英国宪制的保守主义特点

英国宪制为近代以来英国式的发展道路奠定了基础,它具有独具一格的特点。保守主义的政治理念是英国宪制的思想基础,它保障了英国宪政的稳定和效率,以及其渐进的发展。     

近代英国“大农业”体制新论

18世纪,在英国兴起的“大农业”经营体制(指集中组织生产和经营的大型雇工农场体制,与农民独立经营的家庭农场体制形成对照),曾深刻地影响了世界上不少国家的农业发展,包括20世纪原苏联等社会主义国家的农业理论及其实践。那么,英国     

评爱德华·汤普森的新作《民众的习惯》

英国著名的马克思主义历史学家和政论家爱德华·汤普森在1963年完成他的巨著《英国工人阶级的形成》之后,把研究视野转向18世纪英国史。他在80年代中期告诉我们,他打算出版一部关于18世纪英国史的著作,书名已确定为《民众的习惯》。现在,这部书终于由伦敦默林出版社出版了。 《民众的习惯》一书收入了作者的八篇论文,这就是:《导论:习惯和文化》、《贵族和平民》、《习惯、法律和民众权利》、《18世纪英国民众的道德经济学》、《道德经济学的再讨论》、《时间、劳动纪律和工业资本主义》、     

英国的1753年《犹太法案》事件

1753年英国的《犹太法案》旨在给极少数外国犹太人以英国国籍,但这项顺产的法案却随即招来相当严重的政治风波,并很快夭折。这一事件既导致了佩勒姆政府在1754年大选中的失败,同时也促进了英国犹太族群内部的团结和使自身融合于英国的努力。它是对18世纪英国基督教徒犹太观的一次集中验证和展示,是近代英国入籍问题争论链条上的一个重要环节,是18世纪英国各种大众政治运动和社会骚动中的一个显著事例。也是国教徒的民族和政治认同观念在18世纪依然强大到不可撼动的一个突出例证。     

中产阶级与近代英国城市郊区扩展

在18—19世纪城市化进程中,英国的中产阶级逐渐成长,到19世纪中叶基本形成。为逃避市区的环境污染,寻求个人生活的私密性,拥有一定经济收入的英国中产阶级不断向郊区迁移,使英国城市区域向郊外蔓延。他们在郊区租住相对宽敞、篱笆相隔、绿树荫窗的独立或半独立式住宅,"英国人的家就是他的城堡"成为事实。这充分体现了英国社会日益增强的个人主义特征,反映了人们工作和日常生活、工作场所与家庭的分离。     

18世纪英国关于饮茶的争论

世界各国的茶文化均直接或间接源于中国,堪称西方代表的英国茶文化亦不例外。茶于17世纪中叶传入英国,在18世纪初期逐渐流行开来,并引发了延续近一个世纪的社会争论。该争论既缘于不同社会人士关于饮茶功效看法的歧异,背后又夹杂隐藏着对饮茶的经济社会影响的不同考量,但其实质为茶在跨区域传播过程中所遭遇的文化碰撞。英国人借此全面了解了饮茶的功效及其经济社会影响,这为饮茶在英国社会的最终普及以及英国茶文化的形成奠定了基础。     

17世纪末至18世纪中叶英国消费社会的出现

最近几十年，西方学界掀起了一股研究消费的热潮，至今方兴未艾。在探究消费社会、消费革命或者消费主义的起源时，越来越多的学者聚焦于18世纪的英国，甚至追溯到斯图亚特王朝复辟时期。本文从英国人实际消费能力的提高，在衣食住行等方面的炫耀性消费行为，花样繁多的诱导消费的销售手段，咖啡馆、剧院等各式消费场所和商业化休闲产业的激增等几个方面进行实证研究，试图论证在17世纪末至18世纪中叶英国已初步形成了一个消费社会，并分析消费社会出现的原因。     

18～19世纪英国"友谊会"运动述论

在英国社会保障发展史上,18、19世纪是“友谊会”等民间互助组织快速发展的时期。但对“友谊会”运动这一历史现象的成因,国内外学界长期以来没有一个明确的解释。通过对18、19世纪英国“友谊会”等民间互助组织兴盛与衰落过程的历史考察表明,“友谊会”运动的出现,是此时社会上日益增长的社会保障和救助需求与英国国家职能尚未完全扩及到社会保障领域、很好地满足人们对社会福利需求的结果,“友谊会”等民间互助组织的出现与迅速发展是对18、19世纪英国国家职能在社会保障领域中缺位的重要填充。     

