Political uncertainties in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) continue to affect the short term economic prospects in the region, while major developments in the global economy over the past six months have put the region on a two-track growth path for 2012. These developments include a significant rise in crude oil prices on fears of oil supply disruptions and weak economic activity in the Eurozone. Economic growth of MENA's oil exporting countries will be strong as it rebounds from the average of 3.4 percent in 2011 to 5.4 percent in 2012. Overall growth in the region is expected to be 4.8 percent in 2012, surpassing the 3 percent growth achieved in 2011. Improvement in the growth prospects of oil exporters is due to strength in oil markets. The fiscal situation is expected to remain tenuous for oil importing countries, especially those going through transitions. Overall, inflation is expected to remain subdued in 2012, with the notable exceptions of Iran and Egypt. Subsidies are currently dampening currently dampening the effects of increased global food and energy prices in many MENA countries.
This semiannual report, a product of the Office of the Chief Economist for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region of the World Bank, examines the nature of the very good overall performance of the LAC region in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis and presents a comparative analysis of the post-crisis recovery patterns in the region vis-a-vis other regions. The first part of this report provides an overview of recent economic developments, an in depth look at the drivers of the post-crisis performance in the region, analyzes the external and domestic risks that could drag down growth performance in LAC, and discusses policy response options. The second part of the report documents the adverse impact of the crisis on the Caribbean region as well as its slow recovery. It distinguishes the poorer performance of English speaking Caribbean nations vis-a-vis non-English speaking ones, and highlights the dependence of the region on countries in the epicenter of the crisis, especially the United States, and the limited fiscal space that disabled a counter-cyclical policy response. The report concludes by emphasizing that skillful cycle management is necessary although far from sufficient to be able to turn what has to date been a cyclical recovery into a higher rate of trend growth. Moreover, countries experiencing a formidable windfall from the high commodity prices are in a unique position to seize the opportunity by judiciously saving and investing out of the windfall, they could relax the structural speed limits that have so far kept economic activity from rising to a higher long-run growth path.
This paper analyzes the economic effects of agricultural price and merchandise trade policies around the world as of 2004 on global markets, net farm incomes, and national and regional economic welfare and poverty, using the global economy wide Linkage model, new estimates of agricultural price distortions for developing countries, and poverty elasticity's approach. It addresses two questions: to what extent are policies as of 2004 still reducing rewards from farming in developing countries and thereby adding to inequality across countries in farm household incomes? Are they depressing value added more in primary agriculture than in the rest of the economy of developing countries, and earnings of unskilled workers more than of owners of other factors of production, thereby potentially contributing to inequality and poverty within developing countries (given that farm incomes are well below non-farm incomes in most developing countries and that agriculture there is intensive in the use of unskilled labor)? Results are presented for the key countries and regions of the world and for the world as a whole. They reveal that, by moving to free markets, income inequality between countries will be reduced at least slightly, all but one-sixth of the gains to developing countries will come from agricultural policy reform, unskilled workers in developing countries the majority of whom work on farms will benefit most from reform, net farm incomes in developing countries will rise by 6 percent compared with 2 percent for non-agricultural value added, and the number of people surviving on less than US$1 a day will drop 3 percent globally.
Debates over the nature and direction of economic policy in Iran have intensified rather than abated after the tumultuous changes brought about by the revolution in 1979. In the span of these three decades, Iran has witnessed sweeping institutional changes and has been affected by significant economic and political upheavals. At the macroeconomic level, too, there have been a number of shocks ranging from oil booms and busts, to war (with Iraq), trade sanctions, and internal political strife. This paper uses Iran's experience to reflect on growth and development in the context of political upheaval and an uncertain institutional environment. It is a premise of the paper that Iran's recent past presents a rare, 'laboratory' like, case for the study of growth and development in a broad context. This paper examines post-revolutionary Iran's macroeconomic policies and performance in a comparative context, appraising it against Iran's past trends and real potential. It shows how recurrent cycles of populism and pragmatism have characterized this period. The paper argues that two sets of factors have conditioned Iran's performance and will continue to taint her prospects for sustainable growth into the future. These are: (i) Iran's limited economic diversification and continued dependence on the oil sector, and (ii) the institutional setting in which post-revolutionary economic policies have been formulated and implemented for much of the last three decades.
Recent research suggests that management of the public sector debt can have important effects on a country macroeconomic performance. This Public debt management and macroeconomic stability article provides an overview of the factors that the recent literature has identified as important in determining the optimal composition of the public debt. Based on this analysis, it attempts to establish general guidelines for public debt management in emerging economies. To retain market access and promote domestic financial market development, governments should generally finance themselves at market rates using a wide variety of securities. Beyond this general principle, the optimal composition of the public debt involves a tradeoff between enhancing the government anti-inflationary credibility and reducing the vulnerability of its budget to macroeconomic shocks. Consequently, the optimal composition of the debt depends on a country circumstances. Debt should be heavily weighted toward long-term nominal securities for governments that have anti-inflationary credibility and toward long-term indexed debt for those that do not.
Die Nachfrage nach Holz wird im Zeitraum der nächsten 15 Jahre bis 2030 sowohl in der EU als auch global zunehmen. Bedarfsabschätzungen zeigen Nachfrageüberhänge in der EU von jährlich 300 Mio. m³, eine Prognose spricht sogar von Holzfehlmengen von 430 Mio. m³. Der Anstieg der Weltbevölkerung bei wachsender Wirtschaft wird den Holzbedarf erhöhen, auch wenn derzeit weltweit in etwa ein Gleichgewicht zwischen Angebot und Nachfrage besteht. Die Nachfrage nach Holz unterliegt vielen Treibern. Die Langfrist-Prognosen bis zum Jahre 2030 sagen vor allem bei der energetischen Holznutzung eine permanente, über den Verbrauch von Holz zur stofflichen Nutzung liegende, hohe Nachfragesteigerung voraus. Der Trend der Bioökonomie mit der sukzessiven Reduktion des Anteils der fossilen Energieträger beim Primärenergieverbrauch zur Reduktion der Emissionen von Treibhausgasen wurde durch das Paris-Abkommen, das 2015 durch die internationale Gemeinschaft mit dem Ziel des Klimaschutzes verabschiedet wurde, noch verstärkt. Auch die Tendenz zur dezentralen Energieversorgung vor allem in den Kommunen, die besonders die Nachfrage nach Energieholz und schwachen Sortimenten wachsen lässt, das Bestreben zur Verringerung von nationalen Abhängigkeiten zu Russland als Lieferant bei Erdgas und Erdöl haben auf eine steigende zukünftige Nachfrage ebenso einen bedeutenden Einfluss wie die Substitution des Rohstoffes Erdöl durch Holz bei der Herstellung von Chemikalien und Treibstoffen. In den Wäldern der Mitgliedstaaten sind nach Einschätzung der EU größere stehende Holzvorräte vorhanden, die mobilisiert werden müssten, um das Ziel der EU, 20 % der Primärenergie aus erneuerbaren Energien bis zum Jahre 2020, zu erreichen. Die Produktion und die Nutzung von Holz im Rahmen einer nachhaltigen Forstwirtschaft hat über den gesamten Lebenszyklus eine ausgeglichene CO2 Bilanz. Durch die erhöhte Nutzung von Holz im Energiemix vermindert sich die CO2 Belastung der Atmosphäre. Wald-Inventuren, wie z.B. die in Deutschland vorliegenden Ergebnisse der 3. Bundeswaldinventur, bestätigen die Einschätzung der EU über die bestehenden Ressourcen. Die Verwendbarkeit dieser Ressourcen wird allerdings in zunehmendem Maße durch die Herausnahme von Wäldern aus der Produktion aus ökologischen oder sozioökonomischen Gründen beeinträchtigt. Unternehmer, deren Geschäftsmodell die Produktion von Holz auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen ist, evaluieren mögliche Standorte zur Produktion von Holz im Kurzumtrieb nach der politisch-rechtlichen Sicherheit, nach der Verfügbarkeit von Ressourcen und den Faktorpreisen. Günstige Voraussetzungen für die Anlage von Baumplantagen für die Produktion von Holz bestehen im Baltikum. In den drei Staaten sind die wesentlichen Parameter für den Holzanbau in Plantagen auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen gegeben: Gesichertes Rechtssystem mit dem Schutz des Eigentums, barrierefreier Zugang zu den Märkten innerhalb der EU, keine Währungsrisiken, günstige klimatischen Bedingungen mit ausreichend Niederschlag und freie Ressourcen bei Arbeit und Boden. Die EU-rechtliche Klassifizierung