Browsing by Subject "Eighteenth century"

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Open Access
The relevance of the eighteenth century to modern political theory
(SAGE, 2022) Alexander, James
The eighteenth century is still the bottleneck of the history of political theory: the century that separates pre-economic theorists such as Machiavelli, Bodin and Hobbes from post-economic theorists such as Hegel, Mill and Marx. Political thinking became immeasurably much more complicated in the eighteenth century: and yet historians, after at least half a century of extremely judicious scholarship, still have difficulty explaining its significance for contemporary theory. Sagar’s Adam Smith Reconsidered is an important contribution to the attempt to clarify just how modern political theorists should look backward – without hastening back to the abstractions of the seventeenth century or remaining confined to particular involutions of the nineteenth century. Its specific originality is in drawing attention to two important ideas of Adam Smith, seldom seen clearly or at all, ‘the quirk of rationality’ and ‘the conspiracy of merchants’. Political theorists as well as historians of political thought will benefit from familiarising themselves with these ideas.
Open Access
Sanctifying the robe: Punitive violence and the English press, 1650–1700
(Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2004) Rosenberg, Philippe; Devereaux, S.; Griffiths, P.
It has become almost commonplace to treat punishment as a self-contained sociological phenomenon to be interpreted in terms of sentences or patterns of prosecution. Unfortunately, this widespread approach tends to overlook how punitive power itself has been understood. Much like its ancient and medieval predecessors, modern punishment is supported by a set of rituals, rationales and explanations that serve to legitimize it. This symbolic apparatus not only underwrites punishment, but also marks it off as something distinct from ‘mere’ violence. Rationales are therefore every bit as crucial to the sociology of punishment as are the severity of sanctions, the frequency of punitive action, or the legal machinery that surround its application.
Open Access
The Lower Danube on the eve of the great crisis in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century (analysis of a contemporary source)
(2023-08) Gencer, Merve
This thesis examines life on the border within the context of the Ottoman Empire, focusing on the specific case of Wallachia. The central focus is the report of a commission established to investigate complaints arising from the position of Wallachia against central administration and the corruption and abuses of power by military-origin groups seeking to benefit from it. Primarily relying on archival sources such as commission reports, mühimme defters, and court records, and secondary sources, this study aims to provide alternative perspectives to existing interpretations. The investigations conducted demonstrate that such incidents were not unique to the 18th century, a period when the empire was relatively weaker, but extended back to the era of Suleyman, a time characterized by a strong central authority. This finding challenges the notion that the emergence of estates in the 18th century laid the foundation for decentralization.