Parlament und Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in der österreichischen Monarchie

SUMMARY

In this article Maria Sofia Corciulo discusses the dissolution of the recently elected ‘Chambre introuvable’ by Louis XVIII, following his second restoration in 1815. The king had been completely surprised by the outcome of the elections, which returned an ultra-royalist majority. This put severe pressure on the king and his ministers who were committed to moderate, conciliationist policies, in which they were supported and pressured by the representatives of the Allied powers. The Ultras found themselves in confrontation with the ministers and policies of the king. This created a paradox, in that the Ultras, who wished to reinstate features of the ancien régime, could only do so by imposing parliamentarianism on the king, and use their majority to force him to change his ministers and adopt policies that they knew he opposed. On the other hand, the king felt he could only save the liberal constitutional values, which he and the ministers considered necessary if civil war was to be avoided, by a dissolution of the Chamber, for which there was no clear constitutional justification. The article discusses whether Louis XVIII, by his dissolution, which his critics claimed was a coup d'état, in fact secured the future of liberal constitutional government in France.     

Contesting and upholding the rights of the Irish Parliament in 1698: the arguments of William Molyneux and Simon Clement

SUMMARY

This paper explores the constitutional relationship between England and Ireland at the end of the seventeenth century with a focus on the contemporary debate around the prerogative of the Irish legislature. It examines and contrasts the arguments developed in the pamphlets of William Molyneux of Dublin (1656–98), representing the ruling Irish Protestant nation, and of English Whig Simon Clement (1654?–1730?), asserting the rights of the English empire. Molyneux's The Case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (Dublin, 1698) and Clement's An answer to Mr. Molyneux his case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, stated: and his dangerous notion of Ireland's being under no subordination to the parliamentary authority of England refuted by reasoning from his own arguments and authorities (London, 1698) are compared and analysed in the context of renewed tensions around the woollen trade. These pamphlets highlight the nature, and the perceived nature, of the constitutional relationship between the two polities in the aftermath of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688. The main discussion was whether Ireland was a colony of England or an independent kingdom, and how its nature affected the relationship between both legislatures. Molyneux argued that Ireland, although sharing a monarch with England, was an independent kingdom. To Molyneux, Ireland's independence, as a kingdom, signified the independence of its legislature and the unconstitutionality of the English Parliament's claim to legislate for Ireland. Clement refuted Molyneux's assertions point by point, contending that Ireland was part and parcel of an empire. In Clement's opinion, Ireland's subjection to England meant that the English Parliament had a legitimate right to legislate for Ireland.     

Die Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche Litauens 1915–40 (Fortsetzung)

Abstract

The article, based on church documents and publications of leading church members, traces the renaissance of the evangelical-reformed (Calvinist) Church in Lithuania during the interwar period. Few Lithuanians know that the Reformed Church was founded in 1555 in Vilnius at the height of the Reformation during the reign of Sigismund II Augustus and under the protection of Lithuania's chancellor Nicholas Radvila (Radziwi??). It was called Unitas Lituaniae, to distinguish it from the Reformed Church founded in Poland. It was given a carefully planned synodal-presbyterian structure which stood the test of time and withstood centuries of adversity during the Counter Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after the partitions, under Tsarist rule.

Purely ethnic Lithuanians resided in northern Lithuania in areas of Birzai and Kedainiai, historical residences of the now extinct Protestant branch of the Radvila family. It is to this day a stronghold of the Lithuanian Reformed Christianity. At the time of the Lithuanian independence in 1918, the Church represented a small but tenacious minority which, reclaiming its historical name, vigorously reasserted its presence in the new Republic. With Vilnius falling under Polish control, the Church leadership chose Birzai as its new (temporary) center. In the first decade of independence, the Reformed Lithuanians, despite their small number, were disproportionately represented in the professions and in government. Discriminatory tendencies did not appear until the thirties. The powerful Catholic Church, acting under its new Code of Canon Laws, revived historical theological hostilities and stereotypes and identified nationality with Catholicism. This shaped public opinion for years to come and was especially galling to Reformed Lithuanians, who were proud of their historical roots. These attitudes still exist and present a challenge for the future.     

