Blockchain Papers

Ken Victor Leonard Hijino

This book is about why and how central and local governments clash over important national policy decisions. Its empirical focus is on the local politics of Japan which has significantly shaped, and been shaped by, larger developments in national politics. The book argues that since the 1990s, changes in the national political arena, fiscal and administrative decentralization, as well as broader socio-economic developments have led to a decoupling of once closely integrated national and local party systems in Japan. Such decoupling has led to a breakdown of symbiotic relations between the centre and regions. In its place are increasing strains between national and local governments leading to greater intra-party conflict, inter-governmental conflicts, and more chief executives with agendas and resources increasingly autonomous of the national ruling party. Although being a book primarily focused on the Japanese case, the study seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of how local partisans shape national policy-making. The book theorizes and investigates how the degree of state centralization, vertical integration for party organizations, and partisan congruence in different levels of government affect inter-governmental relations. Japan’s experience is compared with Germany, Canada, and the UK to explore sources of multi-level policy conflict.

Edward Cohen

On 28 February 1895 Oscar Wilde arrived at his club, the Albemarle, after an absence of several weeks and was presented with an envelope containing the Marquis of Queensberry's calling card. On the back of the card were scrawled the words: "For Oscar Wilde Posing as a Somdomite [sic]." As the culmination of months of harassment by the Scottish aristocrat - who objected to Wilde's intimacy with his youngest son, Lord Alfred Douglas-the short text so incensed Wilde that it incited him to instigate legal action against its author. Filing charges under the 1843 Criminal Libel Act (6 and 7 Vict. I, c. 96), Wilde's legal representatives asked the court to interpret the marquis's text as a verbal attack upon his person and to hold its author criminally responsible for the consequences of his writing. Unfortunately for Wilde, the statute invoked on his behalf allowed the accused party a unique form of rejoinder: the defendant could assert his innocence by placing a competing interpretation of the alleged libel before the court - in what was termed a "plea of justification" - which sought to prove that the offending statement was both "true" and "published for the public benefit." If the court verified that both these conditions obtained, then the defendant would be deemed innocent of the charge and the libel found to be legally substantiated. Needless to say, the Marquis of Queensberry's lawyers quickly countercharged that such was the case. This defense tactic effectively transformed the legal proceeding in Wilde v. Queensberry into an interpretive contest both for determining the text's "true" meaning and for assessing its social significance. Hence, what was at stake in the proceedings of Wilde v. Queensberry was not simply whether or not the writing on the Marquis of Queensberry's card constituted a libel against Wilde, but also what it meant "to pose as a sodomite," whether Wilde had done so, and if publishing the knowledge of such a "pose" was in the public interest.\nFramed by the tenor of these questions, the trial necessarily foregrounded the specificity of the phrase "posing as a sodomite." Since the contested statement did not actually accuse Wilde of "sodomy" - or of being a sodomite - for which a strict standard of legal proof (i.e., proof of penetration) would have been required, the defense sought instead to show that Wilde was the kind of person--or at least that he had (re)presented himself as the kind of person-who would be inclined to commit sodomy. In support of this personification, the plea of justification tried to shift the legal focus on sodomy away from its traditional status as a criminally punishable sexual act so that it became in the defense's construction a defining characteristic of a type of sexual actor (the "sodomite"). In order to provide a credible standard of proof for this characterological claim, the defense's plea of justification listed thirteen allegations that "Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde . ..did solicit and incite ... [another male person] to commit sodomy and other acts of gross indecency." Here, playing upon the indeterminacy introduced by the word "posing," the defense interpretation subsumed the specific cultural and legal history evoked by the word "sodomy" with the newer, relatively unknown category, "acts of gross indecency," metonymically subsuming the former within the behavioral penumbra of the latter. Thus, even as the defense plea displaces "sodomy's" historical privilege as the sole basis for criminalizing sexual acts between men and constitutes it as one of a number of "other acts of gross indecency," the earlier concept is simultaneously recouped by the defense plea as the legitimating criterion through which a much wider variety of "indecent" relationships between men can be brought within the legal purview.

