Anti-corruption campaigns in thirteenth-century Europe

The thirteenth century in France saw the initiation of a series of reforms intended to define, identify and root out corruption in government. The principal architect of the campaign was King Louis IX (1226–70), ably supported by a coterie of special officials. Inspired in part by his desire to purify his kingdom in the long preparation for the crusade of 1270, he also drew on longstanding precedents in French administrative history. The campaign on the whole was quite successful. What is also remarkable is that, generated partly from the unique circumstances of individual polities and partly from circumstances, like crusading fervour, which were widely shared, other anti-corruption campaigns were mounted, also with some success. The slogans and practices of anti-corruption campaigns came to be identified intimately with good government, indeed, with the very right to exercise political authority and power. The thirteenth century thus appears to be a foundational moment in the constitution of the ideology and practices of the state.     

《申报》关于1927年南京事件报道之分析

1927年发生的南京事件是中国近代外交史上的一件大事,亦是北伐过程中国民革命军与西方列强在中国发生的一次具有重大影响的正面冲突。从《申报》报道情形观之,此次事件虽是国民革命军下层官兵无组织行为所致,但折射出民众普遍存在的反帝情结。从事件解决结果观之,南京国民政府尽管将肇事责任推给了共产党,但最终承担了对外赔偿之责,而对外舰炮击南京平民之事却"始争终让",不了了之。这反映出南京国民政府当时应对重大外交事件的弱势处境。     

Berlusconi,strong government and the Italian state

Over the past decade, state capacity has increased at all levels, including that of central government, and the emergence of effective government in Italy has proved popular. A second trend has been the reassertion of party government since 1996. Given these two trends, the large parliamentary majority obtained by Silvio Berlusconi's alliance, the Casa delle LibertÀ, might be expected to result in strong party government. In fact, Berlusconi's triumph offers something more and something less than party government, challenging Italian democracy. Nevertheless, as a consolidated democracy, Italy should be able to withstand such a challenge. One stable, democratic outcome to Italy's political transformation would be the consolidation of a Schumpeterian model of democracy. This would require the anomalies of the right's accumulation of powers to be resolved, a process which the left could promote by accepting that strong democratic government is a public good, and by organizing itself to challenge Berlusconi by campaigning to provide Italy with such government through parliamentary competition.     

战后国民政府教育甄审失败原因探析

抗战胜利后,国民政府对收复区学生和教职员开展教育甄审,由于国民政府在教育甄审政策制定上的考虑不周,在推行上的举措失当,引起了被甄审者的强烈反弹.最终使这场威权重塑的运动不得不以失败而尴尬收场.     

Somaliland

The changing pattern of land‐use in the Forest of Abernethy, Inverness‐shire in the period AD 1750 to the present is examined, using information from records and a number of maps and surveys. It is shown that the forest has a long history of exploitation for timber and the grazing of livestock, and that by the mid‐eighteenth century a pattern not markedly different from that of the present had already emerged. Evidence for the widespread formation of heathland in Dark Age times, and the fact that almost every part of Abernethy has been felled for timber at least once, modifies the concept of the forest as a “native Pinewood”.     

‘Our land is only founded on trade and industry.’ Economic discourses in fifteenth-century Bruges

Economic historians study production, consumption, market phenomena, and economic policies, while what is referred to as ‘the history of medieval economic thought’ largely remains the province of historians of ideas. However, participants in medieval industry and commerce, informed by daily production, market and financial practices, also uttered discourses on the state of the economy and on the measures governments should take to resolve crises or economic decline. When the burghers of Bruges formulated their economic demands in times of crisis, such as during the revolt of 1488, their utterances reveal commonly accepted presuppositions of which institutional levels, the prince, the town, or the guilds, should stimulate the economy by reducing transaction costs.     

南京国民政府前期官费留学经费考察(1927-1937)

近代中国留学事业蓬勃兴起.南京国民政府成立初期,在留学管理政策等方面基本延续了晚清和北洋政府时期的相关政策,但还是有一定的区别,主要体现在留学经费的来源与使用方面.南京国民政府初年留学经费来源渠道不一,在经费拮据的前提下,政府实行了严格的预决算制度.此外,政府还通过鼓励团体和私人资助等形式多方筹措资金,以保障公费留学生的培养所需.经费使用方面,政府在保障学费供给的前提下,为鼓励留学生学业更进一步,对于继续深造的学生往往给予一定资费补助,同时加大了对自费留学生的奖励和扶持.通过对南京国民政府初年留学经费来源和使用情况的考察,发现其经费虽捉襟见肘,但经费的筹措与使用逐步明晰化、制度化,因而在留学生培养上取得了一定成效.     

“正心诚意”：南京国民政府时期公民宣誓刍议

基于孙中山宣誓观的影响以及对基层社会管控和公民行使"四权"前提的考量,南京国民政府多次颁布相关法规对公民宣誓的条件、程序、誓词和仪式作出规定。在推行地方自治和选举国民大会代表过程中,公民宣誓呈现明显的阶段性。但在党治文化的影响下,公民主体难以培育,公民意识无法培养,这使得公民宣誓的效果大打折扣。     

Why a resale royalty was rejected in Australia

In 2004 the Australian Opposition party introduced to Parliament a private member’s bill proposing the amendment of Australian copyright law to include an artist’s resale royalty. In response to the bill the Government released the Proposed Resale Royalty Arrangement Discussion Paper, which successfully provided a tangible foundation for discussions and stimulated the first strong academic debate regarding a resale royalty within Australia. Despite overwhelming support from respondents, in May 2006 the Government announced it would not support the adoption of a resale royalty right and the Resale Royalty Bill 2004 failed to pass through Parliament. The rejection of a resale royalty by the Australian Government illustrates the ongoing difficulty of incorporating civil law notions of creative rights, and moral rights in particular, into common law – particularly as the Australian Government’s approach to policy making is increasingly underpinned by economic rationalism.     

“WE ARE NOT A GOVERNMENT POODLE” 1

Cultural policy research has so far paid little attention to the field of external cultural policy. The multiple interactions between internal and external cultural politics, however, as well as the growing significance of external cultural policy in the contemporary global arena of cultural and linguistic antagonisms, necessitate its inclusion in the cultural policy research agenda. Focusing on the specific instrument of Cultural Institutes abroad, this paper traces their historical development from the time of their original deployment by the European great powers, to their recent adoption by a host of lesser and greater countries. The different phases of this policy instrument development demonstrate its unique versatility and adaptability to a variety of contexts and functions and, more generally, its strategic role in the workings and processes of external cultural policy. The current state of Cultural Institutes challenges the widespread belief in the declining cultural role of the nation state and affirms the persistence of the ideology of cultural nationalism.