This lucid guide meets the need, so often expressed in the 1990s, for an up-to-date assessment of the contemporary Commonwealth. It has a succinct section on its historical background and gives more attention than any previous works to symbols and to the 'People's Commonwealth' of voluntary organizations, sports and business. It highlights critical questions of balance that have emerged between the relative roles of governments and official agencies, voluntary associations, and private business.
The modern British Commonwealth, linking fifty countries around the world in voluntary association, cooperation, and consultation, is a unique body in world history. The area of its member countries covers a third of the globe and collectively their peoples represent a quarter of the world's total population. Though essentially different from the British Empire from which it originated, the Commonwealth shares many common historical ties with Britain. Patricia M. Larby and Harry Hannam have assembled an unrivaled body of literature to illustrate the growth of the Empire into the Commonwealth. This extensive bibliography identifies, lists, and annotates the most important publications on the development and growth of the Commonwealth; its present status and functions; and its role in education, literature, sport, and the arts and sciences. It includes its historical origins: its cooperation in economics, politics, and international issues such as the environment; and its many spheres of professional activity including medicine, law, and architecture. Strong emphasis is placed on the role of the English language in the Commonwealth and as a medium for creative literature in many disparate cultures worldwide. "The Commonwealth "appears at a time when this unique organization is on the threshold of a new era in its history. The proposals emerging from the 1991 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting include statements on democracy and human rights; environmental affairs; and global concerns such as international crime, drug abuse, and AIDS. No previous comprehensive bibliography of the Commonwealth exists, and this volume fills a long-standing gap in the bibliographical coverage. It will be an essential reference source for libraries and scholars involved in Commonwealth studies and will be of particular interest to historians, political scientists, economists, and educators.
This book takes a new look at the Commonwealth from the founding of the Secretariat in 1965 to the 14th Commonwealth Games in 1990. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 looks at origins, the Heads of Government Meetings, the Secretariat and the Commonwealth in a global setting. Part 2 covers race, Africa, inequalities and the security of small states. The final part, on Functioning, looks at regionalism, functional organisations, professional linkages, peoples, sport and the role of the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth. It concludes with an 'Agenda for the 1990s'.
When Empire appeared in 2000, it defined the political and economic challenges of the era of globalization and, thrillingly, found in them possibilities for new and more democratic forms of social organization. Now, with Commonwealth, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri conclude the trilogy begun with Empire and continued in Multitude, proposing an ethics of freedom for living in our common world and articulating a possible constitution for our common wealth. Drawing on scenarios from around the globe and elucidating the themes that unite them, Hardt and Negri focus on the logic of institutions and the models of governance adequate to our understanding of a global commonwealth. They argue for the idea of the “common” to replace the opposition of private and public and the politics predicated on that opposition. Ultimately, they articulate the theoretical bases for what they call “governing the revolution.” Though this book functions as an extension and a completion of a sustained line of Hardt and Negri’s thought, it also stands alone and is entirely accessible to readers who are not familiar with the previous works. It is certain to appeal to, challenge, and enrich the thinking of anyone interested in questions of politics and globalization.
