background and context to the trial itself, taking into account recent work on Athenian law, religion and punishment, closing with an attempt to explain the significance of the likely location of the law-court, within the Agora or city square of Athens.