Suchergebnisse

This is a short history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims.

This lively collection of essays gives a non-technical, but profound analysis of the essential relationship between politics and literature.

Historically and contemporaneously the interrelations of the nations of the British Isles are as important as their differentiation. Modern revisionist historians, Irish and British, understand this better that many politicians and publicists. Nationalism as separatism and strong national consciousness are commonly confused when the English media consider Scotland. Gordon Brown stresses 'Britishness' to preserve the union but this is counterproductive. All his examples of British events are English, none Scots or Welsh, and his British values are mainly universal. A true construction of Britishness is to see it as a strong but narrow practical legal and political framework within which different cultures, old and new, can both flourish and intermingle. So strong are both social and economic interrelations that Scottish independence could be less consequential than commonly supposed.

The classical and the former Catholic doctrines of tyrannicide remind us that in the Western tradition of citizenship and political thought, tyrannicide is worthy. Recent legislation against the glorification of terrorism is too wide and vague, and denies any link between tyrannicide and liberty. A good production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar should not make the act of tyrannicide per se problematic, but should seize the dilemma of whether or not Julius Caesar was becoming a tyrant rather than a consul with constitutional powers for war or emergency. Both Hannah Arendt and our contemporary Ted Honderich offer philosophical justifications of violence in defined and not uncommon circumstances. Terrorism is sometimes the only resort of the poor and oppressed.