einer KUP als landwirtschaftliche Tätigkeit auf landwirtschaftlicher Fläche und als landwirtschaftliche Dauerkultur eröffnet die grundsätzliche Möglichkeit der Teilnahme der Kurzumtriebswirtschaft an den EU-Förderprogrammen der Direktförderung, der 1. Säule, und der Förderung der Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes, der 2. Säule. KUP ist in das Ziele-Cluster Europa 2020/GAP 2020 der EU einbezogen. Für die KUP-Bauern sind auf nationaler Ebene die in das jeweilige Recht der baltischen Staaten transformierten EU Bestimmungen und die jeweils dazu gehörende Verwaltungsauffassung maßgebend. Der Umweltleistung der Dauerkultur "Niederwald im Kurzumtrieb" wurde in den rechtlichen Bestimmungen der EU grundsätzlich Rechnung getragen. KUP sind von der Greening-Verpflichtung befreit. Es überrascht allerdings, dass KUP als "gleichwertige Methode zur Flächennutzung im Umweltinteresse" bei der Anrechnung auf eine ökologischen Vorrangfläche nur mit Faktor 0,3, hingegen die Agroforstsysteme mit Faktor 1,0 Berücksichtigung fanden. Der KUP-Landwirt kann nur, wenn er Abweichungen beim Verwaltungshandeln zu den übergeordneten nationalen Gesetzen oder EU-Regeln zu seinem Nachteil erkennt, sein Recht im Widerspruchsverfahren suchen. Sowohl bei der Direktförderung wie auch bei der Strukturförderung wurden in allen drei baltischen Staaten Verwaltungsauffassungen identifiziert, die KUP im Vergleich zur Förderung der herkömmlichen Landwirtschaft mit annuellen Feldfrüchten benachteiligen oder weitgehend von der Förderung ausschließen. Im Bereich der Direktförderung gilt dies im besonderen Maße bei meliorierten Flächen. Die Detailanalyse zeigt, dass die Etablierung von KUP auf solchen Böden entweder, wie in Lettland, zur Versagung der Direktförderung führt, oder, wie in Estland und Litauen mit Auflagen verbunden ist, die die Bereitschaft der Landwirte für die Anlage einer KUP stark hemmen. Bedeutend ist dies vor dem Hintergrund, dass in Estland rund 54 %., in Lettland rund 62 % und in Litauen rund 78 % der landwirtschaftlich nutzbaren Flächen mit Drainagen versehen sind. Im Bereich der Förderung nach der 2. Säule, insbesondere die Gewährung von Zuschüssen bei Auf- und Ausbau der Hofstelle sowie beim Ankauf von Maschinen und anderen Ausrüstungen, ist der KUP-Landwirt von der Förderung ausgeschlossen. Die Festlegung der Rotationszeiten verursacht ein weiteres Hemmnis. Die Produktion von Holz in KUP wird dadurch in den baltischen Staaten in Richtung bestimmter Holzsortimente, nämlich hauptsächlich Energieholz und schwache Sortimente, gelenkt. Die Bestimmungen legen in der Regel fünf Jahre als Umtriebszeit fest. Versuche, diese restriktiven Vorgaben aufzuweichen, waren bisher erfolglos. Zusätzliche Lenkungsimpulse in Richtung bestimmter anderer, stärkerer Holzsortimente gehen auch durch die Förderung der Aufforstung im Rahmen der Strukturförderung aus. Auf den baltischen Faktormärkten stehen für die Holzproduktion auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen im Kurzumtrieb Boden und Arbeitskräfte zu günstigen Preisen in ausreichendem Umfang zur Verfügung. Restriktionen beim Bodenerwerb in den ab dem Jahre 2014 geltenden nationalstaatlichen Bodenverkehrsrechtssystemen können für die Neu-Etablierung eines KUP-Betriebes hinderlich sein. Zu den realen Holzerträgen liegen für die baltischen Staaten noch keine Ernteergebnisse aus KUP auf größeren Flächen vor. Abschätzungen der Erntemengen waren deshalb anhand von Vergleichszahlen für KUP in klimatisch ähnlichen Regionen, anhand von Wuchsleistungen gängiger Klone und unter Einbeziehungen von Messungen auf Versuchsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen vorzunehmen. Die so taxierten realen Holzerträge liegen bei einem Durchschnitt von 10,00 tatro ha-1 a-1. Das Niveau der Marktpreise für das im Kurzumtrieb produzierte Hauptsortiment Hackschnitzel deutet auf einen aufnahmebereiten Markt mit für die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Produktion ausreichenden Preisen hin. Vergleiche mit längeren Zeitreihen, bei denen aktuelle Preisschwankungen geglättet sind, für Estland zwischen 2003 bis 2013, für Lettland zwischen 2009 bis 2014 und für Litauen zwischen 2008 bis 2014, bestätigen diese Aussage. Durch die Ermittlung der Annuitäten wird die Wirtschaftlichkeit einer KUP am Beispiel eines Betriebes in Lettland untersucht. Auf der Aufwandsseite konnten tatsächliche Kosten-Größen für eine Fläche von 100 ha in die Berechnungen einbezogen werden. Damit steht für eine Wirtschaftlichkeitsberechnung eine Datenbasis zu den Kosten zur Verfügung, die nicht ausschließlich für kleine Versuchsflächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen erhoben wurde. Auf der Marktseite kann auf aktuelle Marktpreise für Hackschnitzel, bestätigt durch langfristige Zeitreihen, zurückgegriffen werden. In dieser, mit realen Zahlen fundierten Berechnung sind die Zahlungsströme dargestellt. Nicht in diese Kalkulation wurden wegen der Unsicherheit eines positiven Bescheides durch den LAD die Fördergelder einbezogen. Die Berechnungen zeigen positive Annuitäten, dem Indikator für den profitablen Betrieb einer KUP. Eine Sensitivitätsanalyse mit Veränderungen aller Kosten- und Ertragsfaktoren um jeweils 10 % bestätigt die Ertragsstabilität. Schließlich wird durch den Vergleich des Ergebnisses der Annuitätenberechnung mit einem landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb, der als Hauptkultur Weizen produziert, aufgezeigt, dass die Produktion von Holz auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen mittels KUP die wirtschaftlich sinnvollere Alternative ist. Als agrarpolitischer Ausblick für die EU lässt sich aus der Gesamtanalyse resümieren, dass eine "Arbeitsteilung", Feldfrüchte in den Mitgliedsländern zu erzeugen, in denen die Produktionsbedingungen aufgrund von klimatischen Aspekten und Standortparametern optimal sind, nicht gefördert, sondern eher gebremst wird. Wenn die Betriebsergebnisse aus der Produktion von Holz in KUP weiter zunehmen, wird der Markt durch die Aussicht auf höhere monetäre Erträge die Strukturanpassung, auch gegen die restriktive nationale Auslegung der EU-Förderrichtlinien in Estland, Lettland und Litauen bewirken.:Danksagung I Inhaltsverzeichnis III Abbildungsverzeichnis VII Tabellenverzeichnis VIII Abkürzungsverzeichnis XII 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Diskrepanz bei der Abschätzung der zukünftigen Holznachfrage und der tatsächlichen Entwicklung 1 1.2 Tendenzen bei der Nachfrage und dem Angebot von Holz in der Europäischen Union 4 1.3 Positive Voraussetzungen für die Produktion von Holz in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 7 2 Zielstellung der Arbeit 11 3 Vorgehensweise 14 4 Stand des Wissens 17 4.1 Europarechtliche Bestimmungen für die Holzproduktion auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen 17 4.1.1 Begriffsabgrenzungen 18 4.1.1.1 Abgrenzungen des Begriffs der Kurzumtriebsplantage von Wald 18 4.1.1.2 Waldbegriff der Europäischen Union 19 4.1.2 Kurzumtriebswirtschaft als landwirtschaftliche Tätigkeit 19 4.1.2.1 Erlaubte Baumarten für den Kurzumtrieb in der Europäischen Union 20 4.1.2.2 Agroforstsysteme im Vergleich zu Kurzumtriebsplantagen in der Terminologie der Europäischen Union 20 4.1.3 Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik 2020 21 4.1.3.1 Organe der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik auf Ebene der Europäischen Union und der Verwaltungsunterbau in den Mitgliedstaaten 21 4.1.3.2 Ziele der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 im Rahmen des Zielsystems Europa 2020 24 4.1.3.3 Instrumentarien der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 26 4.1.3.4 Finanzmittel zur Agrarstrukturförderung im Rahmen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 36 4.2 Kurzumtriebsplantagen auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 37 4.2.1 Derzeitiger Bestand und Betrieb von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 37 4.2.2 Entwicklung der Plantagenflächen zur Produktion von Holz im Kurzumtrieb in Estland, Lettland und Litauen bis 2014 40 4.2.2.1 Estland 40 4.2.2.2 Lettland 41 4.2.2.3 Litauen 41 5 Analyse der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen zur Holzproduktion in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 43 5.1 Begriffs-Präzisierungen als Ausdruck der nationalen Verständnisse der Vorschriften der Europäischen Union 43 5.1.1 Waldbegriff in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 43 5.1.1.1 Waldbegriff in Estland 43 5.1.1.2 Waldbegriff in Lettland mit der Besonderheit der Forstplantage nach dem lettischen Waldgesetz 44 5.1.1.3 Waldbegriff in Litauen 50 5.1.2 Umtriebszeiten bei Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 51 5.1.3 Zugelassene Baumarten für Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 52 5.1.4 Unbestimmte Rechtsbegriffe für Nachhaltigkeit in den Waldgesetzen von Estland, Lettland und Litauen 53 5.2 Umsetzung der Förderbestimmungen nach der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 55 5.2.1 Direktförderung (Säule 1) in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 56 5.2.1.1 Ausgestaltungen der Voraussetzungen für die Direktförderung 57 5.2.1.2 Instrumentarien der Direktförderung 60 5.2.2 Strukturförderung (Säule 2) in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 69 6 Wirtschaftliche Rahmenbedingungen für die Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 74 6.1 Parameter zur Definition der Angebotsseite: Verfügbare Produktionsfaktoren 74 6.1.1 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Arbeit 74 6.1.2 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Boden 77 6.1.2.1 Eignung von Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen zur Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 77 6.1.2.2 Möglichkeit des Bodenerwerbs 79 6.1.2.3 Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung des Flächenangebotes auf den Bodenmärkten in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 82 6.1.2.4 Entwicklung der Preise für landwirtschaftliche Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 84 6.1.3 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Kapital 