Empires and the Politics of Difference

Burbank, Jane; Cooper, Frederick

doi:10.1093/oso/9780199772360.003.0012

Cited by 8 publications

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“…In other words, the empire 3 operates within ambiguity – and herein lies its resilience as a model and a system. Ambiguity is at the core of what Burbank and Cooper (2011: 3) called ‘imperial repertoires’ characterised by a dialogue between improvisation and habit that kept empires flexible and, although constrained by geography and history, open to innovation. It is this ambiguity that allows bringing together the empire and reform – and, at times, even broader political change – without putting the whole imperial model into question.…”

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confidence: 99%

Redefining the Russian Empire: The turn to liberal imperialism through the letters of Prince Nikolay A. Orlov at the height of the Great Reforms

Filipe

2022

New Perspectives

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Prince Nikolay Alexeyevich Orlov (1827–1885) was an aristocrat, a war hero and a prominent diplomat of the Russian Empire who enjoyed a prestigious position from a very young age. In his correspondence with Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich in the early 1860s, Prince Orlov expounded his views on Russian politics, putting forward his liberal outlook of what the empire ought to be. His most crucial proposals were (i) revising Russian foreign policy and redefining imperial borders (which included solving the ‘Polish Question’); (ii) adopting federalism with local representative institutions based on a notion of ‘legitimate power’; (iii) introducing bottom-up reforms; (iv) abolishing ‘backwards practices’ (in particular, corporal punishment) and (v) guaranteeing civil rights and equality before the law. Based on letters and other writings that remain vastly under-researched in Russia and practically unknown to English-speaking audiences, I analyse Prince Orlov’s correspondence as illustrative of a broader ideological turn to liberal imperialism and contextualise it from Russian and European perspectives. By positing that Russian liberalism was strongly impacted by the successes and shortcomings of the liberal imperialism of the 1860s, I invite the reader to rethink some ideological and chronological boundaries that are routinely taken for granted in discussions regarding liberalism, imperialism and their interconnectedness.

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confidence: 99%

Redefining the Russian Empire: The turn to liberal imperialism through the letters of Prince Nikolay A. Orlov at the height of the Great Reforms

Filipe

2022

New Perspectives

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“…Taking these elements together, China can be positioned as an "imperial nation," currently located at the midpoint of the empire-nation continuum (Lee, 2011). The crux of the empire is the politics of difference (Burbank & Cooper, 2010), while the nation-state is modeled on the nexus of "one nation, one people, one jurisdiction" (Wimmer, 2004). As the system of legal pluralism continues, the principle of legal equality in a single nation-state has not yet been realized.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ethnic Distinctions, Legal Connotations: Chinese Patterns of Boundary Making and Crossing

Lee

2021

Sage Open

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This study analyzes, from a comparative and historical perspective, the clash between state statutory law and native customary law and the consequential effects of that rivalry on ethno-legal categories. It adopts a long-term perspective on Chinese society, with a particular focus on its history over the last three centuries. Although the imperial Chinese state had a centralized legal code, many non-Han subjects followed different legal standards and systems. Such conditions became the basis of legal pluralism and the structural constraint for full-fledged legal uniformity. It is argued that state-imposed ethnic categories in China have been institutionalized to determine those who should be protected, or even privileged, by their own native law. This is especially true during the alien dynasties of conquest, which purposely emphasized the principle of personal law to preserve legal prerogatives of ruling ethnicity. Similarly, indigenes on the frontier carried a variety of legal exemptions on grounds of the principle of territorial law. Such conditions could leave room for individual agency and provide incentives for both acculturated Han settlers and sinicized indigenes to claim native status. Several examples, including an 18th-century homicide case in China’s southwestern frontier, substantiate how individuals manipulated their ethnicity for their self-advantage and how these behaviors complicated the personality and territoriality principles of imperial law. In this sense, ethnic law served as an institutionalized distillation of ethnic group boundaries, which were realigned by shifts in self-identity. The legacy of China’s imperial practices of particularistic jural relations continues today.

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“…In practice, it may be argued that there is a US‐led unipolar world, although one that is increasingly bifurcated. This is essentially ideological and a reflection of the ‘US Empire’ , unlike most other empires in world history (Burbank & Cooper, 2010), having always been an ideological empire.…”

Section: Us/western Hegemony – a Conflict Of Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A future multipolar world

Lloyd

Dixon

2022

Global Policy

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The contemporary geopolitical world is unipolar, with the US (aided by its Western allies) attempting to impose a specific ideological polity on the rest of the world. The analysis developed in this paper is that such an absolutist political approach is dangerous to the peaceful stability of the world order and fails to appreciate the dynamic, interleaved layering across economic, trade, monetary, security, and politico‐cultural functionality. These interactions are structuring the establishment of a limited number of supra‐regions, interacting functionally, within and across the wide geographical areas concerned. This strengthening tendency should be seen as a positive evolutionary strategy that may lead to a multipolar world order that can be effective in achieving a constructive and consensual approach to the peaceful resolution of global conflicts, while allowing essential politico‐cultural diversity. This approach and its implications for UN reform are explored.

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Empires and the Politics of Difference

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Redefining the Russian Empire: The turn to liberal imperialism through the letters of Prince Nikolay A. Orlov at the height of the Great Reforms

Redefining the Russian Empire: The turn to liberal imperialism through the letters of Prince Nikolay A. Orlov at the height of the Great Reforms

Ethnic Distinctions, Legal Connotations: Chinese Patterns of Boundary Making and Crossing

A future multipolar world

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