Daniel Cook

In many of the early treatments of Chatterton a strong source of contention concerned authorship. Even though leading scholars, principally Tyrwhitt the philologist and Warton the literary historian, had quickly realized that the texts were modern concoctions, a small band of antiquaries had stubbornly refused to relinquish the fictitious fifteenth-century priest Rowley. More than anything else, authorial decorum was at stake: the works exhibited marks of ‘classical’ genius and so demanded an appropriate figurehead. Such commentators could not bear to see them attributed to an unreliable and dissolute charity-schoolboy. Paradoxically, then, the pro-Rowleians devoted reams of print to Chatterton’s life and character in the very act of excising him from the corpus. They belittled his mock-scholarship, corrected his own glosses and brought forth his private correspondence as proof of his inadequacies of character. To put it another way: far from ignoring Chatterton the antiquaries savaged him. Yet, as we have seen, they belonged to a minority. Warton, Malone, Steevens and a whole host of critics and literary pasticheurs praised the boy-poet as a unique genius, a doyen of modern antiques and a master of a new brand of Rowleyese Englishness. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

David Gowland, Arthur Turner, Alex Wright

Despite its supranational characteristics, the EU remains to no small extent an intergovernmental entity. By default, therefore, its key players are the governments of its member states. Consequently the EU has posed something of a challenge for its regions and stateless nations. Until recently, to no small degree, they were relegated to mere bystanders as the European ‘experiment’ progressed. Indeed, for the EC’s first three decades, formally, they were for the most part excluded from a direct involvement in EC policy formulation. More particularly, as the EC acquired more and more competence it encroached increasingly on those areas of policy which, hitherto, fell within the exclusive competence of the regions, or which they shared with their central governments. The net result was that, over time, authority to make decisions in a swathe of policy fields resided increasingly in Brussels. However, in the aftermath of the SEA, it became increasingly untenable for governments, in federal polities especially, to monopolise the conduct of European affairs. It was less feasible for them to defend the premise that relations with the EC in a classic sense could be regarded as ‘foreign policy’ and thus should remain purely within the ambit of the central government. Rather, domestic policy had been ‘Europeanized’. In effect the dividing line between domestic and European policy matters had become ‘blurred’ as a result of European integration (Jeffery 1997a). Accordingly, territorial administrations in the regions and stateless nations began to undergo ‘Europeanization’. Europeanization is a multifaceted term, and there is no consensus on its exact meaning. Olsen suggested that there was a number of possible interpretations, including ‘the emergence of European level institutions’ and the ‘domestic impact of European-level institutions’. Essentially, these two forms of Europeanization were inter-connected. Institutionally, the extent to which Europeanization evolved at the European tier of government had a resonance domestically (J.P. Olsen c2002). Thus it could be supposed that Europeanization has been an incremental process at the territorial level.1 Primarily, this can be attributed to the manner by which the EU has evolved as a result of successive treaties starting with the EEC (1957), followed by the SEA (1986), the Treaty on European Union (1992), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), the Treaty of Nice (2001) and (if it is ratified) the Treaty of Lisbon (2007). As the EC and its policies began to affect the regions directly, the latter had little option but to respond. In addition, the reform of the structural funds in 1988 helped to fuel regional mobilization. Not only was EC regional aid more substantive than hitherto, from this point on, in theory at least, the regions were supposed to be ‘partners’ with regard to the implementation of the funds (Marks 1993). Yet territorial Europeanization was not merely concerned with acquiring EC aid, it was more pro-active. For example, it involved collaboration and networking, an underlying aim of which was to influence EU policy making. It therefore included the direct lobbying of the EU’s institutions and attempts to influence the EC’s wider agenda (John 1997: 133). In sum, sub-state actors re-structured their organizations over time and they reorientated their strategies, as bit by bit the EC began to affect their activities (see for example, Keating and Jones 1985; Jones and Keating 1995; Jeffery 1997b). Whilst few, if any, regions could ignore European integration, some were better able to mobilize than others by virtue of the political authority which they had at their disposal. This appeared especially to be the case in federal polities, where authority was ‘shared’ between the state and sub-state tiers of government. Transcending that was the ideal that both tiers of government aimed to work well together by dint of their commitment to ‘federal loyalty’. Consequently, the German Länder attained greater influence over European affairs during the latter part of the 1980s and continued into the 1990s (Gerstenlauer 1985, 1995, Jeffery 1997b). Initially they adopted a twin-track approach in their bid to secure more influence over the EC during the late 1980s. They played a leading role in the mobilization of the ‘third level’ (i.e. the territorial tier of government in the EC), and they also endeavoured to secure certain rights over the formulation of European policy in Germany (Börzel 2002, Jeffery 1997b). Third level mobilization did yield some tangible results at Maastricht, thanks to pressure from the Länder and the Belgian Sub-national Entities (SNE). Under the Treaty on European Union, where their state’s constitutions so allowed, ministers from sub-state administrations