The Indian states and the new Constitution

Ben Affleck's film ARGO is a good film, but not all the details are accurate. This article is by Martin Williams, the British diplomat who, contrary to the picture painted in the film, personally escorted to safety the Americans who had escaped when the Iranian Revolutionary guards took over the US Embassy. He sets that episode in the broader context of his personal experience of working during a complicated period during which initially there were major commercial opportunities for British firms, and then the power of the Shah started to wane, and finally he was overthrown. The installation of a very different regime entirely changed the approach which diplomats needed to adopt in Tehran.     

Réflexions sur des États Provinciaux au XVIIIe siècle: Provence,Comtat Venaissin,Corse

SUMMARY

In this article F-X Emmanuelli examines the experiences of three sets of provincial Estates, those of Provence, Comtat Venaissin and Corsica in face of the pressures from the governments of Louis XV and Louis XVI aimed at undermining the autonomy of the Pays d'Etats and extending the direct authority of the royal government. The article suggests that the royal government did follow a consistent policy of seeking to enlist the support of the social groups in provincial society which it judged most likely to be cooperative and at the same time seeking to reduce the sphere of activity of the Estates to routine administration and the assessment of taxation, for the royal government did not venture to try and suppress their traditional fiscal privileges. After an examination of the different experiences of these three provinces, the article suggests reasons why the Estates enjoyed considerable success in resisting the pressures put upon them and safeguarding their traditional liberties. The level of success, however, is shown to depend on the particular nature of the institutions of the province and the social structure of the Estates themselves.