85 6.1.3.1 Infrastruktur als maßgebliche Größe des volkswirtschaftlichen Sozialkapitals 85 6.1.3.2 Betriebliches Privatkapital als Investitionsvoraussetzung 86 6.2 Marktsegment für in Kurzumtriebsplantagen erzeugtem Holz in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 87 6.2.1 Potenzialabschätzungen für die Holzmärkte in Estland, Lettland, Litauen und für die Europäische Union 87 6.2.2 Nachfrage nach Holz in der Zielplanung für die Energiebedarfsdeckung in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 91 6.2.2.1 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Estland 94 6.2.2.2 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Lettland 95 6.2.2.3 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Litauen 96 6.3 Business Case für ein reales Unternehmen in Lettland 97 6.3.1 Naturale und monetäre Erträge von Weidenplantagen 98 6.3.1.1 Mengenerträge in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 99 6.3.1.2 Preisniveaus auf dem Markt für Hackschnitzel in Lettland 104 6.3.1.3 Preisniveauvergleich für Litauen und Estland 107 6.3.2 Kosten der Bewirtschaftung von Kurzumtriebsplantagen 108 6.3.3 Ermittlung der Annuitäten als Entscheidungsgrundlage 113 6.3.4 Betrachtung von Veränderungen von Parametern anhand einer Sensitivitätsanalyse 118 6.3.5 Betrachtung des Ergebnisses der Business Case-Berechnung 120 7 Diskussion der Ergebnisse 126 7.1 Hypothese: Das Regelwerk und die darin enthaltenen Fördermaßnahmen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020/Europa 2020 begünstigen die Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen. 126 7.2 Hypothese: Die nationalen Ausgestaltungen der Bestimmungen der EU favorisieren nicht die Anlage und Nutzung von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 135 7.3 Hypothese: Die Produktionsfaktoren Arbeit, Boden und Kapital stehen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen in ausreichendem Maße zur Verfügung. 143 7.4 Hypothese: Die Märkte für in Kurzumtriebsplantagen erzeugtem Holz sind zu Preisen aufnahmefähig, die einen rentablen Betrieb von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen erlauben. 145 7.5 Hypothese: Die Holzproduktion auf Kurzumtriebsplantagen führt zu höheren monetären Erträgen als der Anbau von annuellen Feldfrüchten in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 149 8 Zusammenfassung 152 9 Abstract 157 10 Literaturverzeichnis 161 10.1 Quellennachweis nach Autoren 161 10.2 Rechtsquellen 194 10.2.1 Völkerrechtliche Verträge 194 10.2.2 Rechtsquellen der Europäischen Union 194 10.2.2.1 Grundlagen für die Europäische Union 194 10.2.2.2 Verordnungen der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge 194 10.2.2.3 Richtlinien der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge 197 10.2.2.4 Delegierte Verordnungen der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge und Entscheidungen 197 10.2.3 Rechtsquellen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 199 10.2.4 Rechtsquellen der Republik Estland 199 10.2.5 Rechtsquellen der Republik Lettland 200 10.2.6 Rechtsquellen der Republik Litauen 201 ; The demand for timber will rise over the prognosis timeframe of the next 15 years until 2030. For Europe, demand forecast shows a deficit of supply of 300 mio. m³ per year; one study even states the amount at 430 mio. m³. The growth of the world population in combination with a growing economy will further increase the demand for wood, despite the current situation of equilibrium between demand and supply as shown by figures regarding the actual wood production. The demand is driven by many factors. Long-term prognoses to the year 2030 predict a permanent rise in demand for energetic use, which is above the rise of wood for material use. The bio economic trend, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the gradual reduction of fossil energy sources as a primary energy supply, has been reinforced through the Paris Agreement, adopted by the international community in 2015 with the aim of climate protection. Also other factors will strengthen future demand: the tendency towards decentralised energy production, especially within municipalities, which will particularly grow the demand for fuel wood and weak assortments; the tendency towards reducing dependence on Russia as a supplier of natural gas and oil; and the substitution of fossil energy sources for wood in the production of chemicals and fuel. The EU sees in the forests of its member states a large standing wood supply, which would need to be activated to reach the goal of substituting 20% of primary energy with renewable energy sources by 2020. Wood production and use has a neutral CO2 footprint throughout its lifecycle; if produced sustainably, it only emits as much CO2 as it had previously bound within itself through photosynthesis. Increasing the use of timber in the energy mix reduces the pollution of the atmosphere with CO2 Forest-inventories like the recently published 3rd German National Forest Inventory underline this assumption of the EU regarding the reserves. However, not all of the stock in the forests can be activated, as some forests are taken out of production due to ecological and socio-economic reasons. Entrepreneurs whose business model is determined by the production of wood on agricultural land evaluate possible locations for the production of wood in short rotation according the political and legal security, the availability of resources and the factor prices. The Baltic States offer favorable preconditions. All three states fulfill the major parameters for wood production on coppices on agricultural land: protection of the liberal order; secured legal system with the protection of property; barrier-free access to the markets within the EU; no currency risks; favorable climatic conditions with sufficient precipitation; and large amounts of resources in land and labor. The classification as agricultural activity on agricultural land and as an agricultural permanent crop makes SRC principally entitled to EU funding programs through direct support, the so-called 1st pillar, as well as though the funding of the agricultural structures, the so-called 2nd pillar. SRC are included in the goal cluster of Europe2020/CAP2020. For the SRC farmers on a national level, the applicable legislation derived from the EU-regulations and their administrative interpretations are crucial. The environmental performance of SRC was especially recognised, while excluding them from the Greening-Commitment. Surprisingly however, SRC is recognised with the factor 0.3 as a substitute for the compulsory creation of ecological compensation conservation areas, whereas argoforest systems with a lower soil regeneration period are recognised with the factor 1. The SRC agriculturist can request an appeal proceeding only if he feels there are discrepancies between the administrative acting and the superior national laws or EU rules. In comparison to the funding of traditional agriculture with annual crops, interpretations were identified in both pillars which discriminate against SRC by diminishing it or excluding it all together. In the direct funding sector this is especially applicable to meliorated land. A detailed analysis has shown that the establishment of SRC on such land leads to the complete denial of direct funding, like in Latvia, or subjection to strict conditions which hinder any SRC, like in Estonia and Lithuania. This is significant because in Estonia roughly 54%, in Latvia roughly 62% and in Lithuania roughly 78% of agricultural land has a drainage system. Within the 2nd pillar, the SRC farmer is excluded from support, especially in granting subsidies for building construction, acquisition of machines and other equipment. The definition of the rotation periods is causing another hurdle. The production of wood on SRC is steered towards certain market segments, mainly fuel wood and weak assortments, through the predefined rotation periods within the different Baltic States. These are generally set to five years. Efforts to soften this restrictive rule have so far been unsuccessful. Further stimulus guiding towards certain segments comes from the subsidies provided for reforestation by the structural funding. In the Baltic factor market, land and labour for wood production in SRC on agricultural land are available for reasonable prices and in sufficient quantities.Restrictions in purchasing land could arise from the "land-mobilisation" legal systems valid from 2014 for the new establishment of SRC. There are no authoritative figures available for the harvest yields on large scale SRC in the Baltic States. Estimations of the crop volume had to be made in comparison to regions with similar climatic conditions and the growth performance of common clones, taking into account measures from test facilities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Assessed like this, the average wood production lies at 10.00 tovd ha-1 a-1. The price levels for the wood sales in the market segment of SRC wood is robust for the internal market, as is the export demand. This is confirmed by a time-series analysis in which price fluctuations are evened out, for Estonia between 2003 and 2013, for Latvia between 2009 and 2014 and for Lithuania between 2008 and 2014. By calculating the annuity, the profitability of a SRC is evaluated using the example of an enterprise in Latvia. On the expenses side, real cost-figures for an area of 100ha could be used for the calculation, thus providing a data base which does not derive from only small experimental areas in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. On the market side, actual current market prices, backed up with long-term data series regarding the price level of wood chips, could be resorted to. In this calculation based on real figures, the cash-flow was illustrated. Money from the 1st and 2nd pillar was not added into the calculation due to the uncertainty of a positive decision by the LAD. The calculations show a positive result, indicating that a profitable management of a KUP is possible. A sensitivity analysis in which all cost and dendromass