Magna Carta, the Rule of Law and the Limits on Government

This paper surveys the legal tradition that links Magna Carta with the modern concepts of the rule of law and the limits on government. It documents that the original understanding of the rule of law included substantive commitments to individual freedom and limited government. Then, it attempts at explaining how and why such commitments were lost to a formalist interpretation of the rule of law from 1848 to 1939. The paper concludes by arguing how a revival of the substantive commitments of the rule of law is central in a project of reshaping modern states

Charakteristika der staatlichen Einbindung von Eliten und Bevölkerung in Ideokratien

"This paper shows that ideocracies, especially communist ideocracies, have a specific pattern of cooptation and incorporation of elites and ordinary citizens, which is different from all other political regime types. Ideocracies dominate society through and through by a net of measures that make the citizens materially dependent on the state, from which the individual citizen cannot escape. The strong concentration of the distribution of goods and positions in the hands of the ideocratic state goes hand in glove with the great power to repress non - co - opted people. However, there are trade - offs in the ideocratic pattern of cooptation. The tendency of ideocracies to infantilize its citizens, may provoke reluctance even among otherwise politically indifferent citizens. Nevertheless, despite the trade - offs, the specific pattern of cooptation and incorporation of citizens and elites might help to explain why communist ideocracies were very durable in comparison to other types of political regimes." (author's abstract

Portrayals of the Holocaust in English history textbooks, 1991–2016: continuities, challenges and concerns

This study examines portrayals of the Holocaust in a sample of 21 secondary school history textbooks published in England between 1991 and 2016. Evaluated against internationally recognized criteria and guidelines, the content of most textbooks proved very problematic. Typically, textbooks failed to provide clear chronological and geographical frameworks and adopted simplistic Hitler-centric, perpetrator-oriented narratives. Furthermore, textbooks paid limited attention to pre-war Jewish life, the roots of antisemitism, the complicity of local populations and collaborationist regimes, and the impact of the Holocaust on people across Europe. Based on these critical findings, the article concludes by offering initial recommendations for textbook improvement