Civil society and the nature of urbanism: Britain, 1750–1850

Urban History ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. Morris

ABSTRACTThe concept of civil society provides a useful means of evaluating the social and political relationships of British towns. Civil society refers to the non-prescriptive relationships that lie between the state and kin. Such relationships are associated with the existence of the free market, the rule of law and a strong voluntary associational culture. Both theoretical analysis and historical evidence link civil society with the nature of urban places, their complexity, their function as a central place and their operation as a focus for flows of information. Between 1780 and 1820 the agencies of civil society in Britain provided an arena for making choices, for reasoned informed debate and for the collective provision and consumption of services in an open and pluralist manner.

1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Misztal

The initial optimistic illusions about the future of postcommunist countries have been cut short by not so encouraging developments in these societies. With the growing awareness that the postcommunist transition cannot be understood as a linear passage to a free market and parliamentary democracy, more attention is paid to the social and economic obstacles as well as to the legacy of real socialism. The feelings of increasing uncertainty about the outcome of postcommunist transformation have led some writers to characterise Eastern Europe as being in the stage of liminality (or in an inbetween stage), in which everything may happen yet little can be done (Bauman 1994: 32). Arguing from a Tocquevillian position for the need of both a strong state and a strong civil society and also adopting his insight into the importance of enlightened interest, I shall discuss factors responsible for a lack of government which operates under the rule of law, as well as discussing factors responsible for obstructing the development of civil society and the emergence of enlightened interest in the post-communist societies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-454
Author(s):  
Sergey Aleksandrovic Shumakov ◽  
Irina Aleksandrovna Tolstova ◽  
Vladimir Arkadievich Kishko ◽  
Konstantin Ivanovich Popov ◽  
Aleksandr Vladimirovic Shelygov

The study is devoted to the substantiation of the criminal-legal significance of compensation for harm from a crime. To fight crime and other offenses, the criminal procedure law aims at creating property barriers to the illegal and unjustified use of objects of all forms of ownership, ensuring the return of property to the victim or compensation for harm. The protection of violated subjective rights can be carried out not only with the help of civil legislation but also criminal and administrative ones. In cases of compensation for harm from a crime, the unlawful act acquires a new qualitative state, reflecting not only the inconsistency of behavior with legal norms but also the social danger, that is, its damage to the civil society and the rule of law.


Author(s):  
Angela Dranishnikova ◽  
Ivan Semenov

The national legal system is determined by traditional elements characterizing the culture and customs that exist in the social environment in the form of moral standards and the law. However, the attitude of the population to the letter of the law, as a rule, initially contains negative properties in order to preserve personal freedom, status, position. Therefore, to solve pressing problems of rooting in the minds of society of the elementary foundations of the initial order, and then the rule of law in the public sphere, proverbs and sayings were developed that in essence contained legal educational criteria.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Pirozhok

The relevance of determining the theoretical and methodological determinants of the Robert von Moll’s concept of the social state is due to the need to determine the patterns of evolution of ideas about the state and law, as well as the need to assess the ability to use the potential of the Robert von Moll’s theoretical and legal heritage, his predecessors and contemporaries to identify the optimal model of the social state. Modern Russia attempts to build such state. The proclamation and consolidation of Russia as a social state governed by the rule of law at the constitutional level requires attention both to the experiments carried out in social and legal development, and to the practices of social reform, and also to those ideas that have not yet been embodied. The ideas of European scholars regarding the evolution of the state-legal organization of society in the early modern period, based on which Robert von Mohl (1799–1875) developed original concepts of a social state and a state governed by the rule of law are discussed in the article. An analysis of the state of European political and legal thought and identification of the factors that have a significant impact on the development of Robert von Mohl’s doctrine of a social state governed by the rule of law are the purposes of the scientific article. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical-materialistic, general scientific (historical, systemic) and special (historical-legal, comparativelegal) methods of legal research. The method of reconstruction and interpretation of legal ideas had great importance. As a result of the study, it was concluded that in the first half of the 19th century in European political and legal thought various approaches was formed to consider the problems of social protection and how to resolve them. The development trend of European political science became the transition from ideas and principles formed in the conditions of police states and enlightened absolutism to the ideas of a state governed by the rule of law (constitutional) that protects the rights and freedoms of a citizen. At the same time, it was a question of the rights and freedoms of only a part of the population: the proletariat growing in number and significance was not always evaluated as an independent social stratum. The axiological principles of state justification have also changed. Rights and utility principle became dominant principles. In the first half of the 19th century the social issue as an independent scientific problem of the European political and legal thought was not posed and not systematically developed. Questions about the social essence of the state, the specifics of the implementation of the state social function, the features of public administration in the new stage of socio-economic development of society predetermined the emergence of the idea of a social state. This idea was comprehensively characterized in the Robert von Mohl’s works. He went down in the history of political and legal thought as founder of the concepts of social and governed by the rule of law state.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-141
Author(s):  
Tomasz Stępniewski

The present paper discusses the following research questions: to what extent did errors made by the previous presidents of Ukraine result in the country’s failure to introduce systemic reforms (e.g. combating corruption, the development of a foundation for a stable state under the rule of law and free-market economy)?; can it be ventured that the lack of radical reforms along with errors in the internal politics of Ukraine under Petro Poroshenko resulted in the president’s failure?; will the strong vote of confidence given to Volodymyr Zelensky and the Servant of the People party exact systemic reforms in Ukraine?; or will Volodymyr Zelensky merely become an element of the oligarchic political system in Ukraine?