production figures where changed by 10% shows the stability of the calculation. Finally, a comparison of the annuity results to the income of a large company which produces annual field crops in crop rotation shows that the production of wood on agricultural land with SRC is the more economically sound alternative. Considering the agricultural outlook for the EU, one can draw from the overall analysis that a "division of labor" in which field crops are produced in the member states in which the climate aspects and the soil parameters are optimal is not supported, but rather inhibited. When the profits from the production of wood on agricultural land rise further, the market will, driven by the higher return of investment, cause that structural adjustment, despite EU subsidies.:Danksagung I Inhaltsverzeichnis III Abbildungsverzeichnis VII Tabellenverzeichnis VIII Abkürzungsverzeichnis XII 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Diskrepanz bei der Abschätzung der zukünftigen Holznachfrage und der tatsächlichen Entwicklung 1 1.2 Tendenzen bei der Nachfrage und dem Angebot von Holz in der Europäischen Union 4 1.3 Positive Voraussetzungen für die Produktion von Holz in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 7 2 Zielstellung der Arbeit 11 3 Vorgehensweise 14 4 Stand des Wissens 17 4.1 Europarechtliche Bestimmungen für die Holzproduktion auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen 17 4.1.1 Begriffsabgrenzungen 18 4.1.1.1 Abgrenzungen des Begriffs der Kurzumtriebsplantage von Wald 18 4.1.1.2 Waldbegriff der Europäischen Union 19 4.1.2 Kurzumtriebswirtschaft als landwirtschaftliche Tätigkeit 19 4.1.2.1 Erlaubte Baumarten für den Kurzumtrieb in der Europäischen Union 20 4.1.2.2 Agroforstsysteme im Vergleich zu Kurzumtriebsplantagen in der Terminologie der Europäischen Union 20 4.1.3 Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik 2020 21 4.1.3.1 Organe der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik auf Ebene der Europäischen Union und der Verwaltungsunterbau in den Mitgliedstaaten 21 4.1.3.2 Ziele der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 im Rahmen des Zielsystems Europa 2020 24 4.1.3.3 Instrumentarien der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 26 4.1.3.4 Finanzmittel zur Agrarstrukturförderung im Rahmen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 36 4.2 Kurzumtriebsplantagen auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 37 4.2.1 Derzeitiger Bestand und Betrieb von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 37 4.2.2 Entwicklung der Plantagenflächen zur Produktion von Holz im Kurzumtrieb in Estland, Lettland und Litauen bis 2014 40 4.2.2.1 Estland 40 4.2.2.2 Lettland 41 4.2.2.3 Litauen 41 5 Analyse der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen zur Holzproduktion in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 43 5.1 Begriffs-Präzisierungen als Ausdruck der nationalen Verständnisse der Vorschriften der Europäischen Union 43 5.1.1 Waldbegriff in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 43 5.1.1.1 Waldbegriff in Estland 43 5.1.1.2 Waldbegriff in Lettland mit der Besonderheit der Forstplantage nach dem lettischen Waldgesetz 44 5.1.1.3 Waldbegriff in Litauen 50 5.1.2 Umtriebszeiten bei Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 51 5.1.3 Zugelassene Baumarten für Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 52 5.1.4 Unbestimmte Rechtsbegriffe für Nachhaltigkeit in den Waldgesetzen von Estland, Lettland und Litauen 53 5.2 Umsetzung der Förderbestimmungen nach der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020 in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 55 5.2.1 Direktförderung (Säule 1) in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 56 5.2.1.1 Ausgestaltungen der Voraussetzungen für die Direktförderung 57 5.2.1.2 Instrumentarien der Direktförderung 60 5.2.2 Strukturförderung (Säule 2) in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 69 6 Wirtschaftliche Rahmenbedingungen für die Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen auf landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 74 6.1 Parameter zur Definition der Angebotsseite: Verfügbare Produktionsfaktoren 74 6.1.1 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Arbeit 74 6.1.2 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Boden 77 6.1.2.1 Eignung von Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen zur Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 77 6.1.2.2 Möglichkeit des Bodenerwerbs 79 6.1.2.3 Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung des Flächenangebotes auf den Bodenmärkten in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 82 6.1.2.4 Entwicklung der Preise für landwirtschaftliche Flächen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 84 6.1.3 Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Kapital 85 6.1.3.1 Infrastruktur als maßgebliche Größe des volkswirtschaftlichen Sozialkapitals 85 6.1.3.2 Betriebliches Privatkapital als Investitionsvoraussetzung 86 6.2 Marktsegment für in Kurzumtriebsplantagen erzeugtem Holz in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 87 6.2.1 Potenzialabschätzungen für die Holzmärkte in Estland, Lettland, Litauen und für die Europäische Union 87 6.2.2 Nachfrage nach Holz in der Zielplanung für die Energiebedarfsdeckung in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 91 6.2.2.1 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Estland 94 6.2.2.2 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Lettland 95 6.2.2.3 Planerische Ansätze zur Energieversorgung in Litauen 96 6.3 Business Case für ein reales Unternehmen in Lettland 97 6.3.1 Naturale und monetäre Erträge von Weidenplantagen 98 6.3.1.1 Mengenerträge in Kurzumtriebsplantagen 99 6.3.1.2 Preisniveaus auf dem Markt für Hackschnitzel in Lettland 104 6.3.1.3 Preisniveauvergleich für Litauen und Estland 107 6.3.2 Kosten der Bewirtschaftung von Kurzumtriebsplantagen 108 6.3.3 Ermittlung der Annuitäten als Entscheidungsgrundlage 113 6.3.4 Betrachtung von Veränderungen von Parametern anhand einer Sensitivitätsanalyse 118 6.3.5 Betrachtung des Ergebnisses der Business Case-Berechnung 120 7 Diskussion der Ergebnisse 126 7.1 Hypothese: Das Regelwerk und die darin enthaltenen Fördermaßnahmen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik 2020/Europa 2020 begünstigen die Produktion von Holz in Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen. 126 7.2 Hypothese: Die nationalen Ausgestaltungen der Bestimmungen der EU favorisieren nicht die Anlage und Nutzung von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 135 7.3 Hypothese: Die Produktionsfaktoren Arbeit, Boden und Kapital stehen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen in ausreichendem Maße zur Verfügung. 143 7.4 Hypothese: Die Märkte für in Kurzumtriebsplantagen erzeugtem Holz sind zu Preisen aufnahmefähig, die einen rentablen Betrieb von Kurzumtriebsplantagen in Estland, Lettland und Litauen erlauben. 145 7.5 Hypothese: Die Holzproduktion auf Kurzumtriebsplantagen führt zu höheren monetären Erträgen als der Anbau von annuellen Feldfrüchten in Estland, Lettland und Litauen 149 8 Zusammenfassung 152 9 Abstract 157 10 Literaturverzeichnis 161 10.1 Quellennachweis nach Autoren 161 10.2 Rechtsquellen 194 10.2.1 Völkerrechtliche Verträge 194 10.2.2 Rechtsquellen der Europäischen Union 194 10.2.2.1 Grundlagen für die Europäische Union 194 10.2.2.2 Verordnungen der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge 194 10.2.2.3 Richtlinien der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge 197 10.2.2.4 Delegierte Verordnungen der Europäischen Union in chronologisch-numerischer Reihenfolge und Entscheidungen 197 10.2.3 Rechtsquellen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 199 10.2.4 Rechtsquellen der Republik Estland 199 10.2.5 Rechtsquellen der Republik Lettland 200 10.2.6 Rechtsquellen der Republik Litauen 201
Iceland s population of approximately fifty thousand inhabitants did not change appreciably from the end of the settlement period in the late twelfth century until the mid-nineteenth century because of the climate and limited technology in agriculture and fisheries. In fact, periodic decreases resulted from climatic fluctuations, natural disasters and epidemics, since this was a primitive rural community of farmers and fishermen. The weakness of the urban community was so apparent that when the royal monopoly on domestic trade was abolished by law in 1788, new migrants from selected villages to urban communities1 were offered public subsidies, such as free lots and tax dispensation for twenty years. Despite this government intervention, the growth of the urban population, especially in the capital city, did not manifest until early in the twentieth century following technological developments, such as the advent of motor vessels, banks, and certain infrastructure investments. That is probably because the Danish authorities and Icelanders were not unanimous in their policies and actions. The growth of the urban population was followed by a decline in the rural population. This trend increased after World War II, and at the beginning of the 1980s, the population of the urban areas outside the capital area2 began to decline as well, especially those populations that were farthest away from Reykjavík and Akureyri, the second-largest urban community outside the capital area. The present research s objective is to investigate whether transportation improvements affect inter-regional migration in Iceland. This thesis is divided into three main parts. First, a brief introduction describes the development of the transportation system in Iceland, especially the road network, and geographic population patterns in the twentieth century. The second part covers fundamental theories of transportation economics and spatial economics, especially regarding transport demand, the geographic pattern of housing prices, theories of industrial location, and interregional migration. The third part reports on an empirical investigation that is in line with the objective of the thesis. Many factors motivate