Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Modes Of Operation ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
Traditional Image

The Introduction defines the notion of “administrative entrepreneurship” and outlines the role the “administrative entrepreneurs” played in building the infrastructure of the early modern state, including schools. Recent historiography has tended to question the traditional image of the “absolutist” state as a powerful unified actor, stressing instead the limits of the rulers’ actual power, the role of social compromises, and the pervasiveness of unofficial clans and patronage networks that structured early modern politics in Europe and elsewhere. Scholars also emphasize the premodern, patrimonial character of bureaucracy in that era. Against this backdrop, the Introduction argues that it might have been the self-seeking projectors who drove the invention and expansion of the state as they strove to invent jobs for themselves and to promote their agendas. The chapter introduces three types of “administrative entrepreneurs”—the “experts,” the “ministers,” and the “functionaries”—and outlines their respective modes of operation.

Agents beyond the State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Netzloff
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Dutch Revolt ◽  
The Social

The early modern period is often seen as a pivotal stage in the emergence of a recognizably modern form of the state. In Agents Beyond the State, Mark Netzloff returns to this context in order to examine the literary and social practices through which the early modern state was constituted. The state was defined not through the elaboration of theoretical models of sovereignty but rather as an effect of the literary and professional lives of its extraterritorial representatives. Netzloff focuses on the textual networks and literary production of three groups of extraterritorial agents: travelers and intelligence agents, mercenaries, and diplomats. These figures reveal the extent to which the administration of the English state as well as definitions of national culture were shaped by England’s military, commercial, and diplomatic relations in Europe and other regions across the globe. Agents Beyond the State emphasizes these transnational contexts of early modern state formation, from the Dutch Revolt and relations with Venice to the role of Catholic exiles and nonstate agents in diplomacy and international law. These global histories of travel, service, and labor additionally transformed definitions of domestic culture, from the social relations of classes and regions to the private sphere of households and families. Literary writing and state service were interconnected in the careers of Fynes Moryson, George Gascoigne, and Sir Henry Wotton, among others. As they entered the realm of print and addressed a reading public, they introduced the practices of governance to an emerging public sphere.

scholarly journals Worms, worms, everywhere, and not a one to see: The connotative role of worms in Shakespeare’s canon

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Christine Reid
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Individual

The study of animals in Shakespeare’s collected works has expanded over the last 30 years. While a number of different animals have been discussed, the importance of the worm in the larger scope of the canon has largely been ignored. By focusing on the perception and presentation of worms in relation to cultural ideas of death, corruption, and consumption, ideas surrounding the body and soul are brought to the forefront. Worms are integral to our understanding of the Early Modern cultural constructs of the body and soul as the presence of worms reveals the state of the individual or the broader environment. Overall, the depiction of worms in Shakespeare’s works serves as a way to understand the metaphysical processes surrounding death and corruption.

Equity and the Right to Do Wrong

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-91
Author(s):  
Andrew S Gold
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Private Litigation ◽  
Better Than

This chapter discusses how the ‘stickler-enjoining’ account of equity has important limits. While many distinctive doctrines of equity can be understood to limit stickler behaviour, equity in fact often turns a blind eye to, and sometimes even enables, stickler behaviour. One can sort cases in which equity restrains sticklers from those in which it is indifferent to stickler behaviour if one attends to the role of the state in private litigation. Sometimes the state’s responsibilities require it to protect plaintiffs against sticklers. Other times, it requires it to protect the stickler, as a means, for example, of keeping as open as possible each person’s sphere of choices. Ultimately, the self-regarding account of equity sheds light on the question of the relationship between equity and justice: from the distinct perspective of the judgment, sometimes equitable justice is better than legal justice and sometimes legal justice is better than equitable justice.

“A Trespass against the Whole Species”: Universal Crime and Sovereign Founding in John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-585
Author(s):  
Sinja Graf
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Creation

This essay theorizes how the enforcement of universal norms contributes to the solidification of sovereign rule. It does so by analyzing John Locke’s argument for the founding of the commonwealth as it emerges from his notion of universal crime in the Second Treatise of Government. Previous studies of punishment in the state of nature have not accounted for Locke’s notion of universal crime which pivots on the role of mankind as the subject of natural law. I argue that the dilemmas specific to enforcing the natural law against “trespasses against the whole species” drive the founding of sovereign government. Reconstructing Locke’s argument on private property in light of universal criminality, the essay shows how the introduction of money in the state of nature destabilizes the normative relationship between the self and humanity. Accordingly, the failures of enforcing the natural law require the partitioning of mankind into separate peoples under distinct sovereign governments. This analysis theorizes the creation of sovereign rule as part of the political productivity of Locke’s notion of universal crime and reflects on an explicitly political, rather than normative, theory of “humanity.”