18世纪英国奢侈消费大讨论

18世纪的英国社会,奢侈消费的繁荣引发了人们对其破坏传统社会等级秩序、败坏传统道德、打破贸易平衡的担忧,同时人们也需要全面认识新奢侈品的经济意义,于是产生了奢侈消费大讨论。曼德维尔的《蜜蜂的寓言》为讨论火上浇油。围绕奢侈的定义、奢侈消费与社会道德、奢侈消费与经济、奢侈消费与健康等问题,正反双方展开了激烈的辩论。这次奢侈消费大讨论最终促进了英国人消费观念的转变,推动了英国消费社会的形成;促使英国人重新思考本国生产的消费品的特点,推动了消费品生产的创新;促使奢侈成为18世纪政治经济学的主题之一,极大地丰富了当时的经济和社会理论。     

英国园林为自然而革命

这是一场彻彻底底的革命。在世界园林史上,恐怕再没有比18世纪的英国更为坚定的革命者了。 从文艺复兴时期到君主专制时期,英国园林脱不开意大利和法国的影子。可到了18世纪,一切都被颠覆了。绿色雕刻、图案式的植坛、几何式的规则格局被干净利落地抛弃了。     

‘Barons’ Wars,under Other Names’: Feudalism,Royalism and the American Founding

SUMMARY

The Machiavellian Moment was largely responsible for establishing what remains the dominant understanding of American Revolutionary ideology. Patriots, on this account, were radical whigs; their great preoccupation was a terror of crown power and executive corruption. This essay proposes to test the whig reading of patriot political thought in a manner suggested by Professor Pocock's pioneering first book, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law. The whig tradition, as he taught us, located in the remote Saxon past an ‘ancient constitution’ of liberty, in which elected monarchs merely executed laws approved by their free subjects in a primeval parliament. This republican idyll, whigs believed, was then tragically interrupted by the Norman Conquest of 1066, which introduced feudal tenures and monarchical tyranny. Did patriot theorists accept this narrative? The answer, I shall argue, is strikingly mixed. By the early 1770s, appeals to the ‘ancient constitution’ had become less common in patriot writing. And by the end of the 1770s, many patriots had absorbed a completely different understanding of the feudal past—one pioneered by Royalist historians of the seventeenth century and then adapted by Scottish historians of the eighteenth. This shift reflects a broader transformation in patriot political and constitutional theory.     

Diplomatic Relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

The diplomatic relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire of the second half of the eighteenth century are a crucial part of the foreign policy of both powers and represent one of the most important and interesting topics in European political history. This article is devoted to a study of the specifics of Russo-Ottoman diplomatic ties in the context of the evolution of international relations from the time of the ending of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) to the signing of the Peace Treaty of Jassy (1792).     

Constitutional change: an explanation

This paper first distinguishes the explicit changes that have been made in the text of the Italian constitution from others that have affected how constitutional balances work (e.g. new electoral laws), before considering both together. The turning point in both cases was 1989 and the transition from the first to the second Italian political party system. Down to that time the first system that originated in the Cold War fractures in Italian politics remained in force with only marginal and incremental changes. After 1989, however, both Italy's highly centralized structure and its system of proportional representation were called into question, resulting in the constitutional reform of 2001 that increased the powers of the regions and the electoral law reforms (which were not changes to the constitution). In both cases the consequences of these changes have proved to be contradictory, which is why reform of the Senate is now being contemplated to make the project for increasing the powers of regional and local government more coherent, as well as the form of government and the electoral laws in ways that will produce the majorities needed to make governments more cohesive and stable.     

A History of Depressed Skull Fractures from Ancient Times to 1800

The story of managing depressed fractures illustrates how knowledge of proven value does not always get handed down. Celsus was the first to describe sensible management for depressed fractures. As he wrote in Latin this was forgotten. Galen’s Greek writings survived forming the basis of management until the sixteenth century. In 1517, Hans von Gersdorff published a formidable illustrated surgical text. One illustration depicts an instrument for elevating depressed bone fragments. It looked dramatic but could not work and its defects were finally defined in the eighteenth century. Ambroise Paré used a bone punch just as we do today, but no later surgeon mentions this, though the instrument was well known. Elements of chance, fashion, emotionally powerful illustrations, and perhaps stubbornness had a profound effect on management delaying rational treatment for centuries.     