migration. Geographic differentials in labour market conditions were among the first factors addressed by economic theory in the context of spatial economics and were still among the central factors when amenities, local factors of value offered free or relatively inexpensively to the local population, were included several years ago. Amenities include natural resources, public services and social activities, while negative amenities or dis-amenities include local phenomena, attributes, incidents or threats, including crime and pollution that decrease the welfare of the local population without compensation. One theory has suggested amenities compensate for lower wages; since people tend to like places with good weather conditions, beautiful scenery, and other amenities, these places tend to generate an excess supply of labour, and wages decrease, while wages are higher where amenities are more limited. The New Economic Geography is the most recent theory covering interregional migration, where the core-periphery model is central. According to the model, the agglomeration economies are among the main reasons for rural-to-urban migration, through higher real wages. Moreover, lifetime earnings instead of present wages are addressed as more relevant. Uncertainty is included as well. One version of the core-periphery model includes social capital and traffic congestion. Transportation economics is a large field within economics. Here, transport demand is relevant to the study topic so the theoretical presentation of transportation economics will be devoted to that only. Unlike many others types of demand, transportation demand is a derived demand since it is the demand for any other goods that is, people travel to work, trade, and go shopping. Otherwise, transportation demand is comparable to demand for other values or goods where price, income, and the price of supplementary and complementary goods play a central role. The dissertation s empirical contribution will be divided into three parts and therefore classified into three separate chapters. First, we investigate the relationship between transportation improvements and local housing prices because housing prices reflect the value of locations. Second, we measure whether and to what degree rural residents value agglomeration and access to a central business district (CBD)3. Finally, we examine whether transportation improvements affect interregional migration. The empirical part of the study is based on data from Iceland that covers annual averages for Iceland s 79 municipalities for nearly two decades the period from 1981-2006. Many municipalities were merged during this period with the result that the relevant data for all the years were classified according to the number of municipalities in the year 2006 in order to maintain comparability of data. Panel data models are implemented for analysis. They combine the analysis of cross section and time series simultaneously that is an analysis of number of individuals or municipalities over time. One can choose between fixed and random effect in the analysis of panel data, where the coefficients of the fixed effect model include a variation within municipalities, while coefficients of random effect include both within and between variations. The estimation of the relationship between transportation improvements and housing prices is based on a relatively new interpretation of Johan Heinrich von Thünen s (1783-1850) theory regarding land rent: housing prices tend to be highest in the centre of a CBD because of the significance of the market, and they decrease for every unit of distance from the centre. However, the theory also suggests that transportation improvements between a CBD and a rural area increase housing prices in the rural areas because of easier access to the CBD. Where the variation of transportation improvements is to be found between all municipalities and Reykjavík, a model of fixed effect was found to be relevant. The analysis of Iceland confirms that the relationship between transportation improvements and housing prices is non-linear that is, the marginal impact, which is largest in the municipalities adjacent to the CBD, decreases as the distance between the municipality and the CBD increases. This result shows that the impact of transportation improvements on local housing prices increases marginally as the distance between a district and a CBD decreases. Several other known factors, such as the supply of housing, had an expected negative impact on housing prices, while the number of rooms, balconies, garages, and parking had positive impacts. Until the present study, an analysis of this theory had not been implemented on an entire country. Along with heterogeneous marginal impact, these were the major contributions of this particular empirical study. The value of access was estimated by testing whether the spatial disparity of housing prices in Iceland, especially the difference between CBDs and rural areas, had changed during the past two decades. If it had changed, we tested whether the change was a result of increased agglomeration of economies or a result of changing preferences for access over amenity values. Again, the analysis is based on a modern version of von Thünen s theory concerning the forces behind the spatial disparity of housing prices, along with theories of agglomeration economies. Now, a model of random effect, returning coefficients including both within and between variations, was relevant since local amenities have to be considered in an evaluation of access and agglomeration economies. The results suggest that the spatial disparity of housing prices changed in favour of CBDs in Iceland and that changed preferences in favour of access over amenities were responsible that is, access became relatively more valuable. These changes were also due to increased agglomeration economies, but further inspection shows that the differences in housing prices between Reykjavík and the closest neighbouring municipalities decreased, despite previous findings. Weak evidence suggests that this decreased difference could be due to counter-urbanisation, a relatively new phenomenon in which certain types of urban citizens move from urban areas to rural areas within a 120-kilometre radius. This phenomenon has been detected both in North America and Europe. The many reasons for this phenomenon can generally be classified into economic factors and changed preferences such as proximity to wild nature (absence of pollution) and traditional farming. In the present study, as in the previous one, several other known factors have had an expected impact on housing prices. These factors include labour income, supply of housing, housing age, dwelling size, number of rooms per dwelling, balconies, garages, parking, and number of dwellings in the same house. Finally, the impact of transportation improvements on interregional migration was tested. The empirical model is based on the neo-classical Harris-Todaro model. The results suggest that geographic differentials in labour market conditions, such as wages and unemployment, play a leading role in explaining interregional migration, but the supply of housing and transportation improvements also affects interregional migration. While the supply of housing seemed to have had a positive impact on interregional migration, transportation improvements between the rural and urban areas did not have a homogeneous impact on interregional migration in the relevant regions, where it was negative towards its closest regions of the rural area and positive towards regions farther away. The first result is in line with the theory of the New Economic Geography (or the Core-Periphery Model), suggesting that a transportation improvement between two different regions would result in a net flow of residents from the smaller to the larger region, due to better market access and agglomeration economies. Certain types of industries (firms in monopolistic competition) will disappear from the smaller region and grow in the larger region. The latter is in line with the Disequilibrium and Harris-Todaro models, suggesting that transportation improvements lead to positive net inflows of migrants because of higher real wages following lower transport costs. Since the overall results indicate that selected factors are missing in the model, the analysis was repeated for men and women separately. The results then showed that the model was better in explaining the migration behaviour of women rather than men. The condition of the labour market seemed to matter more to women than men. This is a logical result to some extent, since it has been shown in other studies that the gender wage gap is larger in rural areas of Iceland than in urban areas. The supply of housing was affecting the migration patterns of both genders, while travel time, surprisingly, did not show any significance. Weak results for the migration pattern of men fuelled the idea that it should be tested against the migration pattern of women. Thus, if women would leave for better income, according to Gary Becker s results that show singles are generally less well off than married people and other couples, the expected future welfare of single men would be lowered. With this in mind, the most logical response by single men would be to follow single women, since men are indifferent regarding other potential factors affecting migration. A new variable for reflecting changes in the local gender ratio (number of women divided by number of men) in the previous period was added to the model and confirmed the hypothesis. Moreover, travel time also became significant for men, and the overall robustness of the model increased. Therefore, travel time seems to impact the interregional pattern of men but not women. ; Hin mikla fjölgun íbúa á höfuðborgarsvæðinu og fækkun til sveita á Íslandi var tilefni þessarar rannsóknar. Þjóðinni fjölgaði lítið fram á miðja 19. öld, en íbúafjöldi sveiflaðist öldum saman í kringum 50.000. Miðað við ríkjandi tæknistig virðast landbúnaður og sjávarútvegur ekki hafa geta brauðfætt fleiri íbúa og sveiflur