The article analyses selected problems pertaining to the Senate – the upper chamber in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Two Nations during the reign of the Vasa dynasty (1587–1668). The author ...characterises the Senate by discussing nominations, numbers, and precedence of the senators. Moreover, he presents certain aspects associated with the role and activity of the senators in the course of the pre-Sejm campaign and during Sejm debates. While describing the work carried out by the Polish-Lithuanian Parliament the author draws attention to the less than imposing attendance, the significance of senatorial wota (opinions and commentaries of senators), and the positive impact exerted by the Senate in the final phase of the Sejm – the conclusion. Upon the basis of the conducted analyses it becomes obvious that the Senate performed, not only in the course of the debates held by the Sejm, several roles – that of a parliamentary estate, an ‘intermediary estate’, and a guardian of law.
The study examines the ideological foundations and prerequisites for the independence of the British colonies in North America. We examine the construction of the state system, first passing through ...the confederate model of state organization, which is the closest to the traditions of the colonial period. However, it failed due to some "defects" of the Articles of Confederation of 1777, the main one being the lack of financial security to pursue union politics. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention drafted a constitution for the United States, with centralism and unitarism prevailing in the discussions, abandoning some of the principles that prompted the Americans to begin the struggle for independence. The Constitution of 1787 and the Declaration of Rights, adopted two years later, put into practice the ideas of the European Enlightenment, supplemented by English parliamentary theory and practice. This creates a solid foundation for the development of the United States and the prosperity of the young "nation."
This book provides a new interpretation of the fall of the Roman Empire and the 'barbarian' kingdom known conventionally as Ostrogothic Italy. Relying primarily on Italian textual and material ...evidence, and in particular the works of Cassiodorus and Ennodius, Jonathan J. Arnold argues that contemporary Italo-Romans viewed the Ostrogothic kingdom as the Western Roman Empire and its 'barbarian' king, Theoderic (r.489/93–526), as its emperor. Investigating conceptions of Romanness, Arnold explains how the Roman past, both immediate and distant, allowed Theoderic and his Goths to find acceptance in Italy as Romans, with roles essential to the Empire's perceived recovery. Theoderic and the Roman Imperial Restoration demonstrates how Theoderic's careful attention to imperial traditions, good governance, and reconquest followed by the re-Romanization of lost imperial territories contributed to contemporary sentiments of imperial resurgence and a golden age. There was no need for Justinian to restore the Western Empire: Theoderic had already done so.
PDF
