scholarly journals The Intellectual Adventures of a Russian Anti-Federalist: Radishchev, Condorcet, and the American Constitution

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Zorin
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Assemblée Nationale ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Us Constitution

This article suggests a new understanding of a shift in Radishchev’s perception of American democracy from the early version of Ode to Liberty to the final text of A Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow. The historical and political theories present in Ode to Liberty are interpreted not as an abstract social utopia but as a reaction to the revolution in British colonies and an attempt at establishing a new society based on the ideals of equality and freedom. The adoption of the American constitution was the main reason for Radishchev’s disappointment in the USA. The evolution of Radishchev’s views is analysed within the context of the American debate between the Federalists and the Antifederalists and the discussions about the New World in France, especially the political philosophy of Nicola Condorcet and the debates on the representation of the slave-owning colony of Santo Domingo in the Assemblée nationale. The article studies the key sources of information that may have influenced Radishchev’s opinion and analyses the common features of Radishchev’s ideas about the US Constitution and his critical approach to the “abolitionist” wing of the Antifederalists. His disappointment in the American experience had a decisive impact on Radishchev’s political philosophy: the adoption of a federalist constitution and the preservation of slavery meant for him the collapse of all hopes for reshaping society on more humane and just grounds. This led to the adoption of apocalyptic tones in the final version of Ode to Liberty, as the author’s hopes for a better future now depended not upon any political activity, but upon the intervention of providential forces.

Uncertainty of law as a factor in the stability of legal system (historical example of the USA)

2021 ◽  
pp. 235-243
Author(s):  
Nataliia S. Latypova
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
American Model ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Stability

Certainty in law is a category that is ambiguously perceived by the scientific legal community. We make an attempt to analyze the meaning and role of the category of certainty in the process of creating a stable legal system with historical continuity. On the example of the US and France legislation, we give polar examples of the implementation of certainty of lawprinciple. We conclude about the undoubted usefulness and necessity of preserving this principle in the Russian legal system. However, a study of the French experience of legal regulation has shown that the desire for certainty, achieved through an overly detailed regulation of public relations, only cre-ates additional problems of interpretation and law enforcement, strengthening legal nihilism and citizens' distrust of law. At the same time, the American model, implying some uncertainty of law, has shown its effectiveness in its historical example. The ambiguity and framework nature of the American Constitution and basic federal laws makes it possible to interpret and concretize their provisions in judicial precedents in different ways, depending on the era and socio-political situation, which contributes to the flexibility and stability of the US legal system. In conclusion, it is noted that domestic legislators need to strive for a gradual transition to the American model of implementing the principle of certainty of law, while providing for detailed regulation of public relations at the level of bylaws. Such an approach will preserve the historical continuity and existence of basic normative acts for several decades, preserve the stability and predictability of legal regulation.

Censuses in the USA and statistics of immigration from Poland – methodological-historical perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Okrasa
Keyword(s):  
Census Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Funds ◽  
The Us ◽  
Lower Chamber ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
American Society ◽  
Dynamic Population

Censuses of population and housing in the United States are of particular interest to experts in many disciplines – in addition to statisticians, also to demographers, political scientists, sociologists, historians, and even psychologists and anthropologists. This is so not only because of the long history of US censuses (the first census in the US was carried out in 1790) or methodological innovations, but due to immigration responsible for the dynamic population growth, and to the specific purpose of the census, which is ensuring the proportional (according to the numer of inhabitants) distribution of seats in the lower chamber of Congress and federal funds (apportionment), guaranteed by the US Constitution. The heterogeneity of the American society, both in the racial-ethnic and religious-cultural sense, in addition to the above considerations, raise questions about the purposes of those changes and directions for improvement in subsequent censuses. The aim of the article is to present the problems and challenges related to censuses in the USA. The paper focuses on methodological and operational solutions that can be implemented thanks to several improvements, including the progress in the fields of statistics and technology. The paper also discusses the issues of credibility of the census data, based on the example of immigration from Poland and the Polish diaspora in the USA.