í veðurfari, náttúruhamfarir og farsóttir lögðu grunninn að sveiflum í fjölda íbúa þannig að ekki var stór munur á íbúafjölda frá lokum landnámsaldarinnar fram á miðja 19. öld, eftir því sem komist verður næst. Þetta var frumstætt sveitasamfélag og mikill meirihluti bjó í strjálbýli. Myndun þéttbýlis var svo veik á Íslandi að sett voru lög árið 1788, þegar verslun var gefin frjálsari4, um styrki til þeirra sem settust að í völdum kaupstöðum þ.e. Reykjavík, Grundarfirði, Ísafirði, Akureyri, Eskifirði og Vestmannaeyjum. Styrkirnir fólust í ókeypis lóðum og 20 ára undanþágu frá sköttum svo eitthvað sé nefnt. Það var samt ekki fyrr en snemma á 20. öldinni eftir vélvæðinguna, fjárfestingu í innviðum, stofnun banka og annarra stofnana, að fólki fer að fækka til sveita og fjölga í þéttbýli um land allt en mest á höfuðborgarsvæðinu. Það kann að vera vegna þess að framan af voru ráðandi öfl ekki einhuga um eflingu þéttbýlis. Vöxtur þess varð síðan mjög ör eftir lok seinni heimstyrjaldarinnar og í upphafi 9. áratugarins fór íbúum að fækka í þéttbýlum utan höfuðborgarsvæðisins, einkum þeim sem fjærst voru Reykjavík og Akureyri. Rannsóknin er í þremur megin hlutum. Fyrst er stuttur inngangur sem varpar ljósi á hvernig samgöngukerfið, þó aðallega vegakerfið, íbúaþróun einstakra landsvæða og búferlaflutningar á Íslandi þróuðust á 20. öldinni. Þar á eftir kemur stór kafli um helstu kenningar og líkön innan samgönguhagfræði og svæðahagfræði. Innan svæðahagfræði er einkum horft til landfræðilegs breytileika á fasteignaverði, staðsetningar fyrirtækja og búferlaflutninga. Að lokum kemur hluti sem segir frá þremur mismunandi reynslurannsóknum (e. empirical studies). Samkvæmt kenningum hagfræðinnar hefur margt áhrif á búferlaflutninga. Oftast eru aðstæður á vinnumarkaði nefndar en skynvirði verður áberandi á síðari tímum. Skynvirði (e. amenity value) felst í staðbundnum gæðum sem auka velferð almennings án þess að hann borgi fyrir það markaðsvirði. Ýmis náttúrugæði, niðurgreidd og endurgjaldslaus þjónusta eða hreinlega félagsstarf hefur verið flokkað undir skynvirði. Þá hafa fræðimenn talað um neikvætt skynvirði (e. disamenity). Það eru staðbundnir þættir sem draga úr velferð íbúanna án þess að þeir fái fyrir það bætur. Glæpir og mengun hafa verið taldir þar á meðal. Athyglisverðar eru kenningar sem gengið hafa út á að laun séu almennt lægri á stöðum þar sem skynvirði er hátt. Það er útskýrt þannig að fólk laðist að stöðum sem bjóða upp á gott veðurfar eða önnur endurgjaldslaus gæði. Það eykur framboð vinnuafls og laun lækka. Að sama skapi eru laun óvenju há þar sem skynvirði er lágt. Nýjastar eru kenningar nýju- svæðahagfræðinnar (e. New Economic Geography), en þaðan er kjarna- jaðarlíkanið ættað. Þar á borgarhagræði stóran þátt í að laða íbúa úr sveit til borgar með hærri launum. Þá er einnig lögð meiri áhersla á ævitekjur fremur en laun á hverjum tíma. Einnig er svigrúm fyrir áhættu. Öll óvissa um afkomu dregur íbúa til svæða þar sem afkomuöryggi er meira. Í einu þessara líkana er félagsauði og umferðarþunga fundinn staður. Samgönguhagfræði er stórt svið. Hér er það eftirspurn eftir samgöngum sem tengdist viðfangsefni ritgerðarinnar og fræðilegum bakgrunni hennar því gerð skil. Það sem einkennir eftirspurn eftir samgöngum er að hún er afleidd þ.e. hún er afleiðing af eftirspurn eftir öðrum gæðum. Fólk ferðast í þeim tilgangi að versla og sækja vinnu og afþreyingu svo eitthvað sé nefnt. Að öðru leyti lýtur eftirspurn eftir samgöngum sömu lögmálum og eftirspurn eftir öðrum gæðum þar sem eigið verð, verð stuðnings- og staðkvæmdarvara og tekjur neytenda spila stórt hlutverk. Í þessari rannsókn var ætlunin að mæla hvort samgöngubætur hefðu áhrif á búferlaflutninga og hvernig. Þetta var gert í þremur skrefum. Fyrst með því að skoða áhrif samgöngubóta á fasteignaverð, þar sem fasteignaverð endurspeglar virði staða og staðsetninga. Í öðru lagi að meta þróun landfræðilegs breytileika fasteingaverðs og hvort í því fælist þróun á borgarhagræði og virði aðgengis að höfuðborginni. Að lokum meta áhrif samgöngubóta á búferlaflutninga með beinum hætti. Reynslurannsóknir ritgerðarinnar byggðu á gögnum frá Íslandi yfir öll sveitarfélög á landinu (79) í nærri tvo áratugi. Reiknuð voru ársmeðaltöl fyrir öll sveitarfélögin. Mörg sveitarfélög voru sameinuð á þessu tímabili en til að gæta samræmis voru allar tölur reiknaðar upp fyrir 79 sveitarfélög líkt og á síðasta ári í gagnasafninu, árið 2006. Líkönum fyrir tvívíð gögn (e. panel data) var beitt við greiningarnar. Þau greina líkön með þversniðs- og tímaraðagögn samtímis þ.e. yfir fjölda einstaklinga eða sveitarfélaga í mörg ár. Í greiningum tvívíðra gagna er í megin atriðum hægt að velja á milli líkans með föstum áhrifum annars vegar og tilviljunarkenndum áhrifum hins vegar. Líkan með föstum áhrifum skilar stuðlum sem endurspegla breytileika innan sveitarfélaga eingöngu, meðan líkan með tilviljunarkenndum áhrifum skilar breytileika innan sveitarfélaga og milli þeirra samtímis. Við mat á áhrifum samgöngubóta á fasteignaverð var stuðst við kenningu og líkan þýsks hagfræðings, Johan Heinrich von-Thünen (1783-1850), um landfræðilegt mynstur fasteignaverðs, þar sem það hefur tilhneigingu til að lækka út frá borgarmiðju vegna mikilvægis markaðarins. Þar sem breytileika á samgöngubótum var að finna á milli allra sveitarfélaga og Reykjavíkur skilaði líkan með föstum áhrifum niðurstöðum sem svöruðu rannsóknarspurningunni. Niðurstaða greiningarinnar staðfesti að samgöngubætur milli landsbyggðarinnar og höfuðborgarinnar hafa áhrif á fasteignaverð á landsbyggðinni til hækkunar. Sérstaða rannsóknarinnar fólst einkum í tvennu: Þessari greiningu hefur aldrei verið beitt á heilt land með þessum hætti og sýnt var fram á að áhrifin væru ekki einsleit. Þau voru mest næst höfuðborginni en fjara síðan smám saman út eftir því sem fjær dregur. Það gefur til kynna að áhrif samgöngubóta eru líklegastar til hafa mest áhrif á fasteignaverð ef þær eru sem næst höfuðborgarsvæðinu. Ýmsir aðrir vel þekktir þættir höfðu áhrif á fasteignaverð eins og búist var við. Þeir helstu voru að framboð íbúða hafði neikvæð áhrif á verð íbúða á meðan stærð þeirra, fjöldi herbergja, svalir, bílskúr og bílastæði höfðu marktæk jákvæð áhrif á verð þeirra. Þá var aðgengi dreifbýlis að borgum metið. Það var gert með því að kanna hvort munur á fasteignaverði í Reykjavík og annarra landsvæða hafi aukist á síðastliðnum 20 árum. Ef það var tilfellið, var ætlunin að meta hvort það fælist í auknu virði á aðgengi vegna breyttra óska almennings um aukið aðgengi að fjölbreyttu úrvali þjónustu og atvinnu eða aukins þéttbýlishagræðis (e. agglomeration economies) vegna aukinnar almennrar hægræðingar af nábýli við annað fólk og fyrirtæki. Að þessu sinni var stuðst við nútíma útfærslu á kenningum von-Thünens um drifkrafta á landfræðilegum breytileika fasteignaverðs og kenninga um þéttbýlishagræði. Nú var líkan með tilviljunarkenndum áhrifum viðeigandi, þar sem aðgengi togast á við skynvirði en slík verðmæti mælast aðallega með breytileika gagnanna milli sveitarfélaga og breytileiki innan þeirra er síðan nauðsynlegur til að gefa fullnægjandi mynd af virði borgarhagræðis. Í greiningunni kom fram að munurinn á fasteignaverði í Reykjavík og Akureyri gagnvart öðrum sveitarfélögum hafði aukist á síðustu árum. Sýnt var fram á að óskir almennings um búsetukosti höfðu verið undirliggjandi þáttur og breyst stóru þjónustukjörnunum tveimur í hag þ.e. aðgengi sem borgir veita hefur orðið hlutfallsega verðmætara heldur en skynvirði sem dreifbýlið hefur í ríkara mæli. Þá kom fram vísbending um að þéttbýlishagræði hafði átt sinn þátt í þróuninni. Við nánari skoðun kom í ljós að munurinn á fasteignaverði í Reykjavík og nálægum sveitarfélögum hafði verið að minnka á sama tíma, þrátt fyrir áðurnefnda þróun. Vísbendingar komu fram um að búferlaflutningar úr borg í sveit hafi verið undirliggjandi áhrifaþáttur þess. Það er almenn tilhneiging til flutnings borgarbúa aftur til sveitar eða smærri bæja í nágrenni borganna, eða í u.þ.b. 120 kílómetra radius frá miðju hennar sem orðið hefur vart bæði annars staðar í Evrópu og einnig í Bandaríkjunum. Ástæður hennar eru ýmist af efnhagslegum hvötum eða af breyttri forgangsröðun í lífi fólks eins og óskir um meiri nálægð við náttúruna eða nánari tengsl við lífið í sveitinni. Í þessari rannsókn komu fram ýmsir aðrir áhrifaþættir fasteingaverðs, margir þeir sömu og í fyrri rannsókninni. Þar má nefna atvinnutekjur, framboð íbúða, aldur og stærð þeirra, fjöldi herbergja, svalir, bílastæði og bílskúr, fjöldi íbúa. Að lokum voru áhrif samgöngubóta á búferlaflutninga metin með beinum hætti. Stuðst var við klassískt búferlaflutningalíkan. Niðurstaða rannsóknarinnar benti til að aðstæður á vinnumarkaði, atvinnutekjur og atvinnuleysi, skiptu mestu máli varðandi búferlaflutninga milli sveitarfélaga á Íslandi. Einnig sást að framboð íbúða laðaði fólk að. Þá skipti aðgengi að sterkum þjónustukjörnum nokkru máli og þess vegna geta samgöngubætur milli höfuðborgarsvæðsins og landsbyggðar hægt á eða jafnvel snúið óhagstæðri íbúaþróun við. Það gæti líka magnað óhagstæða íbúaþróun vegna þess að áhrifin voru þau sömu allsstaðar; því nær sem samgöngubótin var Reykjavík því líklegri var hún til að valda óhagstæðum búferlaflutningum í nærliggjandi sveitarfélagi. Í ákveðinni fjarlægð snérist þetta við þannig að samgöngubætur milli Reykjavíkur og fjarlægari sveitarfélaga stuðluðu að hagstæðum búferlaflutningum til þeirra. Fyrra samhengið er í samræmi við kenningar nýju- svæðahagfræðinnar (kjarnajaðarslíkansins) og kveður á um að samgöngubótin leiði til þess að ákveðin framleiðsla og þjónusta leggist af vegna nálægðar við sterkan kjarna. Hið seinna í samræmi við ójafnvægislíkanið þar sem samgöngubótin hefur tilhneigingu til að auka kaupmátt launa (raunlaun) utan borgarinnar vegna lækkandi verðlags í kjölfar lægri flutningskostnaðar og draga þannig úr brottflutningi eða jafnvel draga fólk að vegna hærri launa. Þar sem niðurstöðurnar gáfu til kynna að ennþá vantaði mikilvæga áhrifaþætti inn í líkanið var gerð tilraun til að meta það á ný og skipta gagnasafninu upp á milli karla og kvenna. Þá kom í ljós að líkanið skýrði miklu betur út búferlaflutninga kvenna heldur en karla. Aðstæður á vinnumarkaði virtust skipta konur miklu meira máli en karla. Það er á vissan hátt rökrétt niðurstaða þar sem sýnt hefur verið fram á að launamunur kynja er minni á höfuðborgarsvæðinu en utan þess. Framboð á íbúðum hafði áhrif á bæði kynin, en ferðatími engin áhrif. Þar sem þetta líkan virtist vera óvenju lélegt í að skýra búferlaflutninga karla vaknaði sú hugmynd að kanna hvort brottflutningar kvenna hefðu áhrif á brottflutning karla. Sú tilgáta vaknaði á grundvelli kenninga Gary Beckers um að hagsæld fólks í sambúð eða hjónabandi sé meiri heldur en einhleypra; þar með ef konur flyttu brott þá dragi úr líkum karla á að komast í sambúð. Það var gert með því að kanna hvort karlar flyttu í kjölfar kvenna til þess að auka líkurnar á sambúð/hjónabandi. Það var staðfest þegar líkanið var keyrt aftur með viðeigandi breytingum. Við þetta hafði ferðatími marktæk áhrif á búferlaflutninga karla og niðurstaðan almennt áreiðanlegri. Það virðist því vera þannig að samgöngubætur hafi frekar áhrif á búferlaflutninga karla en ekki kvenna.
