The Balance of Individual Rights and Obligations in Modern Society−Reflections on Social Welfare and Aging in the UK

CHEN Xiaolv

The material wealth created by modernization has ensured the welfare of the elderly, but human beings who are well fed and clothed have neglected their natural obligations, i.e. social responsibilities. In traditional society, raising children to provide against old age maintains a natural balance between the rights and obligations of human society, and people complete their own reproduction in the process of production; however, the modern welfare system has stripped people of their natural obligation to bear children, so that the logic of human existence has lost the key link of population reproduction and is unable to complete the closed loop. It is clear that ageing is essentially a problem of modernization, which ultimately results in an imbalance between individual rights and social responsibilities. Individual rights should be protected, as should social continuity, and how to balance the two is a difficult problem that must be solved in a country’s modernization process.

The Poverty Governance of the Bourbon Dynasty in 17th Century France

ZHAN Na

In the 17th century, the decline in agriculture and frequent wars led to a dramatic increase in poverty in France. The constant influx of vagrants into Paris and other places triggered social chaos, with church-led charities unable to cope with the huge number of poor people. After the Reformation, the Church advocated the use of management and education to guide the poor. In order to maintain social stability, the Paris government established the Hôpital de la Pitie in 1612, and the King’s government established the General Relief Institute in 1656, which centralized reception and administration of the poor, and forced labor, to some extent alleviating the pressure of poverty and consolidating the rule of the king. In the 17th century, the poverty governance of the Bourbon Dynasty had both the nature of assistance and punishment, demonstrating the characteristics of secularization and administration, which greatly influenced the mode of poverty relief in France thereafter.

The Germans-Dominated National Integration in Western Europe: A Case Study of the Kingdom of Burgundy

LIU Xuefei

The Burgundians were a branch of the Germanic people. Since crossing the Rhine and garrisoning the Gaul of the Roman Empire in AD 406, the Burgundians had long been dependent on the Western Roman Empire and the military warlord Aetius as allies. After the year 454, the Burgundians broke free from the constraints of the alliance, and expanded in the Rhone River basin, established a Germanic kingdom on the territory of the Western Roman Empire with the Gallo-Roman patricians. In the kingdom, the Burgundian king and other Germanic nobles actively led the introduction of distinctive Germanic customs into the judiciary, such as the practices of “wergeld” and “fine”. Based on barbarian law, the Burgundians and local Romans intermingled with each other to form a new Western European nation, the Burgundians, within the Burgundian regime. The process of the creation of the new Burgundians was a fusion of Germanic barbarians and Gallo-Romans, in which the Germans played a dominant role. They adopted, fused, grafted and adapted classical civilization and Germanic traditional culture to form a new European nation and opened up European civilization.

Guild Petitions for the Franchises and the Marketization Trend in Late Medieval England

KANG Ning

Petitions were submitted frequently by guilds to demand the maintenance of the franchises and the preservation of the original market order in late medieval England. The guilds emphasized the privileges in terms of membership, business content and inspection based on the charters, borough charters, and guilds’ bylaws. However, with the development of the economy, the franchises granted by power would inevitably be challenged by the market competition. The large number of petitions itself implied a tendency towards market liberalization, and protecting free trade was an important principle of the laws of the Kingdom. The franchises which contradicted with the legal principles were not fully supported, indicating the trend towards marketization in England which embraced free competition and encouraged a plurality of market players.

The Transformation of the Poor Relief System in Britain After the Industrial Revolution

ZHENG Mi

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was an important symbol of change in the British poor relief system, which gradually transitioning from a local-dominated relief model to a centralized and institutionalized system of governance. A systematic review of poverty relief practices in various parts of England from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, revealed a diverse range of explorations under the local autonomy model. Under the framework of the Old Poor Law, local governments responded to the worsening poverty phenomenon through various measures, such as distributing allowances, strengthening administration, and reforming workhouses, which provided the practical basis for introduction of a national policy in 1834. The New Poor Law was not only a national response to the problem of poverty during the period of industrialization, but also a product of continuous adjustment between the central and local governments, between theory and practice.

The British Early Cooperative Movement in the First Half of the 19th Century

LI Wei

The first half of the 19th century was the most important period of development and practice of early socialist thought in Britain. Despite the ideological differences between Robert Owen and the Owenites, the cooperative movement emerged under the guidance of Owenism. Owen and his followers hoped to eliminate the competitive system of capitalism, eradicate the drawbacks of industrial society, and provide a solution to change the fate of the working class by co-operating, co-finance and creating communities. However, Owen’s ideals were gradually discarded by the successive failures of cooperative experiments such as cooperative communities, cooperative trade, and cooperative production, and the development of socialism in Britain was interrupted.

The Influence of Printed Texts’ Emergence and Popularity on French Society in the 16th Century

JIANG Sheng

The printing press and printed texts in the 16th century contributed to the emergence of mass communication in France. However, this innovation in the mode of information communication intensified the tensions between different social groups in France, leading to mistrust, suspicion, accusations and stigmatization among them. The printing press and its “mass communication” effects contributed to the ideological division and the emergence of antagonism and even hostility. With the transformation of social structure, the political and religious forms of medieval society which had already been in a state of disorder, were exacerbated by the spread of printed texts. During this period, the new social structure and their identities gradually replaced the religious ones. In this process, the mode of mass communication became an important motive and basis for the structural transformation of modern French society.

The Guangxi Rural Survey Led by the Chinese Rural School in the 1930s

LIU Shangqiong

From 1933 to 1937, just before the outbreak of the Comprehensive Anti-Japanese War, under the leadership of Chen Hansheng, a representative of the Chinese Rural School, Xue Muqiao, Liu Duansheng, etc., organized students from Guangxi Provincial Normal College to carry out a survey of Guangxi’s rural area. Xue Muqiao and others trained students in the form of lectures, and students initially mastered the idea and method of the survey by writing “Rural Observation” at school. Students from various parts of Guangxi respectivly returned to their hometowns to conduct fieldworks and obtained information and data from 38 counties in rural area. The Guangxi rural survey led by the Chinese Rural School, not only provided a reliable basis for demonstrating the nature of modern Chinese society, but also cultivated a group of young students to devote themselves to the revolution, making a positive contribution to the development of the New-Democratic Revolution.