scholarly journals Diarchy? The System of Co-Rulership in Byzantium at the Turn of the 13th – 14th Centuries and Its Impact on the Situation in the State

Author(s):  
Pavel Lysikov

Introduction. The study is dedicated to the system of co-rulership in Byzantium in the early Palaiologan period. Our goal is to determine the role of the Byzantine emperor, the son and co-ruler of his father, the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282–1328), Michael IX (1294–1320) in the political destabilization of the empire at the turn of the 13th–14th centuries by identifying the specific nature of power relations in the state at the time under study. Methods. The methodological basis of the study is a systematic approach. The power relations in Byzantium at the turn of the 13th–14th c. are considered as a system of interconnected elements that perform certain functions in relation to each other and to the system as a whole. The principles of the hermeneutic method allow us to give a holistic interpretation of the sources that form our understanding of the subject under study. Analysis and Results. As a result of the study, we found out that the specific nature of power relations in Byzantium at that time was determined by two circumstances. First, by the institutionalization of the co-rulership that occurred during the reign of the first Palaiologoi. It was mostly due to the publication of the prostagma by Michael VIII (1259–1282) in 1272, an important document, many provisions of which, in our opinion, were fully implemented (and, to some extent, even expanded) during the reign of his son Andronikos II. Second, by the division of managerial functions within the ruling family. While Andronikos II dealt with a whole range of issues related to various state activities (fiscal, socio-economic, administrative, political and legal, foreign policy, etc.), the younger basileus concentrated in his hands mainly the command of the army. The isolated position of Michael IX which consisted in his constant stay outside Constantinople and the presence of significant military contingents under his control provided a certain degree of independence for the younger basileus in his military and political decisions which often contradicted those of his father. At the same time, this separate co-existence of two imperial courts in the state with their own staff of courtiers disrupted the unity within a narrow group of the Byzantine elite, led to its disengagement and the appearance of people who associated with the younger emperor their further acquisition of high ranks and broader powers in Byzantium. After the death of Michael IX (1320) this circumstance will have a significant impact on the outbreak of the civil war in the empire (1321–1328).

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-585
Author(s):  
Sinja Graf

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.”


Author(s):  
Aleksei Vladimirovich Iarkeev

The subject of this research is the state as a biopolitical project founded on the principle of government intervention in life of the population. Leaning on the ideas and theoretical intentions of the “archeology of power”, economic and political anthropology, the author examines the genesis of the state from biopolitical perspective, proceeding from the hypothesis of the initial animalization of human presence pursuant to state power, which at breaking point, turns into biopolitical death machine, or thanatopolitics. In view of this, the author reveals the role of ancient state formations as the agents of forced “domestication” of the members of agricultural and cattle-raising societies based on the concentration of human resources and coercive labor as state-forming “technologies”, which allow producing surpluses appropriated by the power elites. The idea of pastoralist power, which emerged along with the first states, identifies subjects to a herd under wardship, treating them as a form of wealth similar to livestock. The main conclusion lies in explication of the biopolitical matrix of state administration, which identifies the subjects of the state with livestock, and the state territory with enclosed pasture. This leads to the parallels between cattle-raising and control over population, which paradigmatically determines the political modus operandi of state power that is implicit in the trajectory of its evolution up to the present day. At the threshold of “evolution” of such administrative paradigm emerge the modern radical topoi of the antihuman – the concentration camps (labor camps and death camps) organized by the model of cattle pens and slaughterhouses.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Dariusz Makiłła

The subject of this paper is the political practice existing in the relations between the Royal court and the local assemblies of gentry in the Commonwealth of Poland in the second half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. The functioning of power relations, especially the conducting of the legislative process, was based on the defined foundations of the state order, established in the constitutional law called the Henrician Articles that came into force in 1576. They demanded of the Royal court that they respect the position and role of local assemblies, empowered in the political system of the Commonwealth of Poland. These relations were invested with pragmatism to a large extent. In order to have the political needs fulfilled, the court endeavored to win a friendly attitude of local assemblies towards the realization of its political plans during the parliamentary sessions. At the same time, the local assemblies which were developing the conviction that they were merely one of the instruments of the Royal politics, appealed to their own problems, which made the target of their politics during the summoned diets. In this way, the Royal politics very often clashed with the aspirations of the gentry at the assemblies’ meetings, sometimes entering the sphere of rivalry.


