Rethinking the role of the arts in politics: lessons from the Négritude movement

The arts can be a powerful tool for emancipation, community building and political expression. This article makes the argument that artistic and cultural expression should be viewed by politicians and policy makers as an effective form of political engagement and an important feedback loop for understanding the political dissatisfaction of the electorate. It draws on one particular historical example, the Négritude movement, to highlight the value and strength of cultural movements in responding to questions of politics and to draw out lessons for current policy makers in recognising the value of culture in effecting political change. Against a contemporary political and scholarly narrative of disaffected citizenship, this article demonstrates that a lack of trust in a political model does not necessarily demonstrate a disinterested citizenry; rather it can suggest a citizenry who have found new and innovative ways to engage. The Négritude movement provides one such historical example.     

The Public Policy Process among Southeastern States: Elaborating Theories of Regional Adoption and Hold‐Out Behavior

Having been adopted by legislatures in over a dozen states, postsecondary merit aid programs are largely concentrated in the southeastern United States. The observed clustering pattern seems to support previous evidence that policies spread between proximate states, a phenomenon referred to by political scientists as policy diffusion. Often, however, policy diffusion is not complete, and one or more states in a region fail to adopt. By interviewing policymakers throughout the southeastern United States—including actors in the three states in the region without merit aid—the study addresses the following question: Why do diffusion pressures lead to adoption in some states but not in others? Studying state “hold‐outs” promises not only to uncover the reasons for failed legislation in specific state contexts but also to better our understanding of the limits of diffusion theory.     

Eine gelernte Lebensweise: Figurationen des Gelehrtenlebens zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit

A Learned Way of Life: Figurations of Scholarly Life between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. – With the erosion of professors' obligatory celibacy in northwestern European universities of the high Middle Ages, scholars found themselves facing the task of redefining their mode of life and establishing a new type of families, combining social reproduction and the transmission of academic knowledge, and adopting daily habits and dispositions which would allow them to lead the life of the mind within crowded family households without the collective discipline and material infrastructure provided by communal institutions, such as colleges. Building on the author's earlier work, the paper sketches a synthetic view of the major elements of the scholars' emerging way of life, arguing that this transformation provides a unique opportunity for studying how a way of life takes shape, being explicitly discussed and experimented with. Shaping a rational, or rather systematically rationalized way of life, it is argued, is a major contribution of the scientific tradition to making modern cultures.     

The political will and the administrative won't? Mathieu Thomassin and his dauphins (Charles III and Louis II)

The delphinal counsellor Mathieu Thomassin composed a Breviere des anciens droys … du Dauphiné de Viennoys (c.1453) after a career of 30 years in the service of Charles III (the French king Charles VII) and Louis II (the future Louis XI). This was his first major historical text in French, but has been overshadowed by his better-known Registre delphinal, commissioned by Louis II in 1456. This article analyses the historical culture and the conception of history revealed in the Breviere. It notes how Thomassin's careful definitions of frontiers in the past and present reflect his experience of territorial disputes. History and geography are imbued with polemic, however, allowing Thomassin to override competing claims to territory or autonomy by delphinal opponents within and outside the Dauphiné. The principles set out in the Breviere were refined and extended in the Registre. However, it is unlikely that either work was ever intended for wide circulation; rather, they were written to provide ‘authentic’ texts which could be consulted primarily by other delphinal officers. As such, they reflect on occasion the divergence of views between a proto-professional administrator, with a concern for the long-term, and his preoccupied (if not dilettante) prince, much more subject to the requirements of realpolitik.     

在中外历史文化长河中徜徉——访刘家和教授

刘家和先生是学贯中西的著名学者,在世界古代史和中国古代历史文化的研究上都有卓著的成就。长期以来,他善于进行历史比较的理论思考和实证性研究,对希腊、印度、中国的历史文化进行过个案的研究;并致力于把中国古代历史纳入世界史的体系之中,同时在世界史的背景下对中国古代历史文化进行深入的探索。此外,对历史比较研究的方法论问题也有独到的见解。     

宋初和平统一战略及实践

在和平建国及收兵权的基础上,宋初统一战略中,和平统一的设想前所未有地突显出来,在战略中广泛实施,并在一些地方大获成功。出现了在武力威胁下不战而降的荆南模式;没有直接的军事威胁,但朝廷做出过明确的归顺要求,最终主动归顺的吴越模式;既没有任何军事威胁,朝廷甚至也没有做出明确的或暗示的归顺要求,自觉纳土的漳泉模式。宋政府英明的统一战略和高超的政治手段,为国家的统一和历史的发展做出了重要的贡献,在分裂时期提供了和平统一的可行性,值得充分肯定。     

宋代功臣配享述论

功臣配享是古代帝王对有功之臣的最高酬劳,也是激励其他臣僚、引导政治舆论的重要方式。宋代在继承前代制度的基础上,形成了具有自身特点的配享之制。在配享功臣的选择上,宋代君臣本着尊崇宗庙和激励后继大臣的原则,采取了慎重的态度,并依据了较为严格的标准。功臣配享与宋代政治关系密切,它反映了当朝君臣的政治态度,是当权政治集团利益和要求的直接体现。     

和谐社会理论与我国的古代法律思想文化

在中国传统法律思想史上,历代的和谐思想由来已久,我国政府2005年年初提出的社会主义和谐社会的构想是有其深远的思想文化基础的,并非是理论上的凭空创造,而是从中华法律文化思想宝库中采撷出的思想精华并加以理论创新而来。因此,我们要加强对我国历史上关于社会建设理论的研究,按照去伪存真、去粗取精的要求,努力做到古为今用。     

从三峡地区的考古发现看楚文化的西进

三峡考古发现表明,楚文化在西周中晚期就已经对巫山地区有一定的影响;到了春秋中晚期和战国早期,楚文化已经完全控制了瞿塘峡以东的巫山地区,并进而对奉节、云阳、万州等地区产生了一定的影响;战国中期晚段至战国晚期早段,楚文化深入到峡江腹地的忠县一带,控制了长江干流沿线的地区。楚文化的几次西进有其不同的历史背景,基本可以与一些重大的历史事件相契合。从楚文化在峡江地区的分布情况看,他主要起着控制交通、扼守战略要地,以及掠夺资源的作用。     

豫东商丘考古调查与南亳问题

文献记载,商丘地区为汤都南亳所在地。本文根据对考古调查材料的分析,认为,邹衡先生从考古学角度否定南亳是有道理的,商汤亳都只有一处即郑州商城。