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The jester embodies an ancient social institution, which serves a paradoxical purpose: to mitigate the excesses of power, while serving and supporting the ruler through a license to jest. The metaphor of the jester, used constructively, offers a unique window on the contradictions of organizational studies and their paradoxical role in relation to corporate practices. We explore how jesting may inform academic work through using humour and laughter to deconstruct organizational taboos and convey truth to power. We suggest that academic jesting constitute a wise and undervalued way in which management learning can occur.

Background: Quantifying first ray mobility is crucial to understand aberrant foot biomechanics. A novel device (MAP1st) that can perform measurements of first ray mobility in different weightbearing conditions, foot alignments, and normalization was tested. The reliability of these measurement techniques was assessed in comparison to a handheld ruler considered representative of the common clinical examination. Methods: The study included 25 participants (50 feet). Two independent raters performed baseline, test-retest, and remove-replace measurements of first ray mobility with MAP1st and the handheld device. The effects of non-, partial, and full weightbearing in subtalar joint neutral and the resting calcaneal stance position were assessed. Measurement normalization relative to foot size was also investigated. Intra- and interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated for each device between the 2 raters. In addition, Bland-Altman plots were constructed to determine if fixed biases or substantial outliers were present. Results: Similar intrarater ICC values were found for both devices (≥0.85). However, interrater ICC values were substantially improved by MAP1st compared with the handheld device (0.58 vs 0.06). Bland-Altman plots demonstrated biases of 1.27 mm for the handheld ruler, and 2.88 to 0.05 mm and −1.16 to 0.00 for linear and normalized MAP1st measurements, respectively. Improved reliability was achieved with MAP1st for normalized assessments of first ray mobility while the foot was placed in partial- and full-weightbearing resting calcaneal stance positions. Conclusion: MAP1st provided reliable assessments of partial- and full-weightbearing first ray mobility. It should help investigators to explore the potential relationships between first ray function and aberrant foot biomechanics in future research. Level of Evidence: Level II, prospective cohort study.

Regarding launching an urban renewal project, rising social pressure makes the grassroots state harden the rules while the remaining high pressure from the top makes them keep rules elastic, the contradiction between which causes a dilemma in urban development nowadays. Taking a landmark pilot project as an example, via the observation of the practice of the rule-hardening principle described as “one ruler measures to the end”, this article tries to answer the question of how it is possible for power to reproduce its operational space under recently rising regulatory constraints. In this case, the principle of “rule hardening” includes both “results” and “process” and is fulfilled through a three-step mechanism of hardening in external conditions, hardening in compromising rules and hardening in the limitation of introducing pressure. Through this mechanism, the grassroots state manages to mobilize the resources embedded in the system and extend the hidden boundaries of the hard and rigorous rules on the surface that make the rules elastic and soft again, but in a more formal institutional and organizational way. This could be considered the state’s response to the rising social protests during the last phase and indicates a more subtle and less obvious manner of governance, which shows the continuous interaction between the state and the society in the long view of history.

Seventeenth-century English dramatists produced several ‘disguised duke’ plays in which a ruler disguises himself to reinforce political control. Critics typically view these as a call for monarchs to address corruption at court. But such readers have largely ignored the epistemological shift represented: knowledge is based on circulation among, observation of, and dialogue with citizens rather than on textual traditions. Together, the plays legitimise the knowledge and experience of observers immersed in London’s daily life, playwrights included. Moreover, the disguised ruler motif also contributed to the social practices through which ‘new’ empirical forms of knowledge gained authority.

This son of a former local ruler, from the elite Brahman community that had presided over the fortunes of the Maratha Empire before its defeat by the British Raj, became a Christian convert and then served as a pastor of local churches in Western India for nearly forty years. His autobiography was later turned into a prize-winning novel. This rare pioneering vernacular account, reflecting the highly complex, multilayered cultural legacy of an emerging hybrid Christianity, represented a new genre of nativist devotion and piety. Subjected to a carefully contextualized and critical scholarship, we now have this work in English.