could vote in the Council (initially as representatives of their state). The formation of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) formally incorporated the regions into the EU’s policy processes in those areas which fell within its competence. Last, the principle of subsidiarity promised much. It was in part intended that where possible, as a matter of principle, decisions would be taken at the closest level to the citizen (see Chapter 4 for further material on subsidiarity). By the early 1990s, the Länder had also secured a number of mechanisms within the German polity which ensured that they enjoyed, collectively, greater influence over those EU matters which fell within their competence, as well as a potential veto over further transfers of competence to Brussels. The same applied to Belgium’s SNEs (Kerremans and Beyers 1997). The situation was less clear-cut for Spain’s Autonomous Communities, however, with the Basques, in particular, appearing to lose a degree of autonomy as a result of European integration (Bourne 2000, 2002). Consequently, it could be supposed that a region’s constitutional status could have a distinct bearing on its potential influence vis-à-vis the EU, both internally in relation to its central government’s formulation of EU policy, and externally with regard to the EU itself (Bourne 2003). Given the relative success of the Länder and the Belgian SNEs, it could therefore be inferred that regions in federal polities were best equipped to reap the benefits of Europeanization, thereby calling into question the influence of territories in more centralized states, such as the UK. As far as the UK is concerned, it is a union state, comprising a number of distinct territories, where formally sovereignty resides with the Westminster parliament. In theory, this is where supreme political authority is situated. This arrangement does not lend itself to a federal system of government, whereby sovereignty is ‘shared’ between the different tiers of government, because that would subvert the Westminster model (Keating and Jones 1995) and so threaten the current constitution in its entirety. However, sovereignty itself is something of a chimera, thanks in part to European integration. It could be claimed that by virtue of their membership of the EU, the member states are no longer wholly sovereign, whilst the EU itself is not yet sovereign either. Thus the term ‘post-sovereign’ could be a more apt description of the current situation for the EU and its member states (MacCormick 1999, Keating 2001). Even so, a primary concern of successive UK governments since the UK’s accession to the EC in 1973 has been, where possible, to defend the country’s (perceived) ‘sovereignty’. Prior to constitutional change in 1999, the UK’s situation was complicated further by the system of government in the UK, or more precisely by the distribution of authority between the ‘centre’ and the ‘periphery’. So far as Northern Ireland, Scotland andWales were concerned, each had its own territorial branches of government, albeit that its autonomy differed. In the decades the of a in Scotland can be whereby it a degree of autonomy in relation to the implementation of domestic policies that were purely 2003). Under the of the of secured a of which the of by Westminster in as a result of ‘the did not secure its own territorial of government and to with at the had a than its in began to change in it secured the and governments it was a of including and Jones 1997: Despite the of there was the that the a degree of autonomy from the especially between and to there within the UK a In effect the had its own polity which on matters of such as and policy, whilst the also had a which on domestic or to this the to be by on the premise that the of this arrangement was on the of an in and the therefore, a could the membership of the EC posed its own to the not because it could consensus that from the the polity was the in the were in the of the UK’s the in the as part of its attempts at which into question the of the In addition, the polity was further by the situation in Northern and the for in Scotland and in in the the UK’s accession to the EC in as the UK was to the it was not with a of political authority to but also pressure from the for greater these to a system of government which, and was also as far as EC affairs were concerned, the administrations were to the where the aftermath of supreme political authority continued to at the of the and administrations especially, accession to the EC was something of a into the they to lose as to become both and more of decisions taken in that would in the aftermath of accession was that, where the EC’s treaties so allowed, policies would be in Brussels. it could be claimed that their political would be further by European integration. they had direct to in For each had its own of was a member of the UK thereby that their could be and at the of government. their to would be in those areas of policy which fell within As far as intergovernmental were concerned, their would be by UK ministers from the in the Council of the Council of the from the the UK the this the relative autonomy Scotland and if any, substantive autonomy However, the UK’s accession with for This was most in Northern where had been in the aim of which was the of Whilst the situation in Northern was to that of Scotland or as far as the latter were concerned there had been pressure for greater autonomy during the late as the to make at the to the of a on the in the aim of which was to there was a for this to be by the UK’s membership of the EC and the to within the it its in Whilst the that the case for would not be as a result of the two of its and a of The latter that would be a for as there would be over the of competence and there was no point for regional governments in the at that in They therefore that there was little for as a Despite the of the the UK a in for Scotland and The as a the at Westminster during However, the of the administrations could best be in had to be The therefore that European affairs with the UK government and that the of territorial would be on As