This text is important both as one of the most interesting contributions to the liberalism of the German Enlightenment, and as the most significant source for the ideas which John Stuart Mill popularized in his essay On Liberty. Humboldt's concern is to define the criteria by which the permissible limits of the state's activities may be determined. His basic principle, like that of Mill, is that the only justification for government interference is the prevention of harm to others. He discusses in detail the role and limits of the state's responsibility for the welfare, security and morals of...

This book is about the grounds of ethical life, or the nature and basis of our ethical obligations. It contains an original account of these grounds and shows how this understanding requires specific forms of social and political life. Charvet considers the ideas of the freedom and equality of men in the many forms they have taken and shows that there is a radical incoherence underlying them which consists in the failure to integrate in a coherent way the particular and the moral or communal dimensions of individual life. These two dimensions are separated and opposed to each other. In the...

The central thesis of this book is that Bodin's absolutism was as unprecedented as the doctrine it opposed.

This is a critical study of the political and social ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Charvet analyses Rousseau's arguments in his three main works, The Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, Emile, and The Social Contract. The aim is to show how Rousseau's ideas are interrelated and how their development is governed by presuppositions which entail their ultimate incoherence. he shows that the consequences is a corrupt and destructive view of human society and human relations. These presuppositions are implicit in terms of which social relations are to be rethought. What is good about nature...

Vladimir Akimov was the leading spokesman for the 'Economists' in Russia in the early twentieth century. This group of Marxists rebelled in 1898 against Plekkanov, causing within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party a schism which preceded the major split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in 1903. The two major works of Akimov included in this edition have not been republished since 1969. The first is an analysis of the Party Programme inspired by Plekkanov and Lenin as editors of Iskra. The second is a history of the Russian Marxist movement from the early 1890s to Akimov's...

In this work, which has survived only in manuscript form and in Italian, Gardiner analyses the great dynastic changes in England's past in order to provide Phillip II with a guide to ruling England and establishing a Catholic dynasty. He adapts historical example to practical political purposes with great subtlety, quoting at length (but without saying so) from Machiavelli to show that a new prince can rule England - if he eliminates those of royal blood and respects the laws and customs of his new possessions. This edition is a carefully edited text of the Italian and Professor Donaldson has...

Professor Franklin here explains a major innovation associated with the English Civil Wars.

This book is a complete translation of Marx's critical commentary on paragraphs 261 313 of Hegel's major work in political theory. In this text Marx subjects Hegel's doctrine on the internal constitution of the state to a lengthy analysis. It was Marx's first attempt to expose and criticize Hegel's philosophy in general and his political philosophy in particular. It also represents his early efforts to criticize existing political institutions and to clarify the relations between the political and economic aspects of society. The Critique provides textual evidence in support of the argument...

August Cieszkowski (1814 1894) was a philosopher, economist, social reformer and political activist. As early as 1838 he formulated a daring critique of Hegel, which culminated in the notion of praxis and marked the beginning of the radicalization of the Hegelian school. Throughout the 1840s he participated in the social movement in France with a variety of highly original economic and social schemes. After 1848 he played a key role in Polish politics and elaborated a future-oriented and messianic vision of history that sought to integrate Hegel and Christianity. The publication of this...

The pueblos jovenes or 'young towns' of Lima, capital of Peru, are one of the most spectacular phenomena of Latin American urbanization. They were originally formed when poor migrants from the sierra invaded vacant land within the city, initially erecting matting shelters; but latterly governments encouraged the upgrading of these settlements, through the self-help of their residents, and in consequence many older pueblos jovenes developed into poor working-class suburbs with solidly built houses. In this book, which was originally published in 1980 as part of the Urbanization in Developing...