Background The proportional method of acupuncture point location (APL) currently taught at Endeavor College of Natural Health and advocated by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) was found to be imprecise and/or inaccurate in previous student studies. The ruler and elastic methods of APL were identified as more accurate or precise than the proportional method of APL but were not well received by student participants. Use of an adjustable ruler may overcome barriers to uptake of the more accurate APL methods. This pilot study was the first to evaluate the comparative accuracy of the adjustable ruler and the proportional methods of APL in first-year students at a major Australian acupuncture training college. Methods After 10 weeks of in-class instruction in both proportional and adjustable ruler methods of APL, student participants (n = 14) attempted location of three acupuncture points (LI10, SP6 and ST38) on a volunteer using both APL methods of interest. A self-administered questionnaire and lecturer field notes elucidated attitudes to implementation of both APL methods. Results Points marked using the adjustable ruler were closer to the correct location than those marked using the proportional method across all three acupuncture points. Students and lecturers rated the adjustable ruler more highly than the proportional method for ease of learning and ease of use. Conclusion Encouraging results with the adjustable ruler method warrant further larger scale studies. Use of the adjustable ruler method of APL should be considered for use in point location training at educational institutions teaching traditional acupuncture.

This article presents ways to promote children’s measurement reasoning in a preschool classroom setting using a non-standard unit. Providing children with a personalized ruler allows them to practice measurement as part of their daily routine.

In the prophecy of Micah 5, the promised Davidide is depicted as a domestic ruler and not a conquering deliverer. The role of the Davidide as shepherd is stated but receives no elaboration, though by implication his chief task is to promote social justice. He is the divinely designated ruler of God’s people, but is not accorded the title ‘king’. With regard to the subjugation of the nations, Davidic prerogatives are democratized and transferred to the remnant. Although the Davidic ruler is the centrepiece of Micah’s picture of the final kingdom of God, he is not said to be responsible for the peace or deliverance to be enjoyed by God’s people. The result is that in the prophecy of Micah, Yhwh is the undisputed King and Deliverer.

The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is said to be the ‘first kāvya’ (poem) in Sanskrit, but the age of its compilation is uncertain. The Junagarh inscription of the Śaka ruler Rudradāman, ad 150, is the first datable Sanskrit poem belonging to the category of praśastis. Praśastis became increasingly common subsequently as a tool of flattery and means of monarchical legitimisation. In time it became normal for every sovereign to have a praśasti composed for himself, so that inscriptions carrying praśastis tended to become more and more numerous. The Harṣacarita of Bāṇa shows how long texts could carry this form of literature, which, in turn, would influence the style and similes of subsequently inscribed praśastis. The Palam Baoli inscription (1,276) shows how a praśasti could now be compiled without the court of the ruler (in this case Sultan Balban) being aware of it. Obviously, praśastis lost their political utility. Although subsequently too praśastis were composed, their legitimising role seems to have been over now. This boded ill for the kāvya form as well.

Six early copper plate charters of the Pāla dynasty of eastern India introduce petitioners requesting the reigning king to grant tax-free land to either a Buddhist monastery or a temple of Viṣṇu or Śiva established by them. The structure and content of such charters are similar to yet somewhat distinct from contemporary copper plates recording direct land grants made by the Pāla kings. By analysing the representation of petitioners in different segments of a copper plate inscription, the article shows that they are the primary donors seeking the king’s ratification of property transfers made by them. Consequently, in acknowledgement of their role in the donative act, the term petitioner-donors has been coined to refer to them. What enriches the group of Pāla petitioner-donors is the presence of both royal and private individuals, one of whom was the ruler of a Southeast Asian kingdom. On the basis of the profile of the six petitioner-donors, the article classifies them into three distinct categories, each of which registered its donative activity at a different locus within the Pāla domain. A comparative analysis of the eulogies (praśastis) of the petitioner-donors shows how the power balance was worked out between them, on the one hand, and the Pāla kings from Dharmapāla to Gopāla II, on the other, in the period between the late eighth century and the third quarter of the ninth century.

Imperial count of the Holy Roman Empire and sovereign ruler Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1724–1777) established in his small state of Schaumburg-Lippe the prototype of the nation in arms decades before the French levée en masse. Count Wilhelm also founded an educational institution designed to educate and train both civilian and military leaders in homeland defence. He was also the first German prince to condemn aggressive, offensive war. His most famous student was Gerhard von Scharnhorst. After Prussia’s catastrophic defeat in 1806, Scharnhorst was able to lay the foundations of a modern Prussian military along the lines of Count Wilhelm’s national army. Using primary and secondary source material, this article analyses the tremendous contribution of Count Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe to modern military history.

How educators and students process and respond to emotions can either enhance or impede the development of the whole child. Social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the processes of developing social and emotional competencies, which depend on individuals’ capacity to recognize, understand, and manage emotions (i.e., emotional intelligence or EI). Consensus across disciplines about the importance of EI highlights the need to advance the science of how to teach SEL. RULER, an evidence-based approach to teaching EI, provides an educational framework that encompasses a set of practices for comprehensive SEL integration across a school or district. In this article, we describe RULER, explain how it teaches EI, and summarize evidence of its effectiveness.