it to on this in Scotland and in Even so, it had been for some time that the EC would have far for the UK’s territories, of the constitutional within the UK. such was Scotland where well the UK’s accession to the its political and was over the and of EC In the of the to the of the and on the that Westminster the authority to sovereignty to the In the Union was to membership on the that it would with the However, the of the of was in By this time, in the accession with a of and the they were concerned that it result in the they if the would the in relation to those areas of policy which Scotland they to little more than By however, it was that this was not to but were at the on that key were to so that they could on the In the aftermath of accession it became that EC membership was less in Scotland and Northern than in or As far as Northern was concerned, the from the that membership UK and in so it a to the of the regarded membership more for the same (Keating and Jones regard to there was the concern that the EC was and that the of did not the Thus in the to the on membership of the some in the for a on the that Scotland should from the of the UK and for membership on its own In within the were on the that the EC was concerned with the of shared to those of the for the EC during the early of UK membership from that of Scotland and Northern Whilst in in during the the for Scotland and Northern Ireland, were and with for and an of for the UK as a Yet it was early as far as the UK’s membership of the EC was concerned, it was that the latter was an impact at the territorial The for example, could not in European affairs. It a in EC and the It had also been concerned with the the of which was to was because the member states had a policy on to the UK’s accession with the result that the UK was with a whilst and government did not as a The was especially of the because the of UK was in Scotland and the was a in the and of the Consequently, during the first of the with some to defend the of as the more The on in the of the the and the of a could each be regarded as However, as time the became increasingly both in Scotland and in of the the the Europeanization of the with the SEA of As more and more decisions were taken in for European matters was from to This did not so to which the of the in it was concerned with more areas of policy such as or This was because the in were it sense for the to on European In addition, it was that the to influence the EC more directly, as it could not wholly on the to the of the the increasingly with the European albeit that it was on that its activities would not with the UK line on The also a degree of In its and European became key players Jones 1997: As far as the was concerned, that was the of EC structural In addition, at the of its of it relations with regions in the such as these were because they that the was not wholly on the by in it to in the European political as a in its own However, as was the case with the in of this was Whilst a number of Northern was involved in EC affairs the of and the of and had the in so far as it was by virtue of its involvement in the implementation of EC structural funds in the and However, that that most of its was to the of the therefore, Europeanization in Northern was to Europeanization there had been, was to no small degree by its More particularly, there was an of political Given the such as these were would have been more concerned the than the European Despite the which they the territorial of government were by no in with the also an in European their European activities to the Council in EC the SEA was something of a that on, were with a of European The SEA also the reform of the structural funds in a result of which was that in the which bid for if they were EC aid Consequently, a number of EC in to their EC and some or in Brussels. For their the the of part of was to in the EC (Keating and Jones However, the of the to with regional in the EC was by and the of did relations with such as the of Regions and the of European Regions Jones the of as the for government, or more especially the to with the EC on a to a they were in For a a more leading role but that was it and its EC by the actors from the UK’s territories to a in European affairs. The same applied increasingly to territorial pressure such as the and the had been involved in lobbying from the the UK the The same applied to the became involved in lobbying it became that they could no longer ignore the such was This had been in part because of the and also because of the of a in the As far as the latter was concerned, the underlying concern was that regional such as the in could Consequently, helped to the of European thereby its to a in the The situation for as a was less with the of the and the of a became more during the of government (Keating and Jones time pressure did direct in part because they did not that they would from In sum, from a territorial activities such as these that authority a swathe of policy areas no longer resided in Rather, increasingly it was in something which was to the of in and also in Despite their the and became more to the as time from the EC’s for small and in areas in the of the (Keating and The change of can be in to a member of the had been to EC to own which the By the to the of Scotland from the UK and a member state in the EC in its own for example, the was by no a with regard to however, and the key became in as the 1980s to a in therefore, the of territorial in the EC became more during the late 1980s and on into the The net effect was that, the with the UK government to that territorial were in its during a the impact of the EC was more was especially so for In the to the the a of its EC a was by no to the however, as in the government did the same 2003). However, the of the were by virtue of the extent to which the EU had on its The that some to of its were in work and that of its were The for EC to be more to the EC’s institutions and a further of with the EC As far as the latter was concerned, it was suggested that should remain in for an or so they so that they could with European However, by