Meiji Revolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Mitani
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Edo Period ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
The West ◽  
Hereditary System ◽  
Imperial Expansion

The Meiji Revolution (1853–1890) transformed Japan from a double-headed federation state with hereditary status system into a unitary monarchy that afforded greater rights and freedoms to the Japanese people. After ending the revolution by the establishment of constitutional monarchy, Japan promoted industrialization that would later energetically support its imperial expansion during the first half of the 20th century. Intellectuals during the late Edo period (1603–1868) became disillusioned with the hereditary system of the Tokugawa regime. Because tradition prohibited them from criticizing any upper authorities directly, the intellectuals capitalized on a threat from outside to advocate for the necessity of political reforms, when Western envoys urged the opening of Japan toward the West after more than 200 years of seclusion. The intellectuals at first appealed to their lords to recreate military powers. Soon, they directed their efforts towards the emperor in Kyoto, and began to criticize the Tokugawa Shogunate openly. After ten years of political negotiations and small civil wars, they finally chose imperial restoration to oust the Tokugawa and set out for a series of radical reforms that would abolish local governments, dismantle samurai status, integrate discriminated people with commoners, and introduce various social institutions from the West. Interesting characteristics distinguish the Meiji Revolution from other modern revolutions. For one, it fully utilized the authority of monarchy. Second, it appealed to the symbol “return to our ideal past” instead of the symbol “Progress.” Third, the death toll was also quite low: about 30,000, in contrast to 2,000,000 in French Revolution. At first glance, these characteristics would seem to set the Meiji Revolution apart from European movements—nevertheless, the Meiji Revolution inaugurated the beginning of an egalitarian and free society, and careful examination of the Meiji Revolution has the potential to shed new light on hidden aspects of other modern revolutions across the globe.

‘A Welsh Lancashire’? Monmouthshire Catholics in the Eighteenth Century

1979 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Jesuit Mission ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Popish Plot

In the seventeenth century, one of the Catholic strongholds of Britain had lain on the southern Welsh borders, in those areas of north Monmouthshire and southern Herefordshire dependant on the Marquis of Worcester at Raglan, and looking to the Jesuit mission at Cwm. Abergavenny and Monmouth had been largely Catholic towns, while the north Monmouthshire countryside still merited the attention of fifteen priests in the 1670s—after the Civil Wars, and the damaging conversion to Protestantism of the heir of Raglan in 1667. Conspicuous Catholic strength caused fear, and the ‘Popish Plot’ was the excuse for a uniquely violent reaction, in which the Jesuit mission was all but destroyed. What happened after that is less clear. In 1780, Berington wrote that ‘In many [counties], particularly in the west, in south Wales, and some of the Midland counties, there is scarcely a Catholic to be found’. Modern histories tend to reflect this, perhaps because of available evidence. The archives of the Western Vicariate were destroyed in a riot in Bath in 1780, and a recent work like J. H. Aveling's The Handle and the Axe relies heavily on sources and examples from the north of England. This attitude is epitomised by Bossy's remark on the distribution of priests in 1773: ‘In Wales, the mission had collapsed’. However, the question of Catholic survival in eighteenth-century Wales is important. In earlier assessments of Catholic strength (by landholding, or number of recusants gaoled as a proportion of population) Monmouthshire had achieved the rare feat of exceeding the zeal of Lancashire, and Herefordshire was not far behind. If this simply ceased to exist, there was an almost incredible success for the ‘short, sharp’ persecution under Charles II. If, however, the area remained a Catholic fortress, then recent historians of recusancy have unjustifiably neglected it.

Legitimizing Transformation without Calling it Change:Tajdīd, Iṣlāḥ, and Saudi Arabia’s Place in the Contemporary World

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Sean Foley
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Political System ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
The West ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The People ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Oil Revenues

For decades, many scholars have contended that Saudi Arabia is a fixed political system, where a conservative monarchy uses advanced technology, oil revenues, and religion to dominate the people. Such a system is often portrayed as inherently unstable, a seemingly never-ending series of collisions between an unchanging traditional political structure seeking to hold on to power at any cost and a dynamic modernity—a view encapsulated in a phrase expressed at virtually every public discussion of the Kingdom in the West: ‘you must admit that Saudi Arabia must change’. Ironically this phrase confirms what this article argues is a secret to the success of Saudi Arabia in the contemporary era: the ability to legitimize transformation without calling it change. No society is static, including Saudi Arabia. Throughout the Kingdom’s history, the defining social institutions have repeatedly utilized Tajdīd (Revival) and Iṣlāḥ (Reform) to respond to new technologies and the changing expectations of a diverse society. While Muslim scholars are most often entrusted to arbitrate this process, ordinary Saudis use this process to guide their actions in the various social spaces they encounter both at home and abroad. Critically, this process reflects the response of King Abdulaziz and the founders of the third Saudi state in the early twentieth century to the factors that had brought down previous Saudi states in the nineteenth century.

The Glut of Doctors in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France

1977 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D. Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Success Story ◽  
The West ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
History Of ◽  
Great Attraction ◽  
The French Revolution

The history of the professions in the West since the French Revolution is a success story, a triumph, but not always an easy one. From the beginning of the nineteenth century in continental Europe the professions had a great attraction as careers presumably open to talent, but the demand for professional services developed more slowly than interest in professional careers and more slowly than the schools that supplied the market. Lenore O'Boyle has drawn attention to this discrepancy and the revolutionary potential of the frustrated careerists produced by it.