What is a radical? Somebody who goes against mainstream opinions? An agitator who suggests transforming society at the risk of endangering its harmony? In the political context of the British Isles at the end of the eighteenth century, the word radical had a negative connotation. It referred to the Levellers and the English Civil War, it brought back a period of history which was felt as a traumatic experience. Its stigmas were still vivid in the mind of the political leaders of these times. The reign of Cromwell was certainly the main reason for the general aversion of any form of virulent contestation of the power, especially when it contained political claims. In the English political context, radicalism can be understood as the different campaigns for parliamentary reforms establishing universal suffrage. However, it became evident that not all those who were supporting such a reform originated from the same social class or shared the same ideals. As a matter of fact, the reformist associations and their leaders often disagreed with each other. Edward Royle and Hames Walvin claimed that radicalism could not be analyzed historically as a concept, because it was not a homogeneous movement, nor it had common leaders and a clear ideology. For them, radicalism was merely a loose concept, « a state of mind rather than a plan of action. » At the beginning of the nineteenth-century, the newspaper The Northern Star used the word radical in a positive way to designate a person or a group of people whose ideas were conform to those of the newspaper. However, an opponent of parliamentary reform will use the same word in a negative way, in this case the word radical will convey a notion of menace. From the very beginning, the term radical covered a large spectrum of ideas and conceptions. In fact, the plurality of what the word conveys is the main characteristic of what a radical is. As a consequence, because the radicals tended to differentiate themselves with their plurality and their differences rather than with common features, it seems impossible to define what radicalism (whose suffix in –ism implies that it designate a doctrine, an ideology) is. Nevertheless, today it is accepted by all historians. From the mid-twentieth century, we could say that it was taken from granted to consider radicalism as a movement that fitted with the democratic precepts (universal suffrage, freedom of speech) of our modern world. Let us first look at radicalism as a convenient way to designate the different popular movements appealing to universal suffrage during the time period 1792-1848. We could easily observe through the successions of men and associations, a long lasting radical state of mind: Cartwright, Horne Tooke, Thomas Hardy, Francis Burdett, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt, William Lovett, Bronterre O'Brien, Feargus O'Connor, The London Society for Constitutional information (SCI), The London Corresponding Society (LCS), The Hampden Clubs, The Chartists, etc. These organizations and people acknowledged having many things in common and being inspired by one another in carrying out their activities. These influences can be seen in the language and the political ideology that British historians name as "Constitutionalist", but also, in the political organization of extra-parliamentary societies. Most of the radicals were eager to redress injustices and, in practice, they were inspired by a plan of actions drawn on from the pamphlets of the True Whigs of the eighteenth-century. We contest the argument that the radicals lacked coherence and imagination or that they did not know how to put into practice their ambitions. In fact, their innovative forms of protest left a mark on history and found many successors in the twentieth century. Radicals' prevarications were the result of prohibitive legislation that regulated the life of associations and the refusal of the authorities to cooperate with them. As mentioned above, the term radical was greatly used and the contemporaries of the period starting from the French Revolution to Chartism never had to quarrel about the notions the word radical covered. However, this does not imply that all radicals were the same or that they belong to the same entity. Equally to Horne Tooke, the Reverend and ultra-Tory Stephens was considered as a radical, it went also with the shoemaker Thomas Hardy and the extravagant aristocrat Francis Burdett. Whether one belonged to the Aristocracy, the middle-class, the lower class or the Church, nothing could prevent him from being a radical. Surely, anybody could be a radical in its own way. Radicalism was wide enough to embrace everybody, from revolutionary reformers to paternalistic Tories. We were interested to clarify the meaning of the term radical because its inclusive nature was overlooked by historians. That's why the term radical figures in the original title of our dissertation Les voix/voies radicales (radical voices/ways to radicalism). In the French title, both words voix/voies are homonymous; the first one voix (voice) correspond to people, the second one voies (ways) refers to ideas. By this, we wanted to show that the word radical belongs to the sphere of ideas and common experience but also to the nature of human beings. Methodoloy The thesis stresses less on the question of class and its formation than on the circumstances that brought people to change their destiny and those of their fellows or to modernize the whole society. We challenged the work of E.P. Thompson, who in his famous book, The Making of the English Working Class, defined the radical movements in accordance with an idea of class. How a simple shoe-maker, Thomas Hardy, could become the center of attention during a trial where he was accused of being the mastermind of a modern revolution? What brought William Cobbett, an ultra-Tory, self-taught intellectual, to gradually espouse the cause of universal suffrage at a period where it was unpopular to do so? Why a whole population gathered to hear Henry Hunt, a gentleman farmer whose background did not destine him for becoming the champion of the people? It seemed that the easiest way to answer to these questions and to understand the nature of the popular movements consisted in studying the life of their leaders. We aimed at reconstructing the universe which surrounded the principal actors of the reform movements as if we were a privileged witness of theses times. This idea to associate the biographies of historical characters for a period of more than fifty years arouse when we realized that key events of the reform movements were echoing each other, such the trial of Thomas Hardy in 1794 and the massacre of Peterloo of 1819. The more we learned about the major events of radicalism and the life of their leaders, the more we were intrigued. Finally, one could ask himself if being a radical was not after all a question of character rather than one of class. The different popular movements in favour of a parliamentary reform were in fact far more inclusive and diversified from what historians traditionally let us to believe. For instance, once he manage to gather a sufficient number of members of the popular classes, Thomas Hardy projected to give the control of his association to an intellectual elite led by Horne Tooke. Moreover, supporters of the radical reforms followed leaders whose background was completely different as theirs. For example, O'Connor claimed royal descent from the ancient kings of Ireland. William Cobbett, owner of a popular newspaper was proud of his origins as a farmer. William Lovett, close to the liberals and a few members of parliament came from a very poor family of fishermen. We have thus put together the life of these five men, Thomas hardy, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt, William Lovett and Feargus O'Connor in order to compose a sort of a saga of the radicals. This association gives us a better idea of the characteristics of the different movements in which they participated, but also, throw light on the circumstances of their formation and their failures, on the particular atmosphere which prevailed at these times, on the men who influenced these epochs, and finally on the marks they had left. These men were at the heart of a whole network and in contact with other actors of peripheral movements. They gathered around themselves close and loyal fellows with whom they shared many struggles but also quarreled and had strong words. The original part of our approach is reflected in the choice to not consider studying the fluctuations of the radical movements in a linear fashion where the story follows a strict chronology. We decided to split up the main issue of the thesis through different topics. To do so, we simply have described the life of the people who inspired these movements. Each historical figure covers a chapter, and the general story follows a chronological progression. Sometimes we had to go back through time or discuss the same events in different chapters when the main protagonists lived in