Constitutionalism in the Hispanic World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime E. Rodríguez O.
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Alfonso X ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 19Th Century

The concept of a constitution, a political entity that determines how a people are governed, emerged in ancient times. The government of the Roman Republic (509–27 BC) influenced the Western world. Later, Romanized Visigoths adopted a charter, the Fuero Juzgo (654), in the Iberian Peninsula that integrated Roman and Visigothic legal systems. The document influenced regional political entities throughout the Middle Ages. In the 13th century, each of the realms of the Iberian Peninsula adopted individual rather than shared fundamental codes. In 1265, King Alfonso X established Castilla’s and Leon’s first constitution, the Siete Partidas. The New World obtained its own legal system, known as the Derecho Indiano (Laws of the Indies). Like the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, those of America created a compact between the monarch and the citizens of each realm rather than Hispanic America as a whole. These systems of uncodified legislation evolved to meet changing circumstances and societal norms. They provided corporations and individuals expanding opportunities for indirect and direct experience in self-government. In 1808, an unexpected upheaval transformed the Hispanic world. The French invaded Spain. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte lured the royal family into France, compelled them to abdicate in his favor, and then granted the Spanish monarchy to his brother, José. The Spanish people did not accept the usurper king, José I. They formed the Junta Central to oppose the invaders. As the French continued to conquer the nation, they convened a Cortes, which met on September 24, 1810, in the port of Cádiz. Approximately 220 deputies, including sixty-five Americans and two Filipinos, eventually participated in the extraordinary Cortes of Cádiz. Deputies representing overseas dominions played a central role in developing the most progressive constitution of the 19th century. Despite the political chaos that surrounded the constituent congress, the delegates debated and eventually reached consensus on a modern, flexible charter that reconciled the competing interests of the multiplicity of areas and ideological positions represented at the assembly. They produced a constitution for the entire Hispanic world that made the executive and the judiciary subordinate to the legislature. It also increased the scope of political activity by establishing representative government at three levels: the city or town with a thousand or more inhabitants (constitutional ayuntamiento), the province (provincial deputation), and the monarchy (Cortes). The charter transferred political power from the center to the localities, and incorporated large numbers of people into the political process for the first time by redefining the concept of active citizenship (i.e., those eligible to vote). This fundamental document formed the basis for constitutional development throughout the Hispanic monarchy and for most charters promulgated in the nations that emerged after the breakup of that political entity.

scholarly journals Internet technologies in the conditionsofmodernpoliticalprocess

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-174
Author(s):  
Nikolai S. Beliakov ◽  
Kristina D. Kurgacheva
Keyword(s):  
Cyber Security ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Government

The distinctive feature of the modern political process is the informatization of social space. In the context of Informatization, the Internet becomes an integral part of modern life, which leads to an irreversible transformation of the classical political process. In general, informatization can be viewed as a positive trend in the development of politics as a sphere of social life. The use of information technologies makes it possible to establish subject-subject interaction between citizens and political actors, leads to the process of democratization, allows for effective agitation, creates a basis for discussion platforms for discussing socially important problems, ensures the availability of a public information, etc. But at the same time this the trend has a number of negative aspects. First, the problem of “digital inequality”. Secondly, the negative trend towards fragmentation of the political segment of the network on the ideological basis, which leads to the marginalization of political activity and the lack of discussion. Thirdly, there is the problem of cyber security, state control over the Internet, manipulation of public consciousness, etc. However, in general, despite the existence of a number of destructive moments, full informatization seems to be the inevitable future of all spheres of public life, including political. Thus, it is necessary to look for ways to overcome negative factors in the development of the political segment of the web; to achieve its transformation into a real discussion and working platform for all legitimate political forces, regardless of their representation in the government bodies. The state should play a special role in this process, because the functions of public control was delegated to it, and from their competent use depends the future development of society as a whole and the political segment of the Internet in particular.