this time each of the three territories was to have its own in Brussels. The of Scotland the Northern in and the European in was of the for a more in the EC’s Even so, their was The was that they be as applied to Scotland as both the Union and it with concern as a to a agenda in the EC and In time however, the As far as was concerned, it would some of its and the had no as first and Scotland role on than political The latter therefore a in EC aid, and it its with on EC Despite the concern that they not have a political however, it was that these would their influence within the applied to As of its the its was that it would the of the in the the that played a Yet it was also that a number of including a of and a with the direct claimed that not only did ministers to the to and to on the work of but also the direct had a and approach to policy and For its whilst the European could be as something of a because it in it was by and with the over its role Jones 1997: each of these endeavoured to with the EC’s institutions and with regional their to influence the EC’s policy agenda appeared to be during the in with their German which better and which were more (Jeffery it is to that there was something of a in the sense that territorial pressure in and Northern to they to influence the EU, the was more no small extent the UK government as a between the territories and by virtue of the of the Council of the In addition, the government was for the implementation of EU policy in the UK. the and Northern were territorial branches of the UK government. The net result was that to ignore or the territorial administrations they to influence EU policy making. applied to the for example, the that the had its own the 1990s the a number of a number of which was to the is that competence for with the EU as a result of the which the of the were the to reform the and the accession of states from and than direct with the of and in the Union Scotland its on the at the In so it the approach adopted by pressure in Northern and in the case it did not have its own territorial as such and it therefore The underlying was that by of their territorial in relation to a such as the reform of the or the of they could greater pressure to on the government. however, on the that their territorial influence within and that the UK government itself was able to influence in Brussels. was not the The was (see also Chapter because it little influence the UK at over EU affairs. The to a in concern that which had could be to The UK government that UK of would be but the EU that there should be a this did not to in Northern Ireland, their in the UK less Despite the of the UK government, there was it could from a challenge in the and EU and the in to the of the The was as far as the of territorial was it was of the extent to which resided in Brussels. It to that the EU could its on of the UK, of the UK government or it to the UK’s relative of within the EU at that in is the adopted by the and governments (see Chapter The however, was by no the only that into question the extent to which territorial actors in the UK could influence European Whilst the UK secured a with regard to the in (see by the of the and on into the 1990s the was in as began to The was whereby the were more to such as In effect their potential to three to with the in option would have been to a of the In the EC would have aid for its the government to in with the result that the for example, did not in of the number of and more pressure during the 1990s The situation was to The of for during the if an had been in at the of the the not have evolved in the that it The implementation of the structural funds also to the extent to which the UK’s territories could be by decisions taken in In theory, EC aid was supposed to be to UK regional In the the was taken by successive UK governments that this was not to as EC structural funds were to be to the UK’s to the EC’s Keating and 1985; was because the a net to the The net result was that EC were not the of at the Even the of helped as late as 2000, that the constitutional reform of Consequently, Scotland and less regional aid than they were This was especially in the aftermath of the reform in 1988 the of by the EC to the In sum, these to the potential of the mechanisms within the UK. the which territorial over the formulation of European policy within the UK, were a of the and the The have been well by in and European were an of in a which on together with a of less the European was ‘the key in as the with regard to EU were to the it was to the latter to if there was a territorial to a that were so, the would be to the territorial the This arrangement was not For example, there were the was or late in the However, attempts were to this in the would an which would be by from a of government if those from territorial this was not its some that the from the territorial were and were to influence the to their and where the was to the matter could be to their In the however, ministers from the territorial the Council of the EU, of the three ministers from the to be more in Consequently, ministers at the territorial were in some within the UK so far as European affairs were They could as a if their the influence in they to influence a in the with regard to a from the EU, they could to the concerned or have a the in the of they could the matter to their of The territorial of on of which with European they had an involvement in EC albeit that this to matters of such as or the than policy such as a on In the of these was on the extent to which the territorial could and defend the at within the UK it was also on the of the UK to a territorial it was its with regard to EC it was also on the of the and by the UK government to and defend that within the This became more as the 1980s to a and it was further during not because an which was over the More particularly, there was little of political at the territorial level with regard to Scotland and the same applied to which shared a of territorial albeit with less autonomy than the there was no that subsidiarity would to the territories of the UK in the aftermath of the