An SFL Approach to Biden’s Inauguration Speech after Winning the Presidential Election: Compensation

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Reza Abbaszadeh
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Democratic Administration ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa

The US election is an influential event, not just in the USA itself but in the world. The present study aims to analyze Joe Biden’s inauguration speech after winning the presidential election in January 2021 and becoming the 46th president of the United States. Moreover, this paper attempts to investigate the USA’s possible policies toward their own nation and, of course, the other countries. This analysis goes through predicting probable upcoming policies of Biden’s administration comparing to the previous president of the USA, Donald Trump, who breached several international agreements. To this end, Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) has been employed in Biden’s first speech after winning the election and beginning of the democratic administration to observe his political intentions by means of a critical approach and using appraisal resources of Martin and White (2007) to clarify the attitude, graduation, and engagement of his speech. Overall, designating the number of vocabularies related to any of the mentioned appraisal resources, it is concluded that Biden’s tendency, based on his inauguration speech and the lexical and grammatical (‘lexicogrammar) choices, is to compensate Trump’s actions, such as breaching 2015 JCPOA agreement and breaking 2015 Paris Climate Accord, and make peace with whom Trump had fueled conflicts.

Do‐not‐call as the US Government's improvement to telemarketing efficiency

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Jack Rotfeld
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
General Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
New Consumer

Under what might be one of the most well‐known new consumer protection activities in the USA, people can register their phone numbers with the “Do‐not‐call” registry that assures to block most commercial telemarketing calls. While it is hard to find a member of the general public who is opposed to the program, the telemarketing companies claim that it would cause a massive loss of jobs and some legal scholars assert that it violates provisions of the US Constitution. However, the regulation could actually improve telemarketing practice and the general efficiency of the business, making it more profitable.

scholarly journals An American Notwithstanding Clause? Between Potestas and Potentia

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Boleslaw Z. Kabala ◽  
Rainey Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
American People ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Joint Declaration ◽  
Judicial Supremacy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
Accepted Practice

Debates about judicial review and departmentalism have continued to rage, and in the wake of the last three Supreme Court appointments and current Presidential Commission on the Court, only look to intensify. Should the US adopt a notwithstanding or override provision, of the kind that exits in Canada and Israel? These countries take a departmentalist approach to allow the legislature to override the Court, “notwithstanding” its ruling. Although America is a presidential framework, a paradox emerges: evidence exists that its system already makes possible the equivalent of a notwithstanding clause. This consists of Congress and the President together “overruling” the Supreme Court. In another sense, however, this is not an accepted practice—large parts of the legal community hold that the US Constitution establishes judicial supremacy. To better understand this dynamic, we consider two kinds of power: formal and authorized (potestas) as well as direct and concrete (potentia). The contrast between the positions on both power and sovereignty of Thomas Hobbes (associated with potestas) and Baruch Spinoza (linked to potentia) helps clarify these issues in a contemporary context. It turns out that a robust departmentalist equivalent of the notwithstanding clause already exists in the US, as a matter of Hobbesian potestas but not of Spinozist potentia. Another term for the latter is pouvoir constituant. Spinoza’s perspective on political activity further clarifies the in-between nature of the American override capacity: the active or passive character of a multitude is not binary, but is a matter of degree. Without making an institutional recommendation, we note that Spinoza’s understanding of power also allows for dynamic interaction between potentia and potestas: formal authorization can contribute to the expression of direct power. It is, therefore, conceivable that additional codification of the existing American override capacity, either through a joint declaration of Congress and the Presidency or a Constitutional Amendment, can strengthen the effective sovereignty of the American people in relation to the courts.

scholarly journals History of constitutional and legal traditions in the USA

2016 ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Victor Ladychenko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
Distribution Of Power

The development of constitutionalism in the United States is described in this article. The distribution of power by the US Constitution in 1787 is analyzed. Certain continuity of law from the time of the American Revolution to this day is noted. Founding fathers views of the value of the constitutional norms in the political development of the United States are shown.

The Death Penalty by Lethal Injection and Hill v McDonough: Is the USA Starting to See Sense?

