Chapter VII Merlin’s Tower

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Twain
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Power And Authority

Inasmuch as I was now the second personage in the Kingdom, as far as political power and authority were concerned, much was made of me. My raiment was of silks and velvets and cloth of gold, and by consequence was very showy, also uncomfortable....

Political Power and Authority in Recent Chinese Literature

1985 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 234-252
Author(s):  
Donald C. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
Power And Authority

One of the major changes in Chinese Government policy since the death of Mao Zedong has been the new emphasis on the need for stability and regularity in everyday life, to be achieved by the systematic codification of laws and the strengthening of institutions for administering them. Since 1978 much legislation has been enacted with this end in mind, but the significance of this legislation is not self-evident. What the new laws minimally represent is a set of rules promulgated by the government which purport to govern social relationships in specified areas. Whatever else they might mean – that is, what social effects will follow from the declaration of particular rules – needs to be understood through a study of the individuals and institutions that will have to deal with these rules. Fundamentally, this is a matter of asking whether and why violations of “the law” should matter, and who has the power to find a violation and to remedy it.

2. How the UK constitution has developed

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Anne Dennett
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Key Players ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ebb And Flow ◽  
Power And Authority

This chapter discusses the historical development of the UK constitution. The key to understanding the evolution of the British constitution is to imagine it being shaped by a dynamic ebb and flow of power between the key players—the monarch, Parliament, the Church, governments, judges—to determine the issue of where supreme power and authority would ultimately settle and reside. In the case of the UK, supreme authority settled in the monarch in Parliament, while political power resided with the executive. The chapter then argues that the constitution is fluid and changing, despite the received view that it has evolved slowly and peacefully without invasion or violent revolution. Despite fluctuations in power, and changes in Britain’s territorial composition and external alliances, there has always been a sense that the constitution is based on the collective memory of ancient laws and principles that fundamentally protect the people and cannot be changed.

Bunyoro: An African Feudality?

1964 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. M. Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
The People ◽  
Western Uganda ◽  
Power And Authority ◽  
Community Relationships

In terms of Marc Bloch's celebrated definition, the traditional interlacustrine Bantu kingdom of Bunyoro, in western Uganda, is ‘feudal’ in some respects but not in others. This is shown by a survey of Bunyoro's traditional political institutions, some of which tended to decentralize, others to centralize, political power and authority. Of the first, the most important were the considerable degree of independence enjoyed by the chiefs, and the largely self-sufficient community relationships of neighbourhood and kinship. Of the centripetal institutions, some linked the people to the kingship, others bound the chiefs to the king. Examples of both types are described. It is concluded that although traditional Bunyoro shared some features with European ‘feudal’ states, it also differed from them in important respects. Thus it would be misleading to refer to it, without a good deal of qualification, as a ‘feudality’.

scholarly journals Locating Ḥākimiyya in Global History: The Concept of Sovereignty in Premodern Islam and Its Reception after Mawdūdī and Quṭb

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
USAAMA AL-AZAMI
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Global History ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Power And Authority

Abstract The concept of ḥākimiyya (sovereignty), as understood by its leading proponents, refers to the notion that it is God, rather than humans, Who possesses the prerogative to make laws. A concomitant of this is that Muslims with political power and authority must recognise the supremacy of Islamic law. This notion, perhaps most notably articulated in modern times by Abū al-Aʿlā Mawdūdī, may be viewed as the rearticulation of ideas latent in the premodern Islamic juristic tradition, but whose modern incarnation as ḥākimiyya emerged in response to the legislative norms of the liberal colonial state. Despite its modern articulation, and against the views of several scholars, I argue that ḥākimiyya qua sovereignty finds its antecedents quite clearly in the Islamic scholarly tradition. Such an understanding leads into a discussion of how Islamic conceptions of sovereignty can help us reassess influential Western articulations of the concept. I also show that Mawdūdī's influential younger contemporary, the Islamist alim Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwī, upholds ḥākimiyya despite his critique of Mawdūdī and Sayyid Quṭb's conceptions of it. I conclude with a brief reflection on how our understanding of ḥākimiyya as sovereignty can help us provincialise Europe in global historical studies.

2. How the UK constitution has developed

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-42
Author(s):  
Anne Dennett
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Key Players ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ebb And Flow ◽  
Power And Authority

This chapter discusses the historical development of the UK constitution. The key to understanding the evolution of the British constitution is to imagine it being shaped by a dynamic ebb and flow of power between the key players — the monarch, Parliament, the Church, governments, judges — to determine the issue of where supreme power and authority would ultimately settle and reside. In the case of the UK, supreme authority settled in the monarch in Parliament, while political power resided with the executive. The chapter then argues that the constitution is fluid and changing, despite the received view that it has evolved slowly and peacefully without invasion or violent revolution. Despite fluctuations in power, and changes in Britain's territorial composition and external alliances, there has always been a sense that the constitution is based on the collective memory of ancient laws and principles that fundamentally protect the people and cannot be changed.

Epilogue: What Is to Be Done?

2020 ◽  
pp. 265-268
Author(s):  
Camila Vergara
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Structural Reforms ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
The People ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Power And Authority

This chapter discusses possible scenarios in which plebeian power could be institutionalized from the point of view of revolutionary politics. It argues that if the aim of revolution is liberty, which demands self-emancipatory political action, then revolutionary change could be achieved without the need of an outright revolution. It also refers to the redistribution of political power that could be done by revolutionary reformers within the boundaries of the Constitution or by the people themselves, claiming collective power and authority by disrupting the ordinary administration of power with their extraordinary political action in local assemblies. The chapter emphasizes that the only power with enough authority to lead structural reforms would be the one exerted by the assembled many themselves. It reviews the proposed blueprint for institutionalizing the power of the many that contributes to guiding prudent and able leaders, revolutionary vanguards, and commonsense people.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document