Widows and unmarried women as taxpayers in England before 1800

A variety of taxes levied at various dates between the 1540s and the early nineteenth century are analysed to ascertain whether the frequency with which widows and unmarried women are listed as taxpayers matches the ratio between the numbers of widows and unmarried women and the number of men in the adult population. Examination of the tax assessments indicates that the proportion of taxpayers who were women often fell well below their proportion in the general population. This applies in the case of all taxes levied between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries and regardless of whether a tax was assessed primarily on goods, houses occupied, or land owned or occupied. That double the proportion of female than of male householders were exempted from payment of the hearth tax on houses they occupied in the second half of the seventeenth century indicates that many women maintained households on very depleted resources. However, the proportion of taxpayers who were women amongst those paying the least tax did not usually exceed the proportion of women amongst those paying most tax.     

Assessing Committee Roles in a Developing Legislature: The Case of the Ukrainian Parliament

The Ukrainian parliament consistently attracts scholarly attention as one of the developing parliaments in the Former Soviet Region that is succeeding with institutionalisation. This study assesses committee roles in the legislative process and discusses factors that are associated with strong or weak roles for committees. We bring evidence from the Ukrainian parliament to test traditionally hypothesised institutional factors in committee studies, such as roles of government and parties. To account for the difference between developed and developing legislatures, we add an attitudinal component to the analysis. The results confirm that traditionally hypothesised factors are important in assessing committee roles. However, important intervening factors such as strength and size of factions and the range of ideologies have to be taken into account to explain institutional dynamics in a developing legislature. In addition, an analysis of attitudes provides a valuable insight into the development of committee roles in a developing legislature.     

War and Democratization: Legality,Legitimacy and Effectiveness

Promotion of democracy in post-war and post-conflict societies became a hot topic during the 1990s. External actors linked their peace-building efforts to the promotion of democracy. Four modes of promotion of democracy by external actors can be distinguished: first, enforcing democratization by enduring post-war occupation (mode 1); second, restoring an elected government by military intervention (mode 2); third, intervening in on-going massacres and civil war with military forces (‘humanitarian intervention’) and thereby curbing the national sovereignty of those countries (mode 3); and fourth, forcing democracy on rogue states by ‘democratic intervention’, in other words, democracy through war (mode 4). In this special issue we consider the legality, legitimacy, and effectiveness of the four modes where the international community of states not only felt impelled to engage in military humanitarian or peace-building missions but also in long-term state- and democracy-building. All cases analysed here suggest that embedding democratization in post-war and post-conflict societies entails a comprehensive agenda of political, social, and economic methods of peace-building. If external actors withdraw before the roots of democracy are deep enough and before democratic institutions are strong enough to stand alone, then the entire endeavour may fail.     

关于生育权和人权的思考

《关于生育权和人权的思考》是一个全社会都很关注的热点。生育权涉及到每个民族、每户家庭、每个公民的切身利益。众所周知,上世纪五十年代,当时的全国人大代表、原北京大学校长、人口经济学家马寅初先生曾提出限制人口数量,提高人口质量的意见,遭到诸多非议。几十年过去了,历史和实践已经证明了他《新人口论》思想的科学性和真理性。上世纪七十年代末,我们将计划生育政策作为国策写进宪法,提倡只生一个好,取得了举世瞩目的成就,少生了4亿人,促进了经济发展、社会进步、综合国力提高和人民生活的改善;同时也带来了诸如人口老龄化迅速成为世界之首、计划生育家庭面临较大风险、维护国家安全、国防安全难度增大等诸多问题。     

How Martin Luther King,Jr’s Pacifist Liberation Theology Makes Reinhold Niebuhr’s Political Realism Possible

Reinhold Niebuhr crafted a compelling theologically based theory of political realism, which became the basis for a withering critique of pacifism. Martin Luther King, Jr was influenced by Niebuhr’s Augustinian realism in his own political theology and practice. However, King lived and thought from a different perspective, had more apocalyptic expectations of divine intervention in history, and embraced pacifism. I argue that Niebuhr fell short of his own realist vision through his idealistic faith in US democracy, and that King’s political theology better enacts Niebuhrian realism. I suggest King achieves this largely because his theology is a liberation theology grounded in pacifist praxis in solidarity with the oppressed. By rejecting Niebuhr’s acceptance of American violence and basing his theology on lived confrontation with American violence, King makes Niebuhr’s political realism possible. This reading of King and Niebuhr illustrates the value of pacifism and theology for political theory and practice.     

Getting a Job in China

正Not too long ago, the idea of migrating from Europe to China for work would have seemed remote or even bizarre. Today, it seems a trend on the rise among Westerners unable to find jobs in recession-ridden home countries. A few weeks ago, I became one of the many young Europeans moving to Beijing to try to seize professional opportunities unimaginable back home.     

Genetic relationships between blowflies (Calliphoridae) of forensic importance.

Phylogenetic relationships among blowfly (Calliphoridae) species of forensic importance are explored using DNA sequence data from the large sub-unit (lsu, 28S) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene, the study includes representatives of a range of calliphorid species commonly encountered in forensic analysis in Britain and Europe. The data presented provide a basis to define molecular markers, including the identification of highly informative intra-sequence regions, which may be of use in the identification of larvae for forensic entomology. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences also provides new insights into the different evolutionary patterns apparent within the family Calliphoridae which, additionally, can provide a measure of the degree of genetic variation likely to be encountered within taxonomic groups of differing forensic utility.     

Duress, International Criminal Law and Literature

This paper uses parallels between Sophocles’ Theban Playsand the House of Lords decision in Dudley and Stephens, to questionthe decision in the Erdemovi case before the International CriminalTribunal for the former Yugoslavia. One should distinguish betweencausal, moral and criminal responsibility. If a man who commitsa crime, not by the action of his free will, is to be foundguilty, we are essentially equating causal responsibility withcriminal guilt. This logic clearly does not correspond withthat of the rest of international criminal law. The storiesof Erdemovi, Oedipus, Dudley and Stephens are tragedies. Eachof the victims/perpetrators felt an overwhelming sense of remorse.Whether they should be considered morally guilty of murder isa matter of individual conscience. The International CriminalTribunal for the Former Yugoslavia majority erred in using anabsolute moral position in Erdemovi. The majority's moral condemnationof the killing of innocents was confused with the question ofwhether Erdemovi should have been criminally punished. The contentof the majority opinion is largely of an irreproachably moralisticnature, though shrouded and mystified by the discussion of precedent.More generally, the decision to try Erdemovi at the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was itself self-defeating.Erdemovi should never have stood trial at The Hague. The internationalcommunity should not aid in self-flagellation. While his actionscannot be approved of, they should not be punished internationally.He could have been helped, supported and reintegrated with fargreater benefit to all.         ‘Heroesare hard to find in an atmosphere of total terror.’¹