2007 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Harrison ◽  
Caroline Melville
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Florida Department ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
The Us ◽  
Lethal Injection ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Us Constitution

Since the late 1980s lethal injection has been the preferred method of executing prisoners on death row in the USA. This has largely been because it is seen by many as the most humane method of lawful killing. The injection consists of a lethal cocktail of three drugs which are in turn administered to the prisoner. The first drug is an anaesthetic which is used to eliminate the pain caused by the other two, hence allowing a pain-free and humane death. Recent research however has established that it is highly probable that many prisoners are not in fact anaesthetised when the pain inducing drugs are injected into their systems. Instead those on death row are at a high risk of suffering cruel or unusual punishment in breach of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. The courts in the USA have not, in the main, supported such a theory, although Hill v McDonough, Interim Secretary, Florida Department of Correction et al. now seems to have opened the door for prisoners to test the constitutionality of the lethal injection in local Federal Courts.

scholarly journals THE US CONSTITUTION: RECEPTION OF ANTIQUITY

2018 ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
M. Sribniak
Keyword(s):  
Political Elite ◽  
University Education ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
George Washington ◽  
John Adams ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Constitution

The article indicates that ancient examples played the essential role during early US history. It was a vital aspect which had a significant impact on the essence of the American Constitution. Delegates of the Philadelphian Convention appealed to the ideas of ancient philosophers as well as historical background of ancient Greece and Rome. It was common for the speeches at the convention to point out various events, connected with the history of Athens, Sparta and Carthage, albeit Roman Republic was the main source for resemblance. The heritage of such ancient philosophers, as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero and partly Tacitus and Livy influenced the vision of American political elite of that period, which was particularly represented by Tomas Jefferson, James Wilson, John Adams and George Washington. The article demonstrates that the astonishing number of highly intelligent people with university education participated in the discussions at Philadelphian Convention. Such individuals easily read original Greek and Roman works. The US Founding Fathers widely cited positive examples of federalism and republic, although they made an accent on the negative ancient experience of tyranny in order to justify their views on the Constitution. Therefore, the US Constitution shows in accordance with the text the remarkable influence of ancient thinkers and their ideas concerning this document.

Measurement Invariance of a Universal Behavioral Screener Across Samples From the USA and Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gino Casale ◽  
Robert J. Volpe ◽  
Brian Daniels ◽  
Thomas Hennemann ◽  
Amy M. Briesch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Student Behavior ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
School Based ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Universal Screener ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa

Abstract. The current study examines the item and scalar equivalence of an abbreviated school-based universal screener that was cross-culturally translated and adapted from English into German. The instrument was designed to assess student behavior problems that impact classroom learning. Participants were 1,346 K-6 grade students from the US (n = 390, Mage = 9.23, 38.5% female) and Germany (n = 956, Mage = 8.04, 40.1% female). Measurement invariance was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) across students from the US and Germany. Results support full scalar invariance between students from the US and Germany (df = 266, χ2 = 790.141, Δχ2 = 6.9, p < .001, CFI = 0.976, ΔCFI = 0.000, RMSEA = 0.052, ΔRMSEA = −0.003) indicating that the factor structure, the factor loadings, and the item thresholds are comparable across samples. This finding implies that a full cross-cultural comparison including latent factor means and structural coefficients between the US and the German version of the abbreviated screener is possible. Therefore, the tool can be used in German schools as well as for cross-cultural research purposes between the US and Germany.

Sanctions of the USA and the Policy of Bank of Russia:double Blow to the National Economy

2014 ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Glazyev
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Capital Flight ◽  
Practical Advice ◽  
The Us ◽  
Monetary Authorities ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Simultaneous Adoption ◽  
The Eu

This article examines fundamental questions of monetary policy in the context of challenges to the national security of Russia in connection with the imposition of economic sanctions by the US and the EU. It is proved that the policy of the Russian monetary authorities, particularly the Central Bank, artificially limiting the money supply in the domestic market and pandering to the export of capital, compounds the effects of economic sanctions and plunges the economy into depression. The article presents practical advice on the transition from external to domestic sources of long-term credit with the simultaneous adoption of measures to prevent capital flight.

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