对编纂资料性国史书的几点思考——以《中华人民共和国日史》为例

中共十一届三中全会以来,随着中华人民共和国史研究的广泛开展,一批体例各异、详略不一的资料性国史书相继出版。四川人民出版社2003年8月推出的卷帙浩繁的《中华人民共和国日史》(以下简称《日史》),就是其中之一。该书以年分卷,逐日记事,上自1949年10月1日起,下至1999年12月31日止,共计50卷。编纂者称该书是国家断代性质历史,     

1924-1945年国民党海外部与侨务工作考论

针对目前学术界在民国侨务政策、侨务工作方面的研究对象主要是侨委会,对于海外部仅粗略涉及的现状,依据相关档案及其它文献资料,对国民党海外部的沿革、职能、其侨务工作实绩及与侨务委员会之间的关系等方面做了分析和阐述。认为国民政府的侨务委员会与国民党海外党部从党政两个权力系统推展侨务工作,二者分工合作,相辅相成。抗战前,以侨委会为主;抗战爆发后,特别是太平洋战事发生以及日本推行南进政策后,以海外党部为代表的党务系统在侨务工作中发挥了更大的作用。     

The Potsdam Grievance Statistics File. New data on quality of life and political participation for the German Democratic Republic 1970–1989

The newly collected “Potsdam Grievance Statistics File” (PGSF) holds data on the number and topics of grievances (“Eingaben”) that were addressed to local authorities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the years 1970 to 1989. The PGSF allows quantitative analyses on topics such as participation, quality of life, and value change in the German Democratic Republic. This paper introduces the concepts of the data set and discusses the validity of its contents.     

Placing Plato in the history of liberty

ABSTRACT

This paper explores and reevaluates the place of Plato in the history of liberty. In the first half, reevaluating the view that he invents a concept of ‘positive liberty’ in the Republic, I argue for two claims: (1) that he does not do so, insofar as this is not the way that virtuous psychological self-mastery in the Republic is understood, and (2) that the Republic works primarily with the inverse concept of slavery, relying on entrenched Greek ideas about the badness of the status of being a slave and the actions and dispositions associated with it. Turning in the second half to seek Platonic innovation not in the domain of ‘positive liberty’ but in reflection on liberty as a political value, understood as the liberty of action of citizens within the laws, I argue for two further claims: (3) that as such a political value, liberty is limited and reshaped in both the Republic and the Laws to be compatible with obedience to rule / willingness to be ruled, ideally willing obedience; and (4) that for this limited and reshaped value to be secured, such obedience must be manifested not only in regard to a constitution’s laws, but also to the magistrates who hold office within it.     

Political freedom in Byzantium: the rhetoric of liberty and the periodization of Roman history

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an intellectual history of the idea that the later Roman empire and, subsequently, the whole of Byzantium were less ‘free’ in comparison to the Roman Republic. Anxiety over diminished freedom recurred throughout Roman history, but only a few specific expressions of it were enshrined in modern thought as the basis on which to divide history into periods. The theorists of the Enlightenment, moreover, invented an unfree Byzantium for their own political purposes and not by examining the facts about its political culture. The second part of the paper proposes that the Byzantines valorized a model of positive freedom as legal-institutional protection against arbitrary oppressive power, including against both barbarian domination and domestic abuses. In contrast to modern thought, which tends to see the imperial position as the chief threat to liberty, the Byzantines viewed it as its bulwark. Yet they too had remedies for oppressive emperors, suggesting that the otherwise well-attested invocations of freedom were not a mere rhetorical trope for them but an actionable cultural norm.     