Bemerkungen zur reform des Reichsjustizwesens in der Zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts

Summary

Voltaire and the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688

From the start of his career Voltaire was pro‐English. Britain was for him the country of a ‘sage liberté’ which was the beneficial result of the civil wars. His contacts with the British community in Paris and the exiled Lord Bolingbroke help explain why he sought refuge in London after his imprisonment and his subsequent passion for English institutions. Voltaire's view of institutions was not always very accurate; he only saw the positive side and, intentionally or not, concealed a great deal. The religious foundation of the English character escaped him, as did the agrarian problems. For him the regime of 1689 constituted a constitutional ideal; the balance it achieved was a perfection to whose defects he was blind.

Voltaire had always been split between his admiration for the English system and his respect for the ‘enlightened’ work of Frederick the Great and Catherine Il. He inclined, especially towards the end of his life, towards England. He was one of the originators of a current, still very much alive in France, of an anglophilia of the left’. But the undeniable weakness in Voltaire's thought was his failure ever to ask how far the representative government he so admired was capable of being practised by the French.     

A tribute to Leo Cawley, 1944–1991

Abstract

In the late sixties, after his tour of active duty as a marine in Vietnam from 1965 to 66, Leo Cawley returned to the United States and became an economics major at Columbia University. There he joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Columbia University chapter of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS), whose national organization founded the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. In March and April of 1972 he traveled to the People's Republic of China with the second CCAS delegation. Leo reviewed Waldemar A. Nielson's The Big Foundations in volume 6, number 3 of BCAS in 1974, and from 1985 to 1987 he was book review editor for BCAS. Leo also contributed money to BCAS even in the last year of his life when his medical expenses were skyrocketing. Above all, however, Leo stood for everything BCAS has stood for over the years, and he was a close friend and inspiration to some of BCAS's staunchest supporters.     

Die strafpreussen: Mecklenburg und der bund der deutschen absolutistischen fürsten, 1648–1719

SUMMARY

It is the common opinion of Whig historians, and not a few recent revisionists, that James VII and II undermined the parliamentary cultures of England and Scotland before the revolution of 1688–89. At the extreme end of this approach he is declared to have usurped parliamentary authority in a drive for absolute power. Some of this is now seen as rhetorical exaggeration but James certainly developed a particular understanding of the power of parliaments in relation to monarchy. In some respects this was a return to a late medieval Stewart and Tudor outlook, that of James V of Scotland and Henry VIII of England, which saw parliaments as the personal vehicles of royal authority. The difficulty for James, of course, was that the Scottish and English Parliaments had become ‘modernized’ over the seventeenth century, growing a strong sense of independence and legitimacy as representative institutions. In this essay both the practical engagement James had with Scottish affairs and his philosophical opinions as revealed in his own writings will be explored in an attempt to better define this monarch's view of the Scottish Parliament and its workings. Through this, his reactions to the notions of unionism and nationalism will become more apparent.     

The rise and fall of “respectable” Spanish liberalism, 1808–1923: an explanatory framework

Abstract

The article focuses on the reasons behind both the consolidation of what I have termed “respectable” liberalism between the 1830s and the 1840s and its subsequent decline and fall between 1900 and 1923. In understanding both processes I study the links established between “respectable” liberals and propertied elites, the monarchy, and the Church. In the first phase these links served to consolidate the liberal polity. However, they also meant that many tenets of liberal ideology were compromised. Free elections were undermined by the operation of caciquismo, monarchs established a powerful position, and despite the Church hierarchy working with liberalism, the doctrine espoused by much of the Church was still shaped by the Counter-Reformation. Hence, “respectable” liberalism failed to achieve a popular social base. And the liberal order was increasingly denigrated as part of the corrupt “oligarchy” that ruled Spain. Worse still, between 1916 and 1923 the Church, monarch, and the propertied elite increasingly abandoned the liberal Monarchist Restoration. Hence when General Primo de Rivera launched his coup the rug was pulled from under the liberals’ feet and there was no one to cushion the fall.     

What Explains President Joseph Kabila’s Quest for a Third Term until Pressured to Reluctantly Relinquish Power,late in 2018?