The paradigmatic antagonistic relationship between the Nigerian poet and the despot in his guise as a military ruler has often been examined in terms of a hegemonic contestation of power between unequal rivals. The military state’s typical response to the poet’s “truth” with the display of excessive might, often involving the emblematic battering of the poet’s tongue by the imposition of silence even in its eternal form of death, entrenches the notion of a powerful antagonist pitted against a weak opponent who nonetheless incarnates the spirit of the masses. A close reading of anti-military Nigerian poetry, however, underscores that the situation was replete with paradoxes: the inability of power to ignore apparent powerlessness; the ultimate triumph of powerlessness over power; and the fascinating replication in the counter-discourse of the (discursive) strategies of the dominant hegemony it battles against. This study highlights these trends in contemporary Nigerian poetry inspired by military despotism by paying particular attention to the work of the “third generation” of Nigerian poets.

The rulers of the Sena dynasty claim to belong to the lunar race. They were settled in Bengal as a ruling dynasty. With the attack of Muhammad ibn Bakhtyar Khilji in AD 1202, the rule of King Lakshmanasena, the last ruler of Bengal of this dynasty, ended. The rulers of Sena dynasty, after their decline in Bengal in AD 1205, appeared in the land of Nepal and established the kingdom of Makawanpur during the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The kingdom of Makawanpur was subjugated by the then rising political power of Gorkhalis in AD 1762. In the Senas’ rule, the nature of administration was centralised, though there were judicial, district and local administrative units. Besides, the influence of Mughal administration is clearly seen in the administration during the Senas’ rule. It is said that the historical study of administrative posts during the Sena period is essential to understand the present-day administration of Nepal.

Appointing a successor (the “prince”) allows the ruler (the “king”) to alter the structures of conflicts that take place between him and his potential challengers, as well as the structures of conflicts that take place among his potential challengers. Motivated by historical examples and using an infinite horizon rulership competition game, we show that while an appointed prince constitutes a powerful and dangerous threat to the incumbent ruler (the elevated threat effect), the appointed prince can also offer the incumbent ruler increased protection against other potential challengers (the barrier effect). We determine conditions when the overall effect of appointing a successor benefits the incumbent ruler and enables him to acquire a larger share of the governance rent in equilibrium.

According to the classical Muslim scholar Māwardī, rule is to bring about just order in society in accordance with God’s intentions. The state thus has a role in bringing about divine purposes, and yet Māwardī recognizes the flawed condition of humanity, the ruler included, making it vital that rule be based not solely on the divinely endowed agency of the ruler but more precisely on a set of rules meant to purge the soul of disordered inclinations. In that sense, there are grounds for drawing comparisons between Māwardī and Augustine.

This essay provides an interrogation into the historical and personal contradictions in the character of the Roman Emperor Caracalla. As an emperor of African origin who once ruled the world, the nature of his rule, in its political and social dimension, has not been adequately studied. In fact, the scholarly sources that focused on Caracalla as a powerful ruler hardly mention his African origin and in some cases outright deny the fact that he was African. On the other hand, many European writers who do understand his political significance refer to his military achievements ignoring his origin. This work seeks to place Caracalla in the historical setting that befits his adventure as emperor during the time of Rome’s incessant leadership crises. While we know that Caracalla’s life was a series of bold and cruel actions as well as creative achievements, this work discusses his life in the context of his humanity more than to itemize his imperial achievements. The idea is to reveal through the literature and history as much as we can of his complex character in amid the challenging circumstances that surrounded his life and career.

Khirbat al-Mudaybi‘ is the site of an ancient fort on the eastern desert fringe of the Karak plateau in Jordan – an area known as Moab in biblical times. Little was known about the site until the Karak Resources Project between 1997 and 2014 excavated it. The most intriguing find at the site was a massive four-chambered gate decorated with ornate volute column capitals. Ceramic, architectural, and radiocarbon analysis indicate that the fort dates to the late Iron Age, very likely to the seventh century BCE. Who built it, why it was built and why such ornamental architecture was employed, and why it was abandoned remain questions to be answered. This article speculates that the fort was built by a Moabite ruler who, as a client-ruler of the powerful Neo-Assyrian Empire, was required to pay tribute to his overlords. This tribute came from levies on caravan traffic that passed by the site on the desert highway that connected Arabia with Damascus in the north. The impressive architecture was a symbol of royal authority. The fort was abandoned during the Neo-Babylonian period when the caravan route shifted and no longer passed the site.