Polish republicanism of the Four Year Seym at a doctrinal crossroads

The aim of the article is to analyse the most intellectually challenging conceptions of Polish political thought at the time of the Four Year Seym, specifically those of Stanis?aw Staszic and Hugo Ko???taj, when viewed from the perspective of the dilemmas of the republicanism of the period. At its heart, it places the issue so provocatively put forward by Rousseau’s Considérations sur le gouvernement de Pologne, that of reforming a previously noble republic against the monarchical tendencies that prevailed in Europe. The analysis shows that, indeed, in both reformers’ advocacy for the hereditary throne, having no other justification but geopolitical reasons, and especially in some Ko???taj’s later proposals, one can find evidence of their doctrinal compromises. On the other hand, their argumentations revealed an extraordinarily modern approach that could pave the way for new promising prospects of Polish republicanism. Its value lay mainly in the fact that they combined the ideals of more passionate civic (and military) patriotism with those of an economically free and active society. At any rate, all their endeavours can confirm, especially when juxtaposed with those of their political adversaries, that that tradition was approaching perhaps one of its most challenging turning points.     

Remembering the German Past in the Czech Lands: A Key Moment Between Communicative and Cultural Memory

The objective of this paper is to document the ongoing shift from communicative to cultural memory of war and post-war events in the Czech Republic by using an example of a local struggle about a memorial for German inhabitants of a Czech town killed in June 1945. Thanks to an anthropological and social geographical approach based on interviews, family memory research, observations, and analysis of archive materials, it is possible to reconstruct the local and international sources of the post-1989 collective memory of the German past in Central Europe. This memory is still in constant conflict with the pre-1989 version of Czech national history which had contemptuously marginalized its German component. The communicative memory of the German past has entered the public space and tries to become a permanent part of the Czech cultural memory, but it is not a straightforward process, mainly due to the continuously strengthening nationalistic framing of memory within Central Europe.     

North Korea’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights

North Korea’s participation in the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)—a peer review in which states make recommendations to one another for improving human rights implementation—is a notable exception to its rejection of other human rights mechanisms. What explains North Korea’s willing participation in the UPR? This essay analyses North Korea’s participation in the first (2008–11) and second (2012–15) UPR cycles through its written submissions, responses to recommendations, and recommendations to other states. It finds that North Korea has consistently accepted weak recommendations, rejected more specific policy changes, and implemented accepted recommendations on a limited basis, allowing it to claim compliance with human rights at minimal cost. The UPR’s reliance on states’ self-reports and its inability to adjudicate competing factual claims allow North Korea to reject claims of egregious abuses, openly advocate for a radically state-centric vision of human rights, and challenge the legitimacy of human rights mechanisms like the Commission of Inquiry and Special Rapporteur while building support from other states with similar views. Notably, the Commission of Inquiry appears to have motivated North Korea to increase its cooperation with the UPR, demonstrating that the UPR complements but cannot replace other UN human rights mechanisms.     

Logboats from Bohemia and Moravia,Czech Republic

More than 40 logboats are known from the Czech Republic, and at least 20 are preserved in repositories or regional museums (seven in Moravia, 13 in Bohemia). Two further vessels remain in situ. Many logboats are known from neighbouring countries, but until recently vessels from the Czech Republic have not attracted the same research interest. Only five Czech vessels (two from Bohemia and three from Moravia) have been dated by absolute methods. Several more have been assigned tentative dates on the basis of context or close similarity to other dated vessels. This article presents a summary of current evidence. © 2009 The Author     

Performing refugeeness in the Czech Republic: gendered depoliticisation through NGO assistance

The article examines the gender micropolitics of non-governmental assistance to refugees in the Czech Republic – a post-socialist society which is becoming a country of immigration. It critically examines relations of power between refugees and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These NGOs act as mediators between refugees and the state, media, wider public and academic production of knowledge. It is argued that despite the important roles they play in securing refugees' access to rights, their assistance is often perceived as problematic by refugees. The article analyses these relations in a wider context of the institutions of the refugee system where the state has increasing power in defining the conditions under which NGO assistance to refugees is provided. The study is based on qualitative research among recognised refugees from the former Soviet Union living in the Czech Republic and local NGOs assisting them with integration into society. I demonstrate how particular forms of assistance and public representation depoliticise refugees in a sense of fostering rather than challenging unequal power relations that lock refugees in a position of clients lacking political means of influencing their place in a receiving society. This is done by conceptualising ‘a refugee’ as a performative identity that is being produced and enacted in feminised NGO spaces. The analysis highlights refugees' critical reflections on their position in the relations of assistance.