Abstract

The era of Congolese political, socio-economic instability that has affected the central African region has returned, yet again. Nearly two decades after Joseph Kabila was installed as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Southern African Development community (SADC), at the height of the regional central African war, following the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire Kabila, he has not shown any willingness to relinquish power. This is even so after the lapse of his constitutional mandates in December 2016, secured in 2006 and 2011. This continued reign, which is dependent on the repressive use of force by the state, has elicited spirited attempts by the political opposition, including the influential Catholic Church, calling for his immediate resignation. In response, the state has unleashed repression, which has resulted in fatalities and uprooted communities, resulting also in forced migration that destabilised the Great lakes sub-region. This article argues that the state reconstruction of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, following the hurried departure of Mobutu Sese Seko, engineered by Laurent Kabila, and his son Joseph, has failed to take root, resulting in sub-regional instability that has engulfed, not only the Great lakes region, but also southern Africa as a whole.     

The 2014 Fiji Elections and the Methodist Church

Abstract

The Methodist Church of Fiji has around one-third of Fiji’s population as members, and is a strong influence on all aspects of Fiji’s life, including its politics. Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has been variously tense, acrimonious and downright hostile, with Church conferences cancelled by the government in 2009–2011 after the Methodist Church was accused of ‘playing politics’. A further attempt to minimise the influence of the Methodist Church has included government encouragement of the New Methodists (Souls to Jesus) movement in 2008–9. However, these government actions have been premised on the assumption that the Methodist Church is monolithic in its support for conservative Fijian chiefly values, often privileging these over more universalist values espoused by other Christian denominations. While this may have been generally true of the years 1989–2012, it has not always been the case. This paper suggests that more recently the dynamics within the Methodist Church have changed, a shift that is only partly influenced by Bainimarama’s actions.     

Le Parlement et le pouvoir religieux dans le Portugal du Moyen Âge

SUMMARY

The medieval Portuguese clergy and nobility, particularly those of higher status, were the political and ideological support of the sovereign. As vassals of the king they had been members of the curia regia from its beginnings. They naturally became part of the parliament when it was created in the thirteenth century. In these early assemblies the monarch consulted them about political issues of general interest, but the clergy and nobility were free to bring forward their own concerns. Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho examines how the clergy complained to the kings D. Afonso IV (1325–57), D. Pedro (1357–67) and D. Fernando (1367–83). They insisted on defending their privileges, ecclesiastical rights and temporal power, presenting long lists of accusations mostly against the nobles and royal officials. But to give a wider perspective the author also studies the dissatisfaction that the people expressed in these assemblies about the clergy, charging them with oppression while both collecting taxes and rents and applying justice. The parliamentary discussions demonstrated clearly the social tensions of the times and allowed the king to judge and to rule in a more balanced way between the estates in order to exert his sovereign power in a pacified kingdom.     

From Sufism to Fundamentalism: The Mahdiyya and the Wahhabiyya

Both the Wahhabiyya and the Mahdiyya were based on different styles of tajdid (renewal). The Mahdiyya was based on the charisma of its leader and was a leader oriented tajdid movement. The Wahhabiyya, on the other hand, was a message oriented movement, which viewed Sufism with hostility. In contrast to Sufi traditions, which embraced al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, who claimed that he was _Khalifat Rasul Allah, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab embraced tawhid (Unitarianism), as his guiding message. Consequently, the neo-Mahdiyya, which emerged during the twentieth century, shied away from radicalism, and became part of the Sudanese Political establishment. The Wahhabiyya, on the other hand, maintained its tajdid message, and gradually emerged as part of the Jihad oriented, Islamic fundamentalism.     