This article discusses Buddhism’s conflicting relation with kingship through an analysis of the figure of the Mahāsammata, the first mythical ruler according to Buddhist scriptures and canonical commentaries. The Mahāsammata, literally the ‘Great Elect’, was a human being elected by the people and entrusted with keeping order in a society that was gradually becoming more complex; as such, this myth expresses an idea of kingship that is very different from Indic and East Asian theories of divine sovereignty. The Mahāsammata has been studied within the South Asian context, but very little is known about its role in East Asian Buddhism. This article offers an analysis of this figure based on sutras translated into Chinese and subsequent literature in Chinese and Japanese. It aims to show some of the ways in which the Mahāsammata and the political ideas it represents were interpreted and transformed in East Asia, also in order to gain a better understanding of the varieties of Buddhist political thought, including those with the oppositional potential (if not actual oppositional praxis) to become conceptual bases for social and political resistance.

The article explores recent restoration of ancient temples and the creation of new, modern monuments dedicated to the legendary sage ruler Shun, considered one of the “founding fathers” of the Chinese people and state. The article shows how local elites have tried to build a sense of their community’s historical and moral identity while at the same time pursuing economic and political advantage through the promotion of cultural sites. Drawing on time-honored symbols and narratives that celebrate the unity of the Chinese state, these local constructions of Chinese identity promote the local and regional while integrating with higher levels of social and political organization, ultimately re-creating and reinforcing the Chinese nation and, through an appeal to Sinophone sentiment, extrapolating a global Chinese identity. The powerful hold that historical memory still has on people’s imaginations is revealed through an examination of prominent temple sites in two locales, in southwestern Hunan and northern Zhejiang.

This article analyses specific characteristics of pre-modern rule in medieval central Europe. It becomes clear from the analysis that although the notion of monarchy implies a single ruler (mon-archia), it was actually the case, however, that in political practice, the kings and rulers of the Holy Roman Empire had to come to an arrangement with the elites and nobles. Therefore, the famous model developed by Max Weber regarding the three types of legitimate rule: legal, traditional and charismatic, fall short of encompassing the alterity and plurality of politics in the Middle Ages. Here, the concept of consensual rule is conceptualised through the use of additional case studies. These case studies more appropriately capture the fluid decision-making process in the Middle Ages through ongoing negotiation. Thus, the kings and emperors are clearly integrated into the framework of pre-modern oligarchies and therefore offer a counter-outline to the doctrine of divine right.

In 1879, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–80), General (later Lord) Frederick Roberts found himself in occupation of the defeated sovereign state of Afghanistan. Initially he claimed his authority stemmed from the Afghan amir and that he was acting on his behalf to suppress rebels, but the abdication of the Afghan ruler amid a popular insurgency and pressure from his political masters meant that Roberts had to establish his own military authority and implement martial law. This article examines the liberties and restrictions of occupation forces during protracted insurgencies, the difficulties in making the transfer of military command to political authority, and the tensions between commanders, political advisers, and civilian authorities.

The purposes of the study were (1) to estimate the standing reach distance, test-retest, and interrater reliability of the functional reach test using traditional and modified rulers and (2) to evaluate the difference in the scores based on one trial, the mean of two or of three trials. Sixty-four individuals ( M age = 36.3 yr., SD = 19.5, range = 19 to 70 years; 24 men, 40 women) volunteered to participate. Differences in measurements were examined. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the test-retest and interrater reliability. Analysis indicated that the reach score measured by the rulers were not statistically significantly different, but the three measurements were significantly different. Reliability estimates were similar for the two mean scores, the mean of two trials (ICC2,2 = 0.87–1.00) or three trials (ICC2,3 = 0.89–1.00). The standard error of measurement (SEM) was always smaller when the modified ruler was used than when the traditional ruler was used. Performance with the modified ruler is an alternative to that with a traditional ruler. The mean of two trials as a measure of performance of reach distance when standing is recommended with either ruler.

Whether or not learning strategies change during the course of higher education is an important topic in the Student Approaches to Learning field. However, there is a dearth of any empirical evaluations in the literature as to whether or not the instruments in this research domain measure equivalently over time. Therefore, this study details the procedure of longitudinal measurement invariance testing of self-report Likert-type scales, using the case of learning strategies. The sample consists of 245 University College students who filled out the Inventory of Learning Styles—Short Version three times. Using the WLSMV estimator to take into account the ordinal nature of the data, a series of models with progressively more stringent constraints were estimated using Mplus 6.1. The results indicate that longitudinal measurement invariance holds for all but two learning strategy scales. The implications for longitudinal analysis using scales with varying degrees of measurement invariance are discussed.

