Oliver Cromwell--The Grinch That Stole Christmas

Keeping track of legislative history—even within one’sown jurisdiction—is not always easy. Some sources—evenprimary sources—are obscure. One such instance is thelegislation of the English Interregnum. The English Common Lawconveniently smoothes over this disruption to legal continuityby means of a legal fiction. The restored monarchy takes effectas if the discontinuity had never taken place. Although notking de facto until 29 May 1660, Charles II is king de jurefrom the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. The regnalyears flow unabated for parliaments without a king, no lessthan they did for the 11 years that Charles I ruled personallywithout a parliament. Historians focus on the facts, while lawyers prescribe a greaterforcefulness to law. The Interregnum is a fact that for itsown time took precedence over law. Nevertheless, what is oneto do with the 10 years of intervening and often anomalouslyenacted legislation? The proponents of the Cromwellian Protectoratesay recognise it, while the Restoration Monarchists say ignoreit. There has already been a long drawn-out Civil War, so thecompromise is to leave the records hard to find and let thelegislation languish, thus providing one of the earliest examplesof political correctness. Under various rules of recognition, the intervening legislationof the Long and Little Parliaments, together with the Ordinancesof the Protectorate, have legislative status. As seen to satisfythe legislative protocols of their own time, such Acts and Ordinancesare arguably either statute law, or else, through subsequentparliamentary confirmation, are given the force of statute law. The fact remains that much of this extraordinary legislationremains hard to find. Rumours abound—especially in suchareas of highly disputatious, politically controversial, radicallyreformative, and otherwise outrightly pathological legislation.Until authenticated, one of the most obvious examples of apparentlyapocryphal, but obviously pathological legislation is that whichoutlawed the celebration of Christmas in England. This articletracks this legislation down to an Appendix to the Directoryfor Public Worship. According to its title, this was ‘anOrdinance for taking away the Book of Common Prayer and forestablishing and putting in execution of the Directory for thePublique Worship of God’. Although without royal assent,this was passed by the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliamenton 4 January 1644/1645. This article is as much concerned withthe process of legislative research and legal authenticationas it is with the substantive and jurisprudential issues.     

New Bourgeoisies?

Indonesia: The Rise of Capital. By Richard Robison. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986. Pp.425. £11.95. ISBN 0 04 909024 0.

Government and Private Sector in Contemporary Mexico. Edited by Sylvia Maxfield and Ricardo Anzaldúa Montoya. San Diego: Center for US‐Mexican Studies, University of California, Monograph Series 20, 1987. Pp.148. $12.50.

The African Bourgeoisie: Capitalist Development in Nigeria, Kenya, and the Ivory Coast. Edited by Paul M. Lubeck. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.414. £24.95. ISBN 0 931477 86 7.

Entrepreneurship, Equity and Economic Development. By E. Wayne Nafziger. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.xxiv + 308. £44.95. ISBN 0 89232 711 1.     

MANAGING THE RISE OF CHINA(REVIEW ARTICLE)

A survey of a number of books about how the overall international system will need to be modified so as to cope with the rise of China. Clearly the single most important relationship will be that between the US and China. The present structure of that bilateral relationship is inadequate for future needs.     

An MP's role in the internet Era – The impact of e-newsletters

The role of MPs changes over time. Commentators have identified five separate roles that an MP may carry out for which communication with constituents may be a key factor in determining the success of an MP. One of the latest, and currently underdeveloped, forms of direct political communication to constituents is e-newsletters from MPs. This article addresses how MPs are using their e-newsletter to help fulfil each of their parliamentary roles. A content analysis of the e-newsletters of seven MPs sent out regularly over a 1-year period from April 2003 to March 2004 was conducted. The data found that e-newsletters best helped fulfil both the political and non-political aspects of the constituency role. However, the article concludes that e-newsletter communication is primarily one-way, but that if it was two-way it might help MPs in all of their roles.     

Microblogging,Constituency Service and Impression Management: UK MPs and the Use of Twitter

Twitter, a microblogging site which allows users to deliver statements, thoughts and links in 140 characters to followers as well as a wider Internet audience, is the latest online communications technology adopted by MPs. Assessing the use by early adopters, this article considers which MPs are most likely to use Twitter (for example, tweeting), and how. Content analysis of MPs' Twitter feeds was conducted, and personal and political characteristics identified which may influence use. The data suggested that of the six characteristics tested, gender, party and seniority had most impact on adoption. Applying Jones and Pittman's 1982 typology, there is clear evidence that MPs use Twitter as a tool of impression management. Constituency service is a secondary function of the use of Twitter by MPs. Where MPs use Twitter as part of their constituency role it is to promote their local activity. This article notes that a small group of MPs use Twitter as a regular communication channel, but most are only occasionally dipping their toe into the microbloggersphere.     

General election marketing—selling a can of beans,building a favours bank or managing an event?

This paper applies three marketing approaches to identify a possible framework for analysing the 2010 general election. The first approach to be assessed is transactional, which is the traditional view of political marketing. The second approach is relationship marketing, of which there is some evidence that it has applied to politics. The third approach, experiential, has not yet been applied to the political context. As this is an exploratory research project, the data are collected from one small geographical area, Devon. Interviews were conducted with candidates in the 12 seats in this county to identify which, if any, of these three marketing approaches might apply to UK general elections. The article, argues that a hybrid approach to political marketing, drawing on all three approaches can potentially offer researchers a framework for understanding general election campaigns. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

'It's the romance,not the finance,that makes the business worth pursuing': disclosing a new market culture

This paper argues that the new economy was a rhetorical fabrication, which, through the ability of stakeholders like the cultural circuit of capital, was able to define what the facts consisted of and to train up bodies that bent to those facts. This fabrication could therefore produce regularities in the world. In the first instance, the chief beneficiary was the financial sector, which was able to use the new economy rhetoric to engineer a financial bubble. But, even after the inevitable financial crash, the new economy has left a legacy which should not be scoffed at.