Charisma Malixi

This study proceeds from the obvious assumption that without revenue powers and expendi-ture autonomy any devolution of functions on local governments remains hollow. Without resources local self-government is an exercise without much scope for decision-making. But even if local governments do have adequate revenue powers, their fiscal autonomy may be curtailed by utterly restrictive and, often Byzantine, administrative regulations of the central state, erratic interventions by the central government and – for fear of being not returned to office in future elections - a lack of will among local leaders to utilize the revenue powers vested in local authorities. 
<br>\tAlthough there is a plethora of literature on decentralization in the Philippines, the literature reflects what Linn,48 Smoke,49 and Smoke, Martinez-Vasquez and Peterson 50 have deplored elsewhere in relation to fiscal decentralization in more general terms: there is not much systematic research on how the Local Government Code of 1991 affected the fiscal capabilities of local governments. Most of the decentralization literature stands in the tradi-tion of the old institutionalism 51 and thus strongly centers on legal-institutional aspects and the historical evolution of decentralization in the Philippines. The few serious studies are by now dated 52 or are difficult to access because they are studies commissioned by bilateral and multilateral donor organizations.53 
<br>\tThe main objective of this study is thus to explore as to what extent in the Philip-pines the devolution of functions has been accompanied by an adequate allocation of re-sources to local governments. Local fiscal capacities are thus considered as the litmus test for the success of decentralization reforms in the Philippines. 
<br>This dissertation is organized into five parts. Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical foun-dation of decentralization as well as the study’s significance, scope and limitations, and methodology. In particular, the theoretical foundation lays down the debate between centrali-zation and decentralization as well as the differing contexts – political and economic - of de-centralization. The research question and the study’s possible contribution were also ex-plained in this chapter.
<br>Chapter 2 describes the Philippines’ political-legal structure and its local government system. It also briefly outlines the major changes brought about by the Local Government Code of 1991, the most extensive reform legislation on local governments in the country’s history. 
<br>Chapter 3 presents the overall or macro-view of decentralization in the Philippines. First, decentralization and local autonomy were explained using the Local Government Code of 1991 wherein the new Code became a catalyst to personnel, functional and fiscal decen-tralization. Second, the local financing structure was described by presenting the trends and dynamics between the central and local governments in obtaining the consolidated LGU in-come and expenditures from 1985 (pre-LGC of 1991) until 2001 (after the passage of the LGC of 1991). Third, the Local Government Code and the LGU Performance were evaluated using the results of the Local Productivity and Performance Measurement System (LPPMS) as a self-assessment tool. 
<br>Chapter 4 presents the case studies in Bataan and Pampanga on fund sourcing as well as the performance of the Central Luzon Region in local fiscal administration. The case studies will show the experiences of the provinces, cities and municipalities in resource mobilization under the regime of decentralization. This Chapter will also show the impact of inflation or increase in prices in the increase in income on whether the inflation to increase in income leads to real growth in a particular locality. 
<br>Chapter 5 provides an analysis of the results and observations of the study.