2011 ◽  
Vol 162 (7) ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Jean-François Métraux

In the years since 2000, the authorities in charge of forests in canton Vaud have made some substantial changes as a reaction to the political decisions arising from the Swiss Forest Programme and the projected revision of the Federal forestry Law, as well as to the deterioration of the economic situation in forestry enterprises. This article gives a survey of the directions taken. Thus the canton recognises the primordial role of wood production as a driving force behind the creation of a multifunctional forest. The Service for Forests, Wildlife and Nature has invested a great deal in planning, and has redefined the management plan to be an instrument intended for forest owners and forest managers. The canton has innovated by introducing forestry groups and a scheme of equalisation of forestry costs between communes. Hence the conception of forestry management in canton Vaud is resolutely that of a multifunctional natural heritage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 88-93
Author(s):  
K.N. Golikov ◽  

The subject of this article is the problems of the nature, essence and purpose of prosecutorial activity. The purpose of the article is to study and justify the role of the human rights function in prosecutorial activities in the concept of a modern legal state. At the heart of prosecutorial activity is the implementation of the main function of the Prosecutor’s office – its rights and freedoms, their protection. This means that any type (branch) of Prosecutor's supervision is permeated with human rights content in relation to a citizen, society, or the state. This is confirmed by the fact that the Federal law “On the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation” establishes an independent type of Prosecutor's supervision-supervision over the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms. It is argued that the legislation enshrines the human rights activities of the Prosecutor's office as its most important function. It is proposed to add this to the Law “On the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation”.


Author(s):  
Hazel Gray

This chapter explores the role of the political settlement in shaping outcomes of land investments by analysing struggles in key sectors of the economy. Land reform during the socialist period had far-reaching implications for the political settlement. Reforms to land rights under liberalization involved strengthening land markets; however, the state continued to play a significant role. Corruption within formal land management systems became prevalent during the period of high growth. Vietnam experienced a rapid growth in export agriculture but, in contrast with stable property rights for smallholders, Tanzania’s efforts to encourage large land investments were less successful. Industrialization in both countries generated new forms of land struggles that were influenced by the different distributions of power between the state, existing landowners, and investors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Bowie

AbstractDespite a growing literature revealing the presence of millenarian movements in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist societies, scholars have been remarkably reluctant to consider the role of messianic beliefs in Buddhist societies. Khruubaa Srivichai (1878–1938) is the most famous monk of northern Thailand and is widely revered as atonbun, or saint. Althoughtonbunhas been depoliticized in the modern context, the term also refers to a savior who is an incarnation of the coming Maitreya Buddha. In 1920 Srivichai was sent under arrest to the capital city of Bangkok to face eight charges. This essay focuses on the charge that he claimed to possess the god Indra's sword. Although this charge has been widely ignored, it was in fact a charge of treason. In this essay, I argue that the treason charge should be understood within the context of Buddhist millenarianism. I note the saint/savior tropes in Srivichai's mytho-biography, describe the prevalence of millenarianism in the region, and detail the political economy of the decade of the 1910s prior to Srivichai's detention. I present evidence to show that the decade was characterized by famine, dislocation, disease, and other disasters of both natural and social causes. Such hardships would have been consistent with apocalyptic omens in the Buddhist repertoire portending the advent of Maitreya. Understanding Srivichai in this millenarian context helps to explain both the hopes of the populace and the fears of the state during that tumultuous decade.


1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
J. H. Shennan

The most recent biographer of Montesquieu has written:…the similarity between the ideas of the former president a tnortier and those of the parlements is sometimes striking.…The king, they admit, is the legislator and the fount of justice. The parlements, however, are the repositories of his supreme juris-diction. To remove it from them is to offend the laws of the state and to overthrow the ancient legal structure of the kingdom.…This tradition of the parlements inspired and was inspired by the political doctrine of Montesquieu; and when the President writes of the monarchy of his own day…as being the best form of government that men have been able to imagine, it is monarchy supported by this tradition which he has in mind.


Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110612
Author(s):  
Daniel S Lacerda

The spatial imaginations of organisations can be particularly insightful for examining power relations. However, only recently they have gone beyond the limits of the workplace, demonstrating the role of the territory for organised action, particularly in mobilising solidarity for resistance. In this article, I investigate power relations revealed by the political economy of the territory to explain contradictory actions undertaken by organisations. Specifically, I adopt the theoretical framework of the noted Brazilian geographer Milton Santos, who recognises spatial multiplicity and fragmentation while maintaining an appreciation of the structural conditions of the political economy. This perspective is particularly useful for the analysis of civil society organisations (CSOs) in a Brazilian favela (slum), given the context of high inequality perpetuated by the selective flows of urban development. First, I show that the history of favelas and their role in the territorial division of labour explain the profiles of existing organisations. Then, I examine how the political engagement of CSOs with distinct solidarities results in a dialectical tension that leads to both resistance based on local shared interests and the active reproduction of central spaces even if the ends are not shared. The article contributes to the literature of space and organisations by explaining how territorial dynamics mediate power relations within and across organisations, not only as resistance but also as the active reproduction of economic and political regimes.


Author(s):  
Richard Whiting

In assessing the relationship between trade unions and British politics, this chapter has two focuses. First, it examines the role of trade unions as significant intermediate associations within the political system. They have been significant as the means for the development of citizenship and involvement in society, as well as a restraint upon the power of the state. Their power has also raised questions about the relationship between the role of associations and the freedom of the individual. Second, the chapter considers critical moments when the trade unions challenged the authority of governments, especially in the periods 1918–26 and 1979–85. Both of these lines of inquiry underline the importance of conservatism in the achievement of stability in modern Britain.


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