The Norwich elections of 1794, 1796 and 1802: Conflict and consensus

SUMMARY

Daniel O'Connell (Cahersiveen 1775–Genoa 1847), Irish politician and patriot, fought for Catholic emancipation, and to repeal the penal laws discriminating Irish Catholics and the 1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland (effective from 1 January 1801). Believing firmly in non-violence, he defended the representation of Irish Catholics in parliament as the most appropriate instrument to support their rights. His thoughts and actions were widespread and known in Italy and Europe while some Catholics were arguing about a possible reconciliation between religion and freedom and on the resulting openness to the principles of democracy and to the problem of representation. The Theatine Gioacchino Ventura (1792–1861) from Palermo, one of the leaders of the Sicilian revolution of 1848, was a great admirer of O'Connell, so much so that after his death he delivered a funeral eulogy at Sant'Andrea della Valle Church in Rome. Ventura, recognized among the precursors of the current liberal and democratic Italian Catholic movement, shared the causes embraced by O'Connell and he considered him to be the first mediator between Church and modern society. He believed that O'Connell was a champion of liberalism who had succeeded in combining nationalistic reason with freedom, the right to vote and the eligibility of Catholics. Following Ventura, Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), another member of the Italian Catholic movement and founder of the first Catholic party (PPI), was inspired by the political experience of O'Connell, considering him to be the forerunner of constitutional Catholics on the continent. Sturzo worked for the inclusion of Catholics in the state political structures, contributing to the realization of full democracy.     

Non-Muslim citizens as foreigners within: how Ecnebi became Yabancı from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic

Since the establishment of the Republic in 1923, any non-Muslim born in Turkey, whatever his/her religion, is a Turkish citizen as are any of his/her Muslim fellows. However, sometimes he/she might consider him/herself an alien and might even be regarded as such by the official authorities. The purpose of this article is to shed light on this reality from an historical perspective. Based on the comparison of two terms (ecnebi and yabanc?, both meaning foreigner) that had become frequently used during the last Ottoman decades, the analysis establishes to what degree ecnebi was replaced by yabanc? in official republic terminology. The article argues that this change might be related to the formation of less visible categories of foreigners that partly originated from the confessional imperial framework based on the differentiation between Muslims and non-Muslims. Far from being set aside as the Kemalists have long claimed, this framework has prevailed. It partly explains to what extent, as a result, in the history of the Turkish Republic, non-Muslim Turkish citizens have sometimes been regarded as ‘foreigners within’ (içerdeki yabanc?).     

Reflections on Schurmann's theory of the state

Abstract

Were Marx alive today he might be moved to comment on how quickly the next “revolution” materialized, that is to say, how quickly certain disciples of his, like Lenin and Stalin, substituted political organization and the power of the state for the proletariat as the agency of revolution. Perhaps Marx would recognize that the state merited more attention than he gave it, for in this century it seems clear that state power has functioned more autonomously than Marx implied in order to preserve capitalism, by ameliorating its fundamental contradictions; and to put off, even pervert, that socialist revolution which originally envisioned the proletariat assuming the central, world-historical role. In recent years Marxist critics have been filling this lacuna in Marxism with a profusion of writings on the role of the state in its absolutist, capitalist, and socialist variants. It was into this milieu that Franz Schurmann stepped with his Logic of World Power, containing within it a “theory of the state” that I find both interesting and flawed, a theory that offers much to the current debate on the role of the state, and yet one that has been largely ignored by Marxists and non-Marxists alike.     

Akhund Khurasani and the Iranian Constitutional Movement

During the last 15 years several important sources have been published allowing the appraisal of the role of ulema during the Iranian constitutional movement (1906–11) and thus opening new lines of research. The 2006–7 edition compiled by Muhsin Kadivar from several unknown documents written by Akhund Muhammad Kazim Khurasani (d. 1330/1911) make it possible to measure his importance and his impact on the evolution of the events as well as his ideological influence. The usuli rationalist jurist Akhund Khurasani was considered at the beginning of the constitutional movement as one of the principal mujtahid and marja’-i taqlid of the Shiite world, and was possibly the best-known. After introducing the life and work of Akhund Khurasani and the theoretical principles (nazari) that he uses to define the constitutional movement, the main topics that arise in the study of this literature are identified. Particular attention is paid to his position as a rallying point and legitimizing force, his enthusiasm for an ambitious progressive policy, his intricate relations with western powers and his links with the Qajar.     