Roger Chartier

BURN ALL THE RECORDS of realm. (1) commentators of Part Two of Henry VI have acknowledged that one of main features attributed by Shakespeare to Cade's rebellion as it is staged in play is violent hatred for any form, any presence, any use of written word. The reformation of realm desired by Kentish people and their captain, which is characterized by Holinshed's Chronicle as the punishing and reforming of misdemaenors of [the King and Queen's] bad counselors, that neither fifteens [a property tax] should hereafter be demanded nor once any impositions or taxes be spoken of, (2) is radically reinterpreted in history play printed in 1594, very likely performed in 1590 or 1591, and then reedited in 1600 and 1619 Quartos before its publication in Folio. The return to liberty promised by Shakespeare's Cade supposes much more than abolition of any new taxes. It requires abolition of private appropriation of land, disappearance of a monetary economy, suppression of signs which exposed inequalities of status: All realm shall be in common.... There shall be no money, all shall eat and drink on my scores, and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers and worship me their lord. Let's kill all lawyers is another of slogans of rebels, uttered by Dick butcher and taken up by Cade: Nay, that I mean to do. such hatred against lawyers? Because they handle two instruments that impose an unjust oppression: parchment and wax. In denouncing tyrannical power of writing Cade distorts and gives a Christian resonance to an old juridical formula: Is not this a lamentable thing, that of skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? That parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man? (Or in slightly different text of Quarto: Why is it not a miserable thing, that of skin of an innocent Lambe parchment should be made, and then with a little blotting over with inke, a man should undo himselfe.) Cade's mistrust of authority assigned to words inscribed on skin of a dead animal does not have, as many of other formulas or mottos he uses, its origins in familiar tropes of popular protest. The image was in fact introduced in mid-thirteenth century by Sinibaldo dei Fieschi, future Pope Innocent IV, in his Apparatus or commentary to Gregory IX's Decretales: Contra fuit inventum a jure civili, ut credatur pelli animali mortui--against jus gentium civil law has decided that we must believe in skin of a dead animal. Such a gloss gave a striking formulation of an idea already expressed one century earlier against Roman civil law and according to which viva vox, live voice, has to be considered as a evidence more decisive than any written text. In Justinian's Novellae such a preference was indeed mentioned, but it was limited to situations in which authenticity of a property transaction was at stake. In such a case oral testimonies of those who had attended and eye-witnessed juridical act must always be preferred to evidence given by written document itself. (3) But from twelfth century on, privilege granted to viva vox was widely extended and used for establishing superiority of oral testimonies given by witnesses whose juridical and social condition could guarantee their capacity to speak truth. A French juridical saying likewise affirmed that temoins passent lettres--witnesses are superior to written records. It is such an that Edmund uses for convincing Gloucester of Edgar's unfaithfulness: If your honor judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by auricular assurance have your satisfaction. The proof of Edgar's betrayal will be more evident for Gloucester listening to words of his son than reading letter he has supposedly sent to Edmund. …

Charlie Jeffery

The rules for allocating financial resources in decentralized states are both crucially important for the operation of government and deeply controversial, since finance is an easily politicized issue. This contribution focuses on this political dimension. Drawing on evidence from a range of decentralized states, it identifies the issues around which central–regional and inter-regional conflict tends to develop, including: the relation of revenue-raising powers to expenditure responsibilities; vertical fiscal imbalances between centre and regions; horizontal, region-to-region imbalances of fiscal capacity; and the processes for revising territorial financial arrangements. The article also draws on this comparative evidence to identify some of the issues the UK is likely to encounter as debate about the reform of its territorial financial arrangements unfolds.