Alma Mater Studiorum. O genezie i początkach uniwersytetów

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Marek Maciejewski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
New Era ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The 19Th Century

The origin of universities reaches the period of Ancient Greece when philosophy (sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, stoics and others) – the “Queen of sciences”, and the first institutions of higher education (among others, Plato’s Academy, Cassiodorus’ Vivarium, gymnasia) came into existence. Even before the new era, schools having the nature of universities existed also beyond European borders, including those in China and India. In the early Middle Ages, those types of schools functioned in Northern Africa and in the Near East (Baghdad, Cairo, Constantinople, cities of Southern Spain). The first university in the full meaning of the word was founded at the end of the 11th century in Bologna. It was based on a two-tiered education cycle. Following its creation, soon new universities – at first – in Italy, then (in the 12th and 13th century) in other European cities – were established. The author of the article describes their modes of operation, the methods of conducting research and organizing students’ education, the existing student traditions and customs. From the very beginning of the universities’ existence the study of law was part of their curricula, based primarily on the teaching of Roman law and – with time – the canon law. The rise of universities can be dated from the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernity. In the 17th and 18th century they underwent a crisis which was successfully overcome at the end of the 19th century and throughout the following one.

Frozen Negotiations: The Peace Process in Chiapas

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúúl Beníítez Manaut ◽  
Andrew Selee ◽  
Cynthia J. Arnson
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Better Than

Mexico's democratic transition has helped reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of renewed armed conflict in Chiapas. However, absent more active measures from the government and the Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) to seek a permanent peace agreement and come to terms with the legacies of the past, the conflict will linger on in an unstable déétente, which we term ““armed peace.”” While this situation is far better than the open hostilities of the past, it also belies the promise of a fully democratic society in which all citizens are equally included in the political process. La transicióón democráática en Mééxico ha contribuido a reducir, si no eliminar, la posibilidad de que el conflicto armado en Chiapas se reanude. Sin embargo, sin esfuerzos mas activos por parte del gobierno y del Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) para buscar un acuerdo de paz permanente y saldar cuentas con el pasado, el conflicto permaneceráá en un estado inestable que llamamos ““paz armada””. Aunque esta situacióón es mucho mejor que las tensiones y agresiones del pasado, no cumple los requisitos de una sociedad plenamente democráática en que todos los ciudadanos participan en condiciones de igualdad en el proceso políítico.

Don’t hatch the messenger? On the desirability of restricting the political activity of bureaucrats

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-139
Author(s):  
Jean Guillaume Forand ◽  
Gergely Ujhelyi
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Analysis ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Voter Perceptions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Workers

Many countries place restrictions on the political rights of government workers. This includes limitations on political activities such as taking an active part in political campaigns. Are such restrictions desirable? We present a formal welfare analysis of this question. Bureaucrats’ political activities affect voter perceptions of the government and this can have informational benefits. However, they can also induce policy mistakes and are susceptible to ‘noise’ from some bureaucrats’ innate desire for political expression. When politicians have limited control over bureaucrats and successfully coordinate with voters, bureaucrats’ political activities can be desirable. In most cases, however, banning political activities is optimal.

scholarly journals Minister-Permanent Secretary Relationships: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s Government of national Unity

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Team Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.

History of the Portuguese Lexicon

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Pöll
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Western World ◽  
Romance Language ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Lower Extent ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basic Vocabulary

The basic vocabulary of Portuguese—the second largest Romance language in terms of speakers (about 210 million as of 2017)—comes from (vulgar) Latin, which itself incorporated a certain amount of so-called substratum and superstratum words. Whereas the former were adopted in a situation of language contact between Latin and the languages of the conquered peoples inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula, the latter are Germanic loans brought mainly by the Visigoths. From 711 onward, until the end of the Middle Ages, Arabic played a major role in the Peninsula, contributing about 1,000 words that are common in Modern Portuguese. (Classical) Latin and Greek were other sources for lexical enrichment especially in the 15th and 16th centuries as well as in the 18th and 19th centuries. Contact with other European languages—Romance and Germanic (especially English, and to a lower extent German)—led to borrowings in several thematic fields reflecting the economic, cultural, and scientific radiance that emanated from the respective language communities. In the course of colonial expansion, Portuguese came into contact with several African, Asian, and Amerindian languages from which it borrowed words for concepts and realia unknown to the Western world.