The Death of the Author through False Translation in Mario Bellatin's Orientalised Japan

This article argues that Mario Bellatin's exploration of the potential relationship between writing, translation and physical deformity leads, perhaps unconsciously, to the continuation of exoticising stereotypes about ‘Oriental’ cultures. In El jardín de la señora Murakami, Shiki Nagaoka: una nariz de ficción, and Biografía ilustrada de Mishima, Bellatin resorts to Japanese characters to distance himself from his own writings, as if it were the culture that is the most alien to his own. His lucubrations about reading and writing are sometimes accompanied of exocitising and orientalist overtones, which he mocks at times.     

Franz Josef Strauß ‐ lasting legacy or transitory phenomenon?

Franz Josef Strauβ died in October 1988, exactly two years before German unity. He was undoubtedly one of Germany's most dynamic and controversial post‐war politicians, who aroused very strong emotions in the electorate, ranging from great support to condemnation. During his political career Strauβ had tremendous power and influence. As the tenth anniversay of his death approaches, this article sets out to assess his contribution to both Bavarian and German politics. Did he represent a transitory phenomenon or did he leave behind a lasting legacy?     

Die Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche Litauens 1915–1940

Abstract

The article, based on church documents and publications of leading church members, traces the Renaissance of the Evangelical-Reformed (Calvinist) Church in the Lithuanian Republic during the interwar period from 1919 to the Soviet occupation in 1940, and includes historiographical background information.

Modern Lithuania is overwhelmingly and adamantly Roman Catholic. Few Lithuanians know that the Reformed Church was founded in 1555 in Vilnius (Wilna, Vilno) at the height of the Reformation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the reign of Sigismund II Augustus and under the protection of Lithuania's chancellor Nicholas Radvila (Radziwi??) the Black. It was called Unitas Lituaniae, to distinguish it from the Reformed Church founded in Poland. It was given a carefully planned synodalpresbyterian structure which stood the test of time and withstood centuries of adversity during the Counter Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after the partitions, under Tsarist rule.

Purely ethnic Lithuanians resided in northern Lithuania in areas of Bir?ai (Birsen, pol. Birse) and Kedainiai (Kedainnen, Kiejdany), historical residences of the now extinct Protestant branch of the Radvila (Radziwi??) family. It is to this day a stronghold of Lithuanian Reformed Christianity.

At the time of Lithuanian Independence in 1918, the Church represented a small but tenacious minority which, reclaiming its historical name, vigorously reasserted its presence in the new Republic. With Vilnius falling under Polish control in 1919, the Church leadership chose Bir?ai as its new (temporary) center. In the first decade of Independence, the Reformed Lithuanians, despite their small number, were disproportionately represented in the professions and in government. Discriminatory tendencies did not appear until the thirties. The powerful Catholic Church, acting under its new Code of Canon Laws, revived historical theological hostilities and stereotypes and identified nationality with Catholicism. This shaped public opinion for years to come and was especially galling to Reformed Lithuanians, who were proud of their historical roots and their faith. These attitudes still exist and present a challenge for the future.     

Commission Newsletter: Spring 2010

SUMMARY

In this article, Francesco Soddu analyzes the role of the first chamber of the Italian parliament, the Senato, in the era of Giolitti's political dominance. The Senato was a nominated chamber, with members appointed from a prescribed list of categories by the king, and who held office for life. Its position in the constitution had been laid down in the Albertine statute of 1848. The author analyses the composition and working practices of the Senato and describes its function in the legislative process. He then looks for instructive similarities and differences between the Senato and the British House of Lords in the same period, when the Lords last became the focus of a major constitutional crisis over their composition and powers in 1909–11.     

The historian's quest: Joseph R. Levenson

Abstract

Ever since Confucius remarked that he would not discuss the strange and supernatural, Chinese scholars have delighted in jotting down sensational and unusual events. This is such a favorite pastime that at least two books with the title Zibuyu (What the master refused to say) appeared in imperial times. The one by Yuan Mei (1916–97) has become a biji (jottings) classic. There are several editions published in recent years both in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China. This collection is full of ghost stories and strange tales, including records of “shrimp man,” “ape man,” and so on. Yuan Mei, while not particularly known for his moral rectitude, was nevertheless firmly rooted in the Confucian tradition.