Westminster abroad : fictions of power and authority in contemporary democracies

McLaren, John (1996) Westminster abroad : fictions of power and authority in contemporary democracies. In: British Australian Studies Association Conference, 1996, University of Stirling. (Unpublished)

Abstract

The paper discusses the issues of power and justice as encountered by both revolutionaries and novelists, with the term ‘justice’ including the rights of individuals against the state, the rights of individuals to the protection of the state, and the rights of different ethnic, linguistic or religious groups within the state. The author theorises that while the law attempts to develop systems that regulate power by proclamation, statute or precedent, these systems inevitably reflect the existing distribution of power. Both revolutionaries and novelists have always appreciated that the clearer the constitutional arrangements the more they conceal this reality, yet revolution, like war, demands the complete subordination of the individual to its imperatives.

Item type Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/17142
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 1801 Law
Historical > FOR Classification > 2005 Literary Studies
Current > Collections > McLaren Papers
Keywords law, novels, novelists, essayists, politics, literary studies, Westminster parliamentary system, constitutional theory, political fiction, MCLAREN-BOXB6-DOC2
Download/View statistics View download statistics for this item

Search Google Scholar

Repository staff login