scholarly journals From a Confucian Literati to a Military General: Li Hung Chang’s Views of Western Technology (1885-1896)

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Haixia Wang
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
State Power ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Historical Time

<p class="1Body">This paper focuses on Li Hung Chang (1823-1901)’s visit to England and America in 1896, to rethink and revaluate the importat role Li played at that historical time. Li Hung Chang toured Europe and America in 1896 as an imperial envoy of the first rank. Although some aspects of Li’s career and evaluation have been given monographic treatment, there is yet little study on his comments on his attitudes toward Western science and technology. This paper augues that if modernization is a matter of modern state power as an army, navy, or diplomatic corps, then Li was certainly a modernizer. But if modernization is a deeper process of organizational and institutional change, Li was not a determined modernizer. In fact, Li relied heavily on patronage even when he could exercise legitimate political power, in order to adovocate Self-Strengthening Movement.</p>

scholarly journals The diversity of tactics: Anarchism and political power

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Frazer
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Political Power ◽  
State Power ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Power Base

This review essay focusses on Gelderloos's normative theory of diversity of tactics. The book is worth serious attention by political theorists because of its sustained analysis of violence, nonviolence, tactics and strategy, but the normative theory fails. The essay endorses Gelderloos's nuanced analysis of the violence-nonviolence distinction and aspects of his account of tactics-strategy-goals. But the concepts ‘state' and ‘politics' are both treated by him in an overly simple way. Although aspects of his account show how complex any state-society distinction is, in other contexts he suggests that it is easy for actors to divide state enemies from oppressed society friends. He rejects politics as the capture of state power for dominating and self-interested purposes, and dismisses all other aspects of political power, institutions and relationships. He thereby denies any role for politics in the sustainability of the anarchist activism he wishes to defend and endorse. In particular his disavowal of any political power base to coalitions, means that coalitional action can only be depicted as evanescent and episodic, while anarchist action is premissed on putting fellow actors who are not comrades beyond the realm of care of concern.

scholarly journals Implementation of Public Administration Reforms in Modern Ukraine: Sectoral Aspect

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
Oleksii HATSULIA
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
State Power ◽  
State Building ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Improvement Of Legislation ◽  
Constitutional Changes

It is proved that in formulating proposals for institutional change in Ukraine an important task is to determine the strategy, tactics and specific measures for the full application of the Constitution of Ukraine and the basic laws governing the institutional development of management subsystems. The basis of institutional change is the sectoral direction of modern public administration, improvement of legislation, dissemination of public positive perception of such changes and the formation of public and personal needs for change. It is established that the effectiveness of Ukraine’s reforms in the sectoral dimension, in addition to the presence of a political program, requires legal support, the formation of an effective system of state bodies to implement such changes, ensuring coordination of government efforts on sectoral reforms. New theoretical and methodological approaches to practical tasks in the field of institutional support of reforms are substantiated. It is substantiated that in the socio-political plan public administration reforms are conditioned by the need to resolve or minimize the contradictions of institutional interaction, which are formalized by the principles of governance. It is established that public administration reforms should implement the tasks of state building on the basis of value principles, aimed at improving the organization of state power, subordinated to the goals of social development. The process of constitutional changes and the impact of such changes on the system of public administration is studied. Methodological bases and practical aspects of development and implementation of constitutional changes in public administration activity are determined. The basis of constitutional changes is the improvement of legislation, the spread of public positive perception of such changes and the formation of public and personal needs for change. It is established that the effectiveness of constitutional changes in Ukraine, in addition to having the appropriate political will, requires proper legal support, the formation of an effective system of state bodies to implement such changes, ensuring proper coordination of government efforts to implement constitutional changes. New theoretical and methodological approaches to practical tasks in the field of reforming the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine are substantiated. Recommendations and proposals for solving the problem of implementing constitutional changes at both the state and regional levels are provided. It is established that public administration reforms should implement the tasks of state building on the basis of the values of the constitutional order within the process of amending the Constitution of Ukraine, aimed at improving the organization of state power, subject to the goals of social development.

The Archive as a “Collective Project”

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-533
Author(s):  
Nilay Özok-Gündoğan
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
State Government ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Governmental Body ◽  
National Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

The history of the archive is the history of the state. Or so say conventional approaches to the archives. Until recently, the archive has been seen solely as a site, or rather a repository, of modern state power and governmentality, and a crucial medium for the making and preservation of national memory in the late 19th century. There is a truth to this state-centric perspective: the archive was conceived as a place where governments keep their records; they usually contain a term such as “state,” “government,” or “national” in their names; and they are often funded by and connected to a governmental body.

Denationalization

2017 ◽  
pp. 357-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Gibney
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
State Power ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Citizenship Status ◽  
The Way

Citizenship in the modern state is in many ways uniquely secure as a status. Yet states have always possessed some bases through which they may remove citizenship, including fraud, disloyalty, acquisition of another citizenship, marriage to a foreigner, and threat to public order. Indeed, denationalization powers have recently gained attention as many liberal states have created new laws to strip citizenship from individuals involved with terrorism. In this chapter, I explore the practice of denationalization. I first consider the definition, grounds, and historical development of denationalization power. I then draw from recent academic work to show how denationalization offers insights into questions of significance relating to the ethical limits of state power, the historical development of citizenship status, and the way restrictive immigration controls impact upon state members. I conclude with a discussion of some outstanding issues raised by the denationalization for scholars of citizenship.

The Stela of the Laws of Hammurabi and the Representation of Political Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-48
Author(s):  
Pamela Barmash
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Direct Gaze ◽  
Stone Monument ◽  
Cultural Power ◽  
Set Up

This chapter explains how the Stela (stone monument) of the Laws of Hammurabi was employed as a manifestation of political power. A royal investiture scene is at the top of the Stela, and the artist manipulated the imagery cleverly to enhance the legitimacy and authority of Hammurabi. Standard imagery is skillfully reconfigured to exalt him. The king stands alone before Shamash, the god of justice, and the direct gaze between them symbolizes their close bond and the near equality of their status. Other elements in the imagery vividly promoted the message that Hammurabi had been exalted and authorized as king by the gods. It is not surprising, then, that a number of stelas inscribed with the Laws of Hammurabi were set up. Ironically, the Stela itself was seized centuries later by another king wanting to manifest his authority, and then by a modern state displaying its cultural power.

Identifying the Elements of State Power

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEWIS W. SNIDER
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
State Power ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Domestic Policy ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Theoretical Rationale ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Policy Adjustment ◽  
International Environment

Many measures of state power are defined in terms of the material capabilities of states, but ignore important differentials in the state's capacity to convert material resources into political power. This paper presents a theoretical rationale for a measure of government performance that takes into account differentials in a political system's susceptibility to external shocks from the global environment and its ability to respond to these through domestic policy adjustment. This approach differs from other empirical definitions of power in that it taps a government's strength with respect to its own society and to the international environment. The paper's main contribution is to describe and to operationalize a way of evaluating state power with respect to both the global environment and to society, based on the twin functions of penetration and extraction.

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