Can the Boundary Commissions Help the Conservative Party? Constituency Size and Electoral Bias in the United Kingdom

As part of a strategy to remove perceived biases operating against it in the system used for elections to the House of Commons, the British Conservative party is promoting a revision of the rules used by the Boundary Commissions to ensure greater equality in constituency electorates. A Bill designed to achieve this—and also to reduce the size of the House—was introduced to the House of Lords in 2007. This paper critiques that Bill and suggests an alternative formulation that would better achieve the goal, whilst identifying a number of operational difficulties that its implementation would involve.     

Old and New Labour Narratives of Whitehall: Radicals,Reactionaries and Defenders of the Westminster Model

This article argues that throughout its history, the leadership of the Labour Party has chosen to embrace a benign view of the Civil Service, as part of a wider acceptance of the constitutional status quo reflected in the Westminster model. There has nevertheless been a long tradition in the wider Labour movement that has questioned whether Whitehall is capable of working for a government with radical aspirations. This article examines Labour's historical approach towards Whitehall, before reflecting on the extent to which the present Administration, while appealing to radical and reforming rhetoric has, like its predecessors, continued to embrace the status quo. It concludes by arguing that a contemporary and credible narrative capable of challenging the Westminster model has yet to emerge from the broader movement.     

Land reform and the Portuguese revolution∗

In spite of the fact that the Portuguese Land Reform has been a radical and far‐reaching one, it has received very little attention from British social scientists. This review article looks at three books published in Portugal since April 1974 which are essential reading for anyone interested in this subject. In understanding the development of the Land Reform and the Revolution as a whole it is important to recognise the different types of regional agrarian structure which exist in Portugal. This review pays particular attention to those parts of the three books which deal with these regional questions. The cleavage between those areas in which rural wage‐labourers predominate and those in which peasant farmers are in the majority goes a long way towards explaining both the advances and the defeats of the Portuguese Revolution.     

Small farmers are being proletarianised ‐ a note on persistence and polarization by Bhaduri et al.

It is suggested in this note that the so‐called ‘stability’ or ‘persistence’ of the small peasantry, postulated by Bhaduri, Rahman and Arn in their article in The Journal of Peasant Studies of April 1986 (Vol.13, No.3) is a myth. Using the data presented by Bhaduri et al. themselves, and data from other micro studies, the author argues that differentiation and disintegration of the peasantry are proceeding in the countryside of Bangladesh. This may be happening slowly, but it is clearly in evidence.     

台前与幕后:一起清代命案的真相

近年来,中国法律史研究者对清代司法档案信崇有加,部分学者甚至对司法档案进行形式主义的表层解读。事实上,司法档案当中存在制作乃至虚构的成分。以清代同治十三年广东罗定州发生的"梁宽杀妻案"为例,通过对照分析以广东巡抚张兆栋和刑部尚书崇实名义所作的一份刑科题本与本案初审官员杜凤治所写的相关日记,可以发现,与日记相比,刑科题本中存在比较明显的虚构。这一发现,旨在提醒中国法律史研究者在研究司法档案时,必须保持应有的批判态度,留意其中可能存在的制作或虚构。     

'The disenchantment conference': Frustration and humour at the world disarmament conference, 1932

A parody of the work of the Air Commission of the World Disarmament Conference of 1932-34 reveals the cynicism and boredom, as well as the personality, of the officials in the British delegation. In doing so, it demonstrates something of the futility of trying resolve the question of disarmament when bureaucrats and military experts are given free reign.     

唐宋时期政府商业政策的变化

唐宋处于中国封建文明史的转型时期,包括封建经济在内的社会生活的各个方面都发生了前所未有的深刻变化.与繁荣兴旺的商品经济相适应,唐宋政府的商业政策亦随之进行了调整.概而言之,主要是由专卖榷利制度向注重征商转变,商税逐渐制度化、规范化,扶商政策出现并付诸实施.     

Bush Administration Has Its Biggest Diplomatic Legacy in Its Relations with China

An emerging China is embarking on the road of peaceful development. The statesmen and strategists in Washington have always felt anxious that late-coming powers might challenge the existing hegemony out of their discontent with the status quo. This was one of the reasons why America took China as a strategic rival at the early stage of the Bush presidency. But after the 9/11 incident, or even as early as in July that year when Secretary of State Collin Powell visited China, there was a major readjustment in American policy toward China. Both governments took cooperation as their important policy orientation.