Debates about Ezek. 28.1–19 have long centered on textual difficulties and cryptic mythological language. While these issues remain intractable, the overall structure and rhetorical strategy of the oracles concerning Tyre's ruler can be perceived by analyzing Ezek. 26.1–28.19 as a whole. Specifically, the larger passage evinces a repeated pattern of judgment oracle followed by funeral dirge. The dirges, which contain elements of parody, proleptically eulogize Tyre and its ruler before they have perished. In this way, they communicate the irreversibility of Yhwh's judgments against Tyre. Such a study suggests that rhetorical considerations ought to be considered when examining the redactional artistry of larger literary units.

This article analyses how Rushdie represents the relationship between cultural hybridity and the spaces that enable such hybridity to flourish. One of its central arguments is that elements of Mughal architecture and Mughal aesthetics, in particular those exemplified by the palace complex at Fatehpur Sikri, are mirrored in the narrative style and structure of the novel The Enchantress of Florence. It contextualizes Rushdie’s representations of the Mughal ruler Akbar and his reign in nationalist historiography in order to show how these spatial models provide Rushdie with a means of exploring a form of hybridity which is distinct from the unruly hybridity he has championed in earlier novels. Its final section explores the gendered aspects of spatial design in The Enchantress of Florence, in particular the creation of an enabling space by the female protagonist Qara Köz.

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)This is a story of an astronomical "instrument" or "figure" - both names appear in the accompanying texts - that lived from about 1430 until 1550. Exemplars can be found on paper, parchment and thin cardboard, always bound in codices; I do not know whether the device ever appeared in brass. Although the conceptual structure of the instrument remained largely stable over its lifetime, its mathematical and graphical features refused to solidify into a standard form. In its variant versions, the instrument exemplifies, I will suggest, a spirit of innovation and experimentation in practical astronomy in a century not especially known for such virtues. The instrument also exemplifies the attempt, not uncommon in this time, to replace astronomical tables and the tedium of interpolation with instruments of circles, lines, threads and rules. Yet despite the gestures of experimentation and efficiency exemplified by this instrument, it would not survive into the second half of the sixteenth century. After 1550, printed tables and ephemerides and new requirements of precision apparently rendered the instrument superfluous.Unlike such well-known astronomical instruments as the astrolabe, quadrant, Ptolemaic ruler and torquetum, our instrument would never achieve a fixed nomenclature. Most texts refer to it simply as an "instrument ... for finding the true conjunction and opposition of the Sun and Moon". Its peculiar shape, early on, evoked several names. A Latin text from the 1440s names the device a Rauchfudalium, a strangely composite German-Latin term perhaps referring to a censer (Rauchturabuluml) with chains forming a trapezoid shape similar to our instrument. Another text in this same manuscript reports that the instrument is commonly called a "salt dish [salzuas]". A German manuscript, originating in Nuremberg around 1460, describes the instrument as a "salt dish or measure [saltzuas oder kuffel]". Peculiarly shaped salt dishes, combining triangular and circular forms not unlike our instrument, produced by Nuremberg goldsmiths may have prompted this name. Early printed texts call the instrument an instrumentum astrologicum, emphasizing its clientele, or an equatoria, linking it to the long-established tradition of using rotating disks or vovelles to represent geometrical models of planetary theory.1 Although in this article I shall simply call the device a "syzygy instrument", accentuating function rather than shape, we must not forget the visual appeal apparently exerted by its unique physical design during its early years.The Context: Computing in Mathematical AstronomyMedieval and early modern astronomers computed. They calculated positions of the planets, dates and times of eclipses and new and full moons (syzygies), changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, the direction of Mecca, dates of Easter and other moveable feasts in the Christian calendar, divisions of the Zodiac into the twelve houses of the horoscope, and much more. Following procedures established by Ptolemy, including his practice of working to a precision of arc minutes, many of these astronomers devised elaborate tables - rows and columns of numbers - to enable such computations to be done with minimal recourse to sexagesimal multiplication or spherical trigonometry. Casting a horoscope might require literally hundreds of individual computational steps, and astronomers tried to keep the labour limited to sexagesimal addition and subtraction and interpolation of tabular values. Tablemaking was thus essential in this computational culture, and tables soon circulated widely, ranging from Ptolemy's Handy Tables and more than 100 Arabic zijes to the Alfonsine Tables by the 1270s. As J. D. North has aptly noted, the history of the dissemination and use of these latter tables "is almost coextensive with the history of European astronomy as a whole, at least until the sixteenth century". …