Alyssa J. O’Brien

The Molly Blooms of “Penelope”: Reading Joyce Archivally Alyssa J. O’Brien (bio) Positioned at the end of the book, after the radical innovations with representation and form in the later chapters of Ulysses, “Penelope” appears to confirm Hugh Kenner’s consideration of it as manifesting, “for once, no style.” 1 Long viewed in terms of what Karen Lawrence describes as “the sound of one mind thinking,” “Penelope” has seemed a retreat from linguistic experimentation. 2 Such interpretations are clearly informed by the visual presentation of words on the page: the stylistic crafting of the text creates the illusion of a flowing monologue emanating from a single female consciousness. Consequently, the critical history of this episode, beginning with the assumption that Joyce offers us a single, woman’s voice at last, has not been able to avoid imposing upon it what Derek Attridge calls “unexamined gender stereotypes.” 3 But a reconsideration of Joyce’s writing process for the episode challenges this premise and provides a way to re-evaluate the significance of “Penelope.” If we consult Joyce’s manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs, we are compelled to question the common critical assumption that Molly Bloom signifies a knowable character with a transparent consciousness. Reading “Penelope” archivally, we find that it is not Molly who negotiates colonial and patriarchal discourses (as Brian Shaffer and others have argued), 4 but rather that [End Page 7] Joyce’s language continually ruptures the consolidation of a character who might signify a construction of such discourses. In other words, Joyce negotiates social scripts shaping Irish female identity not so much through one character’s subversive masquerade or mimicry, but rather through his refusal to capitulate to any cultural representation of gendered subjectivity. What is at stake in reading multiple Molly Blooms in “Penelope” is that we can see Joyce engaging with the sexual and imperial politics of early twentieth-century Dublin in a way that navigates the polarities between feminists and conservatives, cultural nationalists and colonialists. He offers an alternative vision of subjectivity, one fashioned through his experimentation with language. In a small scribbled hand, Joyce added a phrase to the typescript of “Penelope”: “she had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were like her.” 5 Although the line is often read as the sentiment of Molly Bloom, we might see the inserted phrase as pointing to a multiplicity of femininities, a plurality of possible women. This, in turn, suggests that Joyce may be advancing his vision of ontological mutability in the final, often reductively read episode. Transformation, metamorphosis, and metempsychosis are clearly cardinal interests for Joyce throughout Ulysses. 6 Buck Mulligan’s parody of transubstantiation introduces the lietmotif of mutability; the theme is continued through Stephen Dedalus’s philosophical musings in “Proteus” (“God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain”), and through Bloom’s speculations in “Hades” (“If we were all suddenly somebody else”). 7 The later episodes actually embody in textual terms the ontological mutability pondered and presented narratively earlier in the book. In “Nausicaa,” Bloom becomes the hero of a popular sentimental romance, The Lamplighter, through Joyce’s use of the language of sentimental Victorian novels. In “Oxen of the Sun,” Joyce’s language causes characters to be repeatedly transported through centuries, into and out of different bodies and across various locations: Bloom transforms from a “wayfaring” man “[o]f Israel’s folk” to “sir Leopold” to “Master Bloom” to “Leop. Bloom” to “Mr Leopold” to “Mr Canvasser Bloom” to “young Leopold” to “Mr L. Bloom (Pubb. Canv.)” and, finally, to “old man Leo,” “Bloo,” and “Pold veg.” Joyce puts Bloom through what Joyce termed “five or six different [End Page 8] suits” in “Circe,” 8 yet the changes are more drastic than costume. Bloom transforms from mayor to sex slave; he grows a vulva and gives birth to eight yellow and white children. 9 In this fantastical Walpurgisnacht episode, all characters and objects mutate into different forms. Bloom’s and Stephen’s mothers are reincarnated to play a role, and even a bar...