Fragmentation of Citizenship Governance

2017 ◽  
pp. 598-620
Author(s):  
Joel P. Trachtman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Modern State ◽  
International Regime ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Positive Rights ◽  
Experience Effects

A future of greater migration will put pressure on the exclusive territorial model of citizenship. In the deepest analytical sense, bundled citizenship is incoherent, and made more so by extraterritorial effects of national decision-making—by the effects on persons in other territories—and, as salient for this chapter, by the mobility of persons that makes them experience effects of governmental decisions in other territories. For most historic periods since the emergence of the modern state system and in most regional contexts this mobility of persons was not significant enough, and the role of the state in providing positive rights was not great enough, to necessitate an international regime for assigning states responsibility for positive rights, and assigning individuals duties to states. However, with greater demand for mobility, greater cooperation to divide up the components of citizenship may be desirable.

‘The Pots on Our Roads’

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-88
Author(s):  
Gerald Chikozho Mazarire ◽  
Sandra Swart
Keyword(s):  
Chaotic System ◽  
The State ◽  
City Council ◽  
The Self ◽  
Traffic Police ◽  
Regulatory Instruments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vehicle Fleet ◽  
The City

This article explores the role of the ‘diaspora fleet’ in Harare’s urban commuter system. Imported vehicles in the form of haulage trucks and commuter buses were one of the popular and visible forms of diasporic investment over Zimbabwe’s difficult decade spanning from 2000 to about 2010. The article argues that this diaspora fleet occupies a significant place in the history of commuting in Harare. Diasporic investment introduced a cocktail of European vehicles that quickly became ramshackle and ended up discarded in scrap heaps around the city. These imports and the businesses based on them destroyed the self-regulatory framework existing in the commuting business. This disruption was facilitated by the retreat or undermining of the state and city council regulatory instruments, which in turn created a role for middlemen, who manoeuvred to perpetuate a new and chaotic system known as ‘mshika-shika [faster-faster]’, based on a culture of irresponsible competitive gambling. This chaotic system remains in place today to the chagrin of city council planners and traffic police. Its origins, we argue, lie in the cultures and practices introduced by the diasporan vehicle fleet.

Ruler and state, state and society in Ottoman political thought

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinos Sariyannis
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
State And Society

It can be argued that the late seventeenth century marks the transition of the Ottoman entity into an early modern state, with one of its main features identified as the distinction between the ruler and the state apparatus. The paper aims to explore whether, when and how such a process reflected in contemporary political thought. It analyzes the ways Ottoman elite authors represented society vis-à-vis the sultan; also, the development of the notion of “state” in the same authors and how it came to be considered different from that of the “ruler”.

How Old Magic Does the Trick for Modern Politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 428-450
Author(s):  
Claudio Sergio Nun-Ingerflom
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Material Form ◽  
Spiritual Ideal

This article attempts to interpret the insurrection led by Razin in the seventeenth century as the beginning of modern politics, because it was founded on the immanence of the social in contrast to the transcendent conceptions of power maintained by the court and church. This advance was made possible by the working of magic. Through performative speech, magic permitted the creation of a verbal presence for the non-existent tsarevich Alexis, who, however, was never given material form. In keeping the self-appointed heir invisible and by declaring his father’s rule illegitimate, the rebels reduced the role of the tsar to a pure signifier. The proof that this uprising represented a turn toward modern politics is that it did not rely upon the invocation of an intangible philosophical or spiritual ideal (as in the West); it was built instead upon an armed people, expressing itself in a language that was still archaic but already oriented toward a new representation of power as socially legitimatized. This analysis opens an important line of argument that has power beyond this specific case.

Social Practice, the Bodily Professions and the State

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
English Language ◽  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Sport Sociology ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between sport and the modern state has been a focus of increased theoretical attention in recent years, particularly with respect to the role of sport in hegemony. At the same time there has been mounting interest in the significance of the body and bodily practices (including sports) as a site of political struggle. Yet, not much work has been done on the connection between these two projects. A monograph written in French and published in 1983 draws together many of these themes but has remained neglected in English-language sport sociology. This paper reviews Le corps programmé and discusses some of the book’s theoretical implications.

scholarly journals Hegel's Citizen

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Dudley Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Acting Out ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Free Agency ◽  
Ethical Status

Hegel's account of freedom is complex and difficult. It integrates a doctrine of free agency, a theory of social freedom, and a self-determining theodicy of Spirit. To achieve full understanding, if full understanding is possible, the student must both disentangle and articulate the components, and then fit together the separate pieces into an intelligible whole. And what is true of the whole is true of the parts; each element is in turn complex and controversial.In this paper, I want to investigate one very small aspect of this picture — the political phenomenology of the citizen of Hegel's rational state. Whether we are delineating the contours of free agency or re-telling Hegel's story about the modes of freedom constitutive of the institutions of the modern state, sooner or later we shall have to interpret Hegel's description of the self-consciousness of the typical citizen. We shall have to give some account of what citizens take to be their political standing, and show how both this standing and the citizens' understanding of it contribute to freedom.This should not be a controversial claim. To paraphrase portions of the famous statement at PR §260: The state is the actuality of concrete freedom. Members of families integrated into civil society knowingly and willingly acknowledge their citizenship and actively pursue the ends of the state. They do not live as private persons merely; in understanding, endorsing and acting out their ethical status as citizens they achieve such subjective fulfilment as isnecessaryfor them to be truly free.

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