Adam Ferguson on the Perils of Popular Factions and Demagogues in a Roman Mirror

For the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson (1723–1816) and many of his time, the history of the Roman Republic furnished the best case study for discussions of internal threats to a mixed system of government. These included factionalism, popular discontent, and the rise of demagogues seeking to concentrate power in their own hands. Ferguson has sometimes been interpreted as a ‘Machiavellian’ who celebrated the legacy of Rome and in particular the value of civic discord. By contrast, this article argues that he is better understood as a disciple of Montesquieu, who viewed Rome as an anachronistic and dangerous ideal in the eighteenth century, the era of the civilized and commercial monarchy. The greatest fear of Ferguson was military despotism, which he believed was the likely outcome of democratic chaos produced by the levelling instincts of the ‘common’ people and demagogues prepared to harness their discontent. In such a scenario, a legitimate order in a mixed government would be turned into a faction putting the constitutional balance at risk, undermining intermediary powers, and ending liberty for all.     

Liverpool’s Cotton Importers c. 1700 to 1914

Liverpool’s first cotton importers dealt in a range of commodities and this pattern continued until the late eighteenth century. As the British cotton industry grew and new sources of raw cotton – particularly the United States – emerged, some merchants specialized increasingly in cotton in the early decades of the nineteenth century. By the end of the century, the largest importers of cotton dealt in little besides cotton. The growing prosperity of Liverpool’s cotton trade drew companies from elsewhere in the United Kingdom to Liverpool to participate in this trade. By the mid nineteenth century, several key cotton importing houses had originated in the United States; by the end of the nineteenth century the largest importers there. The manner of importing cotton changed. At first, importers had to send a ship out with a captain or supercargo with broad instructions about what to freight the ship with. As communications improved, importers were able to control their purchases of cotton more closely. In the nineteenth century, a significant amount of cotton was imported through Liverpool by merchants acting on a commission basis but this form of importing declined in the later decades of the century.     

The Bourbon monarchy and prison legislation in Sicily: two competing plans for reform (1826–1830)

The nineteenth century was a critical phase in the construction of European penitentiary systems. The eighteenth century had seen the evolution of the concept of punishment and the corresponding development of the practice of imprisonment as central to new ideas about penal sanctions. As a result, between 1830 and 1848 grand plans to reform prison systems were put forward in almost all the larger European countries. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies played its part in this process: an innovative reform plan was developed here, ahead of the rest of the Italian peninsula, which was fully implemented between 1832 and 1845 but had its origins in an earlier period, being given its initial impetus by modernisation on the legislative front. Sicily was particularly rich in terms of legal experimentation in this area. Here, informed by the most recent developments in contemporary science, plans to reform prison legislation were produced as early as the 1820s; these attest to the interest with which lawyers, philanthropists and government officials approached the issue. The analysis of two plans discovered in the Archivio di Stato in Palermo is especially helpful in demonstrating the existence of a ‘workshop for prison legislation’ that addressed concrete problems while also being the manifestation of a sophisticated legal culture.     

The Formation of the Qing State in Global Perspective: A Geopolitical and Fiscal Analysis

This article re-examines the formation of the Qing state and its nature from a global perspective. It underscores the key roles of geopolitical setting and fiscal constitution in shaping the course of frontier expeditions and territorial expansions, unlike past studies that have centered on the dynasty’s administrative institutions and the ruling elites’ ideologies or lifestyles to defend or question the thesis of “Sinicization” in Qing historiography. This study demonstrates the different motivations and varying strategies behind the Qing dynasty’s two waves of military conquests, which lasted until the 1750s, and explains how the Qing state’s peculiar geopolitical interests and the low-level equilibrium in its fiscal constitution shaped the “cycles” in its military operations and frontier building. The article ends by comparing the Qing with early modern European states and the Ottoman empire to discuss its vulnerability as well as resilience in the transition to modern sovereign statehood in the nineteenth century.