By 1745, the Persian ruler Nadir Shah (also known as Tahmasp Quli Khan) had made a name for himself as a conqueror in Asia. In the same year, the Dutch playwright Frans van Steenwyk scripted a play titled Thamas Koelikan in Amsterdam. The play not only chose Nadir for protagonist, but also identified his conquest of Mughal India as the backdrop to the drama. Just as Van Steenwyk’s drama reflected the curiosity of his peers in Nadir Shah, another image of Asian rulers circulating in Europe at the same time also featured in the play—the image of the Oriental Despot. Although the theme of Oriental Despotism was a generic appli-cation to Asian rulers, the relationship of this label with Nadir Shah was more intimate. From the late eighteenth century onwards, any mention of Nadir Shah meant a reference to Oriental Despotism. This article analyses the nature of representation of Nadir Shah in Van Steenwyk’s Thamas Koelikan. It studies the means by which the notion of Oriental Despotism features in the play. It argues that the observations made in this regard should be seen in the light of the sources that the playwright employed in penning his play. This related closely to the world of the Dutch East India Company in South Asia.

This article tests the hypothesis that group power affects development policy by holding dictators accountable through different mechanisms. New data on dictators’ modes of exit for the period 1946—2000 allow us to estimate the predicted likelihood that a given authoritarian head of government will be toppled by the elite, the military or the citizenry. When the predicted odds are used as a measure of group strength, the results of simple growth regressions reveal that a stronger citizen opposition or a greater military threat compels the ruler to improve economic growth rates. In contrast, elite power is negative for growth, although it turns positive when a country reaches a certain level of industrialized development.

This paper projects Spinoza’s discussion of the method of scriptural interpretation onto contemporary questions of Constitutional interpretation. Spinoza’s discussion lets us deliberate about the relations between the authority of texts and the authority of readers and interpreters, and the compatibility of institutional structures of interpretation which require obedience with the freedom of thought necessary for salvation and for individual self-determination. Focusing on interpretation clarifies the relation between religion and politics, a relation which allows each individual to interpret the Bible for him or herself, while politically all must defer to the ruler’s interpretation of justice.

Rulers seek to develop legitimacy. Legitimacy is a murky concept, however, and just how rulers might attain it is not well understood. This article explores the implications of conceptualizing legitimacy as a social norm that encourages people to support the ruler. This conceptualization points to the importance of social relations as well as characteristics of the ruler and his or her behavior. These factors together are argued to affect the extent to which norms supporting the ruler are enforced and, in turn, the extent to which people obey and respond to calls to action by the ruler. On this view, a ruler seeking legitimacy should consider (a) the messages he or she sends to citizens about himself or herself and (b) the ways in which his or her policies affect ties between citizens.

The story of King Canute (Cnut) is well known. Indeed, in perhaps its most familiar form it exists as an oral historical tradition passed from generation to generation. In this almost legendary account, King Canute is depicted as an arrogant ruler, so confident as to his own omnipotence that he takes on the forces of nature, pitting his own powers against those of the rising tide – his wet robes paying testament to his powerlessness in the face of potent material forces and to the triumph of (natural) structures over (human) agency. Or so it might seem. In this article I suggest that even in this, the simplest depiction of the story of Canute, the relationship between structure and agency is more complex and involved than it appears. This complexity is only accentuated if we turn from the legend to the historical evidence. Moreover, by reflecting on Canute's practical negotiation of the ‘problem’ of structure and agency we can not only gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale, but we can also generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure—agency relationship. In particular, the (various) stories of King Canute and the waves alert us to the need: (1) to maintain a clear distinction between the empirical and the ontological; (2) to resist the temptation to attempt an empirical adjudication of ontological issues (or, indeed, an ontological adjudication of empirical issues); (3) to differentiate clearly between the capacities of agents with respect to material/physical structures on the one hand, and social/political structures on the other; (4) to acknowledge the significance of unintended consequences; (5) to attend to the ‘performative’ dimensions of agency; and (6) to recognise the dangers inherent in an overly instrumental view of actors' motivations and intentions.

The Hindu doctrine has broad covering laws for the description and management of crises. Economic swings are covered under a theory of long cycles that parallels the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages of the West. Order breaks down in each cycle, and society is reconstituted anew. The individuals and ruler produce, accumulate, and distribute wealth in each epoch in accordance with scriptural injunctions, and crises occur when the codes of eternal religion are broken. In the process of their everyday experiences, people are urged to adhere to the truth, to be conscious of their true nature, and to pursue happiness. The ruler is charged with managing economic affairs with proper council. Within that broad framework that has been morphing over history from foreign invasion-to-invasion, operational elements can be drawn out for any crises situation.