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Andraž Teršek

Abstract The central objective of the post-socialist European countries which are also Member States of the EU and Council of Europe, as proclaimed and enshrined in their constitutions before their official independence, is the establishment of a democracy based on the rule of law and effective legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In this article the author explains what, in his opinion, is the main problem and why these goals are still not sufficiently achieved: the ruthless simplification of the understanding of the social function and functioning of constitutional courts, which is narrow, rigid and holistically focused primarily or exclusively on the question of whether the judges of these courts are “left or right” in purely daily-political sense, and consequently, whether constitutional court decisions are taken (described, understood) as either “left or right” in purely and shallow daily-party-political sense/manner. With nothing else between and no other foundation. The author describes such rhetoric, this kind of superficial labeling/marking, such an approach towards constitutional law-making as a matter of unbearable and unthinking simplicity, and introduces the term A Populist Monster. The reasons that have led to the problem of this kind of populism and its devastating effects on the quality and development of constitutional democracy and the rule of law are analyzed clearly and critically.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Guanghua Yu

AbstractThis article examines the evolution of democratic practice in Brazil. The article begins with a discussion on the country’s performance in terms of social equality, violence, and weak economy after the consolidation of democracy in 1985. Based on historical evidence, the article offers explanations concerning the weak performance in Brazil. The case of Brazil provides a challenge to the theory of open access order of North and his colleagues in the sense that open access to political organizations and activities does not necessarily lead to either better political representation or better economic performance. The case of Brazil also shows that open access to economic organizations and activities in the absence of the necessary institutions in the areas of property rights protection and contract enforcement, the financial market, the rule of law, and human resources accumulation does not lead to long-term economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Onischenko N.

The current state of Ukrainian society requires the scientific community to find answers to the general social impulses needed for reform strategies: from unconstructive attempts to replace the state with civil society to efforts aimed at their balanced interaction. It is the principle of social and political balance in the relationship between the rule of law and civil society should be the basis for correcting and correcting the unstable economic situation, overcoming acute social conflicts, establishing the rule of law, building a democratic state. It should be noted that it is quite clear that sometimes the implementation of a right requires at least not one, but clearly several opportunities, such as: economic, educational, social, gender, etc., existing in the relevant spatio-temporal continuum. Moreover, there is an indisputable thesis that there are no secondary or non-first-class or type of human rights, so every unrealized, not realized in time or not fully realized right, without a doubt, is based on the lack of, first of all, the corresponding real opportunities. It is also clear that the implementation of a certain right depends, for example, on the relevant regulations. we note that state-building processes, their dynamics, progressive trends depend on many factors. In this context, the interconnectedness of the development of a democratic, legal, social, European state and the formation of a mature, active, civil society was considered. Keywords: legal science, legal doctrine, human rights, rights and opportunities, legal development.


The article substantiates the idea that in the process of the formation and development of the foundations of a civil society and the rule of law, legal nihilism continues showing to a certain extent its potential and thus inhibiting progressive legal changes. Attention is focused on the peculiarities of the stability of legal nihilism and the problems of its gradual overcoming. It is emphasized in the offered article the importance of the law values priority, of the legal ideal, of the principle of social justice in the process of eradicating the manifestations of legal nihilism in the relevant areas of society life activity and personality. The authors came to the following conclusion: Values of law is a phenomenon of objective property, to be based on the ideas of the natural law, arising from the fact of human existence and directed exclusively to a person, to his rights and needs. Value entity of law really manifests itself only under operating conditions of civil society and legal state, recognising a person, his rights and freedoms as the highest social value. Legal nihilism begins losing its potential strength only when the majority of members of civil society recognize the priority of values of law. Confrontation of values of law and legal nihilism decisively narrows the scope of negative legal phenomena in all forms of their manifestation. Basing on the values of law, civil society institutions can solve problems being in the field of interests and needs of each person, so creating favourable conditions to eradicate legal nihilism. Using the truly valuable potential of law (first of all, legal law), civil society and legal state carry out transformations that ensure decent existence of any individual and by this minimizing the manifestation of legal nihilism. Even with a sufficiently high level of development of civil society and legal state, the practical negative attitude to legal nihilism should not weaken, because in the face of any social and legal reality, various offenses (including serious crimes) can be committed. Overcoming legal nihilism is associated with constant increase in the level of legal awareness and legal culture of the majority of members of civil society, which is a consequence of the following conclusions. Values of law is a phenomenon of objective property, based on the ideas of natural law, arising from the fact of a person’s existence and directed exclusively to a person, his rights and needs. The value essence of law really manifests itself only in the conditions of the functioning of civil society and the rule of law, recognize a person, his rights and freedoms as the highest social value. Legal nihilism begins to lose gradually its potential strength only when the majority of members of civil society recognize the priority of the values of law. The confrontation of the values of law and legal nihilism decisively narrows the scope of negative legal phenomena in all forms of their manifestation. Based on the values of law, civil society institutions can solve problems that are in the field of interests and needs of each person, which creates favourable conditions for the eradication of legal nihilism. Using the truly valuable potential of law (first of all, legal laws), civil society and the rule of law carry out those transformations that ensure the worthy existence of the individual and thereby minimize the manifestation of legal nihilism. Even with a sufficiently high level of development of civil society and legal law any negative attitude to legal nihilism should not be weaken, since in the conditions of any social and legal reality, various offenses (including serious crimes) can be committed. Overcoming legal nihilism is associated with permanent increase in the level of legal awareness and legal culture of the majority of civil society members which is a consequence of increase of quality of legal education and upbringing.


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