Multiculturalism, Living Qur’an Islamic Objectives: Muhammadiyah’s Portrait In West Papua

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-512
Author(s):  
Muhammad Adnan Firdaus ◽  
Dudung Abdurahman ◽  
Yusuf Muri Salampessy ◽  
Ruslan Rasid
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Objectification Theory ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Economic Institutions ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The West ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
West Papua ◽  
Health Institutions

Abstract The topic of Multiculturalism Living Quran Muhammadiyah Papua and Application of Islamic Objectification Theory Kuntowijoyo intends to highlight the application of Da'wah bil regards Persyarikatan Muhammadiyah West Papua. Where is the application of da'wah bil hal Muhammadiyah West Papua by pioneering educational institutions from kindergarten to college, religious institutions such as mosques, pesantren, taklim assemblies, missionary corps and so on. Social institutions such as orphanages. Economic institutions such as Baitul Maal wa Attamwil (BMT). Philanthropic institutions such as Lazis Muhammadiyah. Health institutions such as clinics, and others. In the opinion of the author, once again, is the application of da'wah bil hal. Where the da'wah bil thing is the Muhammadiyah pattern in general and the West Papua Muhammadiyah pattern, according to the author, is the application of Kuntowijoyo's social theory of objectification of Islam. Plus, because of the existence of Muhammadiyah West Papua in the Muslim Minority zone, this is also an application of the application of da'wah bil things that is unique in the frame of multi-culturalism and mainstreaming religious moderation.  Keyword: Multiculturalism, Living Qur'an, Muhammadiyah West Papua, Islamic Objectification .

scholarly journals World local government control and reference value for Vietnam

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Dang Phuc Vu ◽  
◽  
Thi Thanh Nga Nguyen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Government Control ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
And Control

Control of local governments in countries around the world is very diverse,but mainly divided into two categories: 1) control of state agencies (central government control, court control, control of local power representations); 2) control of social institutions including political party control over local government, control of organizations and public associations, control of the media, and control of the people. The paper focuses on analysing the controlling local governments in some countries, thereby giving reference values for Vietnam.

An Historical Assessment and Analysis of Economic Imperialism in West Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale ◽  
Natewinde Sawadogo
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
National Development ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Economic Imperialism

Abstract The West African political economy has been shaped by the policies, decisions and actions of dominant European imperialist countries since about over 500 years. Starting with imperial merchant capitalism along the West African coast in the 16th Century and French gradual acquisition of Senegal as a colony as from 1677, West Africa has remained under the imperialist hold. West Africa remains economically dependent on its former colonial masters despite more than 60 years since the countries started gaining independence. The consequences of economic imperialism on West Africa have included exploitative resource extraction, proxy and resource influenced civil wars, illegal trade in natural resources, mass poverty, and external migration of skilled workers necessary for national development. The world sees and broadcasts poverty, starvation, conflict and Saharan migration in the West African sub-continent, but hardly reports the exploitative imperialistic processes that have produced poverty and misery in West Africa in particular and across sub-Saharan Africa in general.

Perfect War: Alberico Gentili on the Use of Force and the Early Modern Law of Nations

Grotiana ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-281
Author(s):  
Valentina Vadi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
International Law ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Dispute Settlement Mechanism ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
Settlement Mechanism

Abstract Gentili’s conceptualization of war as a conflict between states attempted to limit the legitimacy of war to external wars only, thus precluding the legitimacy of civil wars. It reflected both the emergence of sovereign states and the vision of international law as a law among polities rather than individuals. The conceptualization of war as a dispute settlement mechanism among polities rather than a punishment for breach of the law of nations and the idea of the bilateral justice of war humanized the conduct of warfare and the content of peace treaties. The idea of perfect war excluded brigandage, piracy, and civil wars from its purview. Some scholars have suggested that perfect war had a dark side, legitimizing imperial expansion. Others have cautioned that Gentili explicitly opposed imperial expansion rather adopting anti-imperialist stances. This article suggests that these ambivalent readings of the Gentilian oeuvre reflect the ambivalence of the early modern law of nations. Under the early modern law of nations, aggression for the sake of empire was clearly unjust; nonetheless, imperial expansion took place. Whereas ‘a law which many transgress[ed] [wa]s nonetheless a law’, there was a wide divide between theory and practice.1

scholarly journals Membedah Diskursus Modal Sosial dan Gerakan Sosial: Kasus Penolakan Pabrik Semen di Desa Maitan, Kabupaten Pati

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-30
Author(s):  
Priyatno Harsasto
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Government Bureaucracy ◽  
Horizontal Networks

Social capital is a result of social movement  and vice versa. Social movement’s theories such as the mobilization of resource model tries to explain the anatomy of collective action in the context of liberal political system in the West. These theories can be used to dechiper collective action in general but may be not enough to explain rural social action in Indonesia which under transitional democracy political regime. In present rural Indonesia,  social movement participated by “weak” groups of peasants break out most frequently. These peasents movements are against local governments or enterprises who distupt citizens’  rights. The civic protest against semen enterprise in Maitan Village in Pati District is the case in point. The social networks created thecollective action. However, the horizontal networks among  protesters themselves cannot be succesful without the help of vertical network such as support that they may have received from high-ranking officials in the local government bureaucracy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document