This article analyzes the formation of a stable dominant party in an authoritarian regime as a commitment problem between two sides: the ruler and other elites. After defining a dominant party regime and outlining the costs and benefits that such a regime entails for each side, the authors examine the efforts made in Russia to establish United Russia as a dominant party and argue that the Kremlin and regional elites have overcome their commitment problem through mutual investment in the United Russia party. In contrast to previous party-of-power projects, United Russia represents an equilibrium arrangement between the federal center and other political and economic elite actors.

STARPOWER is a powerful simulation that shocks participants into a realization of the effects of power on both ruler and ruled. Its effect depends partly on the absence of a time horizon to guide the relationship between the groups and to give perspective to the decision making of the ruling class. A time variable reduces the tensions and reestablishes a link with real historical processes. This article describes and discusses such a modification.

In 1472, the Cūdāsamā ruler of Junagadh in Saurashtra (peninsular western Gujarat) was finally defeated, after a long struggle, by the armies of Mahmūd, the sultan of Ahmadabad, a turning point in the history of Gujarat. The Cūdāsamās, hitherto dominant rulers, were reduced to the status of minor landholders. For the sultanate, it marked the abandonment of an administration based largely on tribute and alliance with local chieftains in favour of more direct rule. The transition in their government from military garrison-based rule to a more settled, bureaucratic sovereignty marked a significant shift away from the former system of politics in Gujarat. In spite of this history of violent antagonism between the Cūdāsamās and the sultans, this article hopes to show how both groups belonged to a common, transforming arena of politics in which alliance-making, genealogy and patronage were markers of status, a form of politics which may still be recovered from texts, genealogies and the accounts of professional record-keeping groups.

Interpreting the archaeological remains from the Kushite civilization of Sudan is fraught with methodological difficulties. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman written sources give some clues, but the Meroitic script is still not interpreted. The large slag mounds in the ancient capital of Meroe indicate that iron production played an important role, but this cannot serve as a sufficient explanatory cause for the maintenance of centralized power. In addition to its iron production, written and archaeological remains both testify to the importance of the strategic location of Meroe in the trade networks between Africa and Egypt. However, maintenance of state power over a thousand years requires more than control over material resources. The stability of political centers is significantly dependent on a legitimating ideology. Here, we draw particular attention to the images and temples dedicated to the war god Apedemak; he is symbolically associated with rulers, as well as with iron production. Drawing on comparative ethnography and the sociology of caste we suggest that the material remains are consistent with a redistributive political economy based on caste-like principles.

PreliminariesArabic sources record references to early celestial observations in the Islamic East. These observations were made in observation posts more than in official observatories, which did not emerge in the region until the thirteenth century.[1] Some of these observation posts were set up in the open air, in public, or private locations; others were housed inside buildings and functioned by using the effects of the Sun's rays.In the ninth century, privately owned posts, like the one belonging to Ahmad al-Nihawandi, who observed the motion of the sun in Jundishapur in Persia in 800, overlapped in time with the early astronomical programme sponsored by al-Ma'mun in the al-Shammasiyya quarter in Baghdad and in the outskirts of Damascus, at the Dayr Murran monastery on Mount Qasiyun. Al-Ma'mun sponsored a programme of observations which does not seem to have been carried out in buildings devoted to this aim, but at a series of sites that were suitable for different kinds of measurement. Nevertheless, as a result of these observations, an official zij was compiled by Yaa¸¥ya b. Abi Mana¹£ur (d. c.830) and entitled al-Zij al-Mumtahan al-Ma'muni (The Tested Tables of al-Ma'mun ). Throughout the following centuries, observation posts remain in operation, even after the foundation of the first institutional observatory in Maragha in thirteenth century.From the fourteenth century onwards, and especially in the Islamic West (Maghreb), there were local traditions of accurately oriented towers and madrasa s (schools), where astronomy is said to have been taught and astronomical observations made.The aim of our study is to elucidate how the zawiya[2] Naa¹£iriyya (or Naciria)[3] in the Drâa Valley (southern Morocco) can be considered an example of this tradition.Eastern Islam: observatories and observation postsThe differences between observatories and observation posts have been clearly specified by Professor Sayili in his comprehensive book The Observatory in Islam. In terms of administration and organization, Islamic observatories had a director and a staff of astronomers and received funding and patronage from a ruler, as well as a programme of work. Generally speaking, their main duty was to compile astronomical tables based upon fresh observations of all the planets.The first observatory of this kind was at Maragha. This observatory was founded by Hulagu Khan in 1259 and remained in use until 1316,[4] thanks to the support of the awqaf revenues. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) was the head of a staff of astronomers composed by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1311), Mu'ayyad al-Din al-'Urdi (d. 1266), and Mua¸¥yi al-Din al-Magribi (d. c. 1280), among others. The result of their astronomical observations was the al-Zij al-Ilkhani .In 1420, the ruler and astronomer Ulugh Beg (r. 1394-1449) established an astronomical observatory in Samarkand. He was probably aware of Maragha, because in his childhood he may well have visited it on a trip from his natal Persia to Erzerum to visit his grandfather Timur. The most outstanding astronomers working in Samarkand were al-Kashi (d. 1429), Qadizadeh i-Rumi (d. 1436-1446), and c Ali al-Qushji (d. 1474). In this observatory, the Tables of Ulugh Beg were compiled, a very accurate set of astronomical tables used by Ottoman astronomers to make calendars until 1800.The third Islamic observatory in operation was the Istanbul Observatory, built in 1575 by Murat III. In fact, it had a very short life due to a dispute between the Sultan and his head of astronomers Taqi al-Din (1525-1585). The Sultan ordered the destruction of the observatory in 1580, 5 years after its foundation. It was the first observatory in the Ottoman Empire and the last before the modern European ones came into existence. In fact, there are remarkable parallels between the Istanbul Observatory and its instruments, built by Taqi al-Din, and the contemporary observatory built by Tycho Brahe (d. …

