Changing boundaries of the political: essays on the evolving balance between the state and society, public and private in Europe

1988 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-672
Author(s):  
Stephen George
Author(s):  
M. Safa Saraçoglu

This chapter focuses on the official correspondence between Vidin’s administrative council and the provincial capital, Ruse. These reports pertaining to events in Vidin County were a part of the political procedures of the local judicio-administrative sphere. As such, politics of local administration influenced the official correspondence and our understanding of the events in Vidin County. The writing of reports and petitions and other provincial administrative/judicial practices (such as interrogations) constituted a significant part of Ottoman governmentality. Those who could shape how the official correspondence was constructed gained advantage in local political economy. Such correspondence was an essential component of how provincial Ottoman government functioned; therefore, reports, petitions, false accusations, and interrogations became important tools for agents and groups who were engaged in hegemonic negotiations. Both elite and non-elite agents were able to utilize Ottoman governance to pursue their own strategies against other local agents or imperial government. People who refused to use these bureaucratic tools in making claims and negotiating were presented in this correspondence as defiant stubborn and violent. This perspective is critical of the state–society divide, as the case studies reveal a more complex singular government of state and society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-104
Author(s):  
Iwona Barwicka-Tylek

The interest in Republican thought is on the increase again, now chiefl y thanks to the works of Quentin Skinner and the circle of so-called neo-Republicans (or civic Republicans) concentrated around Phillip Petit. They stress the peculiar perspective that Republicans have had on the state and society. This is seen in their distinctive view of freedom as the absence of domination, or attachment to the category of citizenship and the related role of civic virtues. These special characteristics justify, in their opinion, distinguishing the Republican trend of political thought (historically and now) from other positions, especially the liberal tradition. Accepting generally the above opinion, the paper draws our attention to signifi - cant differences within Republicanism itself. To do this, it cites the three conceptions of republic that were formed in the 16th century and refer to England (Sir Thomas Smith), Venice (Gasparo Contarini) and Poland (Wawrzyniec Goślicki). Although they were formed around the same time and have common roots mainly in Aristotle’s philosophy and Roman Republican ideas, each of the three perspectives views the republic from a different angle. While all three authors believe the coexistence of three elements – orderly institutions, wise law and virtuous citizens – to be crucial for any state, they rely in their deliberations on one element only. This has an impact on the way their conceptions fi nally appear and on the conclusions for the political system they draw. And so, Smith gives precedence to institutions, Contarini emphasises the key role of law and Goślicki gives primacy to virtue, concentrated in an ideal senator. Taking notice of such differences among thinkers openly admitting to an attachment to the Republican tradition should make us even more careful so as not to oversimplify it as if it were uniform and completely cohesive. Further, the awareness of such differences may provoke refl ection how justifi ed the use of the Republican banner is in respect of so different authors as, for instance, Machiavelli and Montesquieu.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav Yurevich Panchenko ◽  
◽  
Ivan Yurevich Makarchuk ◽  

During the Soviet period of studying the Marxist heritage, it was noted that the historical school of law is extremely reactionary, since the school did not have any significant influence on the development of political and legal theory of Germany in the first third of the 19th century; the ideas of its representatives did not contribute in any way to the accelerated maturation of the revolutionary situation on the eve of the turbulent 1848, when the issues of a radical reorganization of the state and society were on the agenda. Nevertheless, the views of representatives of the historical school of law occupy a worthy place among the political and legal teachings of the first half of the 19th century.


1989 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-858
Author(s):  
Bryan S. Turner ◽  
Stjepan G. Mestrovic ◽  
Lawrence A. Scaff ◽  
J.A. Banks ◽  
Neil Lazarus ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaron Ayalon

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between state and society in the Ottoman Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries by examining concepts and practices of privacy. Fatwas of Ottoman jurists reveal certain principles ordering the division of urban areas into public and private spaces. The article explores their application during the rebuilding of Damascus after its devastation by an earthquake in 1759. Archival sources disclose the priorities that guided the state in reconstructing a ruined provincial capital: religious values; a concern for the inhabitants’ well-being; and, rather prominently, an intent to maintain a dichotomy between public and private. In this the Ottomans were different from their contemporary European counterparts, who often took advantage of major disasters to reshape relations between rulers and subjects. This divergence is demonstrated in this article by comparing post-1759 Damascus with London after the Great Fire of 1666 and Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake.


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