The political and legal views of Mikhail Speranskiy in the Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz

2016 ◽  
Vol 84 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 290-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Yu. Pochekaev
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Government Reform ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regional Authorities ◽  
The 19Th Century

Mikhail Speranskiy, an outstanding Russian statesman and legislator of the first half of the 19th century, was Governor-General of Siberia from 1819 to 1821. The main result of this moment in his career was the government reform in Asiatic Russia as well as the formulation in 1822 of a set of codes – rules and regulations – for Siberia and its peoples. Speranskiy tried to incorporate his theories on state and law into these codifications. One of these codes was the Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz which provided for a reform of the government system of the Kazakhs (‘Kirghiz’ in the Russian pre-revolutionary tradition) of the Middle Horde, who were under the control of Siberian regional authorities. The Middle Horde became a place where Speranskiy could experiment with his ideas. Previous researchers have paid more attention to the consequences of the promulgation of the ‘Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz’ for the later history of Kazakhstan. This paper clarifies which specific ideas of Speranskiy on state and law the Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz reflect, and answers the question of whether they had practical importance. A substantial part of the ‘Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz’ was, in fact, ineffective and would not be used in practice because of Speranskiy’s lack of knowledge of the Kazakhs, and his underrating of their political and legal level. At the same time, the authority of Speranskiy in 19th century Russia as legislator and reformer was so high that his Rules on the Siberian Kirghiz remained in force until the 1860’s, when the next substantial administrative reforms of the Kazakh steppe took place.


LEADERSHIP AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY: RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCHES

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 12-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Комлева ◽  
Valentina Komleva
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Function Integration ◽  
The Individual

Events of recent years have shown the importance of the individual political leaders in choosing the ways and models of development of different societies, the ability to successful governance. The article investigates the political leadership and its role and place in the sustainable development of society, domestic and foreign theories and approaches to the study of this phenomenon are analyzed. The author discusses features, problems and trends in the study of political leadership, which is understood as the political capital of the company in most modern Western research, as a condition of its successful development; and a political leader (in terms of importance for the sustainable development of society) as a significant person of the political process, to make political decisions, exercising public political activity, function integration and consolidation of the social forces that specifies the activity of state and / or public institutions, political movements to influence policy situation. The research results suggest that the specificity of the present stage of the study of political leadership is to increase the attention of scientists to the subject of the crisis of political leadership, the needs of leaders by modern society who influence the members of society positively, develop the state effectively.

Ways and Means of Science in Medieval Spain

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-157
Author(s):  
Francisco Márquez-Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
The West ◽  
Alfonso X ◽  
Medieval Spain ◽  
Cultural Empowerment ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Spanish Soil

The concept of tolerance initially advanced by the Arabs in both the East and the Iberian peninsula, an ideal later continued at the time of the Reconquest by Spanish Christians, was the key to the transmission of Greek science to the West. This paper examines the far-reaching and peculiar ways in which both Christians and Muslims fostered on Spanish soil a thriving intellectual life in the low Middle Ages. Particular attention is given to the rich personality and precociously modern achievements of King Alfonso X, with his vast project of cultural empowerment on behalf of his subjects.

Somali Resistance to Colonial Rule and the Development of Somali Political Activity in Kenya 1893–1960

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. R. Turton
Keyword(s):  
Political Support ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Somali Youth

This article investigates the relationship between different phases of Somali political activity in Kenya. A clear contrast emerges between the focus, the aims and the methods adopted by the Somali pastoralists along the northern frontier and those adopted by the Isaq and Herti Somali traders in Nairobi and Isiolo. The attitude of the former towards the Colonial Government was essentially negative. Yet, while they tended to be resisterspar excellenceand fought against the Government on a large number of occasions between 1893 and 1916, this article shows that their resistance was much more limited than has generally been supposed and that they were never united on a clan basis in their resistance. In fact intra-clan rivalries seriously undermined the effectiveness of their activities Moreover, certain weaker Somali segments actively cooperated with the Government in order to obtain military and political support for their positions which were threatened by stronger groups.On the other hand, Isaq and Herti traders attempted to manipulate the political institution in order to obtain additional privileges within the system. Their agitation had positive goals, for they campaigned to gain Asiatic status. They put pressure on the central organs of Government and hired lawyers to plead their case. They wrote numerous petitions and memorials to governors of the colony, to Secretaries of State and even to two British kings. They formed well-organized political associations and had contacts in British Somaliland and England. Yet, by a curious irony, it seems that the Somali Exemption Ordinance of 1919, which represented the closest they came to achieving non-native status, was not passed as a result of their campaigns. In fact, their later agitation achieved nothing; it seems to have represented a futile effort to counter the gradual erosion of privileges obtained at an earlier date.One of the main characteristics of the Isaq and Herti agitation was its essentially sectarian character. In fighting to obtain Asiatic status they emphasized traits that isolated them from other Somali groups, and they even ended by denying that they were Somali. As such, there was a considerable disparity between their aims and those of the Somali Youth League which emerged in 1946 as the main vehicle of mass Somali nationalism, uniting the Somali pastoralists and traders in one group.

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