Publication of a fragment of a kilt from a standing royal statue of the later New Kingdom, now in Cairo. It is inscribed with a Golden Horus name which is not published elsewhere but which matches the traces preserved of the Golden Horus name of the Nineteenth Dynasty ruler Amenmesse.

Art and inscriptions from the Jamālpur site in the southern section of Mathurā city help characterize an early Buddhist monastic community and its relationship with lay patrons of non-royal backgrounds. Although named after Huviska, a powerful ruler of the Kusāna dynasty in the mid–second century CE, the monastery at this site was supported by monks, local administrators and members of professional groups such as actors. Monks specialized in textual interpretations, recitations and meditative practices, but were also successful fund raisers who actively influenced Buddhist imagery. Figures of lay worshippers carved in a naturalistic style are privileged in sculptures from this monastery. Visiting monks were instrumental in introducing elements of Kusāna royal symbolism into local art production. The role of this monastery was primarily to help local political elite to gain legitimation through their association with the Kusāna name and royal symbols on the one hand, and on the other, with a local nāga cult. Worshippers of the nāga deity, who otherwise occupied a low position in society, gained recognition by joining the patronage network of the monastery. Certain groups—craftsmen, merchants and agriculturalists—as well as women, however, seem to be conspicuously absent as donors at this site.

The governments of the Habsburg Empire (1477-1579) and the Dutch Republic (1579) depended largely on taxes imposed on Holland's wealthy cities. The wealth of Holland's cities was used for the needs of the state but only by the consent of the urban governments. Such negotiations benefited both town and ruler. Successful efforts of the province to impose control on urban finances involved the loss of urban financial autonomy, but it did not necessarily harm urban funds. Since it involved the restoration of urban credit as well, the great cities of Holland profited by the increasing provincial control over excises. © 2006 Sage Publications.

C entral Asia's authoritarian rulers have man aged to remain in office for a remarkably long period. The same men who were in power in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan when the Soviet Union broke up at the end of 1991 were still in power at the begin ning of 2005. Political turmoil during the period immediately after independence led to the down fall of Tajikistan's first president, but the man who became president in early 1993 has remained in office ever since then. However, the seeming stability of authoritarian rule in Central Asia was shattered in the spring of 2005 by the "Tulip Revolution," which not only overthrew Kyrgyzstan's Askar Akaev, but also brought to power leaders who advocate democratization. It is not yet clear, of course, whether Kyrgyzs tan really will democratize. Even so, what was remarkable about the Tulip Revolution was that it overthrew such a long-serving authoritarian ruler so quickly and easily. Further, the downfall of Kyrgyzstan's Akaev has also raised-or perhaps more accurately, increased the number of--ques tions about how vulnerable to overthrow Central

We examined a psychometric function of price judgment, comparing the mental ruler model, which predicted inverted S-shaped psychometric function, with a power function. Subjects, 102 citizens living in Japan, were asked to rate satisfaction with specified discounted prices. Analysis indicated that predictions of the mental ruler model gave a better fit than those of the power function.