the same period of time. Radical movements were influenced by people of different backgrounds. What united them above all was their wish to obtain a normalization of the political world, to redress injustices and obtain parliamentary reform. We paid particular attention to the moments where the life of these men corresponded to an intense activity of the radical movement or to a transition of its ideas and organization. We were not so much interested in their feelings about secondary topics nor did we about their affective relations. Furthermore, we had little interest in their opinions on things which were not connected to our topic unless it helped us to have a better understanding of their personality. We have purposely reduced the description of our protagonists to their radical sphere. Of course we talked about their background and their intellectual development; people are prone to experience reversals of opinions, the case of Cobbett is the most striking one. The life of these personalities coincided with particular moments of the radical movement, such as the first popular political associations, the first open-air mass meetings, the first popular newspapers, etc. We wanted to emphasize the personalities of those who addressed speeches and who were present in the radical associations. One could argue that the inconvenience of focusing on a particular person presents a high risk of overlooking events and people who were not part of his world. However, it was essential to differ from an analysis or a chronicle which had prevailed in the studies of the radical movements, as we aimed at offering a point of view that completed the precedents works written on that topic. In order to do so, we have deliberately put the humane character of the radical movement at the center of our work and used the techniques of biography as a narrative thread. Conclusion The life of each historical figure that we have portrayed corresponded to a particular epoch of the radical movement. Comparing the speeches of the radical leaders over a long period of time, we noticed that the radical ideology evolved. The principles of the Rights of Men faded away and gave place to more concrete reasoning, such as the right to benefit from one's own labour. This transition is characterized by the Chartist period of Feargus O'Connor. This does not mean that collective memory and radical tradition ceased to play an important part. The popular classes were always appealed to Constitutional rhetoric and popular myths. Indeed, thanks to them they identified themselves and justified their claims to universal suffrage. We focused on the life of a few influent leaders of radicalism in order to understand its evolution and its nature. The description of their lives constituted our narrative thread and it enabled us to maintain consistency in our thesis. If the chapters are independent the one from the other, events and speeches are in correspondences. Sometimes we could believe that we were witnessing a repetition of facts and events as if history was repeating itself endlessly. However, like technical progress, the spirit of time, Zeitgeist, experiences changes and mutations. These features are fundamental elements to comprehend historical phenomena; the latter cannot be simplified to philosophical, sociological, or historical concept. History is a science which has this particularity that the physical reality of phenomena has a human dimension. As a consequence, it is essential not to lose touch with the human aspect of history when one pursues studies and intellectual activities on a historical phenomenon. We decided to take a route opposite to the one taken by many historians. We have first identified influential people from different epochs before entering into concepts analysis. Thanks to this compilation of radical leaders, a new and fresh look to the understanding of radicalism was possible. Of course, we were not the first one to have studied them, but we ordered them following a chronology, like Plutarch enjoyed juxtaposing Greeks and Romans historical figures. Thanks to this technique we wanted to highlight the features of the radical leaders' speeches, personalities and epochs, but also their differences. At last, we tried to draw the outlines and the heart of different radical movements in order to follow the ways that led to radicalism. We do not pretend to have offered an original and exclusive definition of radicalism, we mainly wanted to understand the nature of what defines somebody as a radical and explain the reasons why thousands of people decided to believe in this man. Moreover, we wanted to distance ourselves from the ideological debate of the Cold War which permeated also the interpretation of past events. Too often, the history of radicalism was either narrated with a form of revolutionary nostalgia or in order to praise the merits of liberalism. If the great mass meetings ends in the mid-nineteenth-century with the fall of Chartism, this practice spread out in the whole world in the twentieth-century. Incidentally, the Arab Spring of the beginning of the twenty-first-century demonstrated that a popular platform was the best way for the people to claim their rights and destabilize a political system which they found too authoritative. Through protest the people express an essential quality of revolt, which is an expression of emancipation from fear. From then on, a despotic regime loses this psychological terror which helped it to maintain itself into power. The balance of power between the government and its people would also take a new turn. The radicals won this psychological victory more than 150 years ago and yet universal suffrage was obtained only a century later. From the acceptance of the principles of liberties to their cultural practice, a long route has to be taken to change people's mind. It is a wearisome struggle for the most vulnerable people. In the light of western history, fundamental liberties must be constantly defended. Paradoxically, revolt is an essential and constitutive element of the maintenance of democracy. ; Die radikalen Strömungen in England von 1789 bis 1848 Formulierung der Problematik Was ist ein Radikaler? Eine Person die vorgefassten Meinungen zuwiderhandelt? Ein Agitator, der die Gesellschaft verändern will und dabei das Risiko eingeht, sie aus dem Gleichgewicht zu bringen? Im politischen Kontext, in dem sich die britischen Inseln am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts befanden, hatte dieser Begriff eine negative Konnotation. Er erinnert nämlich an die levellers und an den Bürgerkrieg. Diese historische Epoche, die als traumatisches Erlebnis empfunden wurde, hat bei den politischen Führern Stigmata hinterlassen, die immer noch vorhanden sind. Die Herrschaft Cromwells hatte bestimmt einen direkten Einfluss auf die Aversion der Engländer gegen jede heftige Form des Protestes gegen die herrschende Macht, vor allem wenn er politisch vereinnahmt wird. Im politischen Kontext in England versteht man unter Radikalismus verschiedene Versuche, eine Parlamentsreform durchzusetzen, die das allgemeine Wahlrecht einführen sollte. Natürlich bedeutet dies nicht, dass die Befürworter solch einer Reform eine gesellschaftliche und ideologische Nähe verband. In der Tat waren sich die reformistischen Verbände oft untereinander nicht einig und ihre jeweiligen Führer hatten wenige Gemeinsamkeiten. Edward Royle und Hames Walvin erläutern, dass der Radikalismus historisch nicht wie ein Konzept analysiert werden kann, da er keine einheitliche Bewegung war, da sich die Führer untereinander nicht einig waren und da keine eindeutige Ideologie vorhanden war. Der Radikalismus war ihrer Meinung nach nur eine vage Ansammlung bunter Ideen. Er sei « eher eine Einstellung als ein Aktionsplan» gewesen. Am Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts verwendete die Zeitung Northern Star den Begriff « radikal » in einem positiven Sinne, um eine Person oder eine Gruppe zu bezeichnen, deren Ideen mit den Ihrigen im Einklang standen. Gegner der Parlamentsreformbewegungen haben diesen Begriff im negativen Sinne verwendet. Der Radikale wurde dann also als Bedrohung wahrgenommen. Der Gebrauch des Begriffes radikal scheint kein semantisches Problem darzustellen im Vergleich zur Verwendung des Wortes Radikalismus dessen Suffix -ismus eine Doktrin bzw. eine Ideologie voraussetzt. Die Tatsache, dass die Radikalen so unterschiedliche Gesinnungen vertraten, scheint eine Definition des Radikalismus unmöglich zu machen. Trotzdem wird sein Gebrauch heute von allen Historikern akzeptiert. Man könnte also behaupten, dass es seit der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts gängig wurde, mit dem Begriff Radikalismus jede Bewegung zu bezeichnen, die Ideen durchsetzen wollte, die nach unserem heutigen Verständnis als demokratisch verstanden werden. Wir können den Begriff Radikalismus zwischen 1792 und 1848 also erst einmal als eine praktische Bezeichnung für die verschiedenen radikalen Volksbewegungen, die das Ziel verfolgten, das allgemeine Wahlrecht einzuführen, betrachten. Diese radikale Einstellung findet man bei einer ganzen Reihe von Menschen und Organisationen wieder. Cartwright, Horne Tooke, Thomas Hardy, Francis Burdett, William Cobbet, Henry Hunt, William Lovett, Bronterre O'Brien Feargus O'Connor, die London Society for Constitutional information (SCI), die London Corresponding Society (LCS), die Hampden Clubs, die Chartisten, usw. Man kann viele Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den Protagonisten erkennen, die sie sich auch eingestanden haben. Auβerdem wird auch der Einfluss erkennbar, den sie aufeinander ausgeübt haben, um ihre Aktionen zu gestalten. Diese Einflüsse findet man sowohl in der Sprache und in der politischen Ideologie wieder, die von den britischen Historikern als « konstitutionalistisch » bezeichnet wurden, als auch in der politischen Organisation von auβerparlamentarischen Gruppierungen. Alle Radikalen wollten die Ungerechtigkeiten beheben, und in der Praxis haben sie sich von einem Aktionsplan anregen lassen, den sie im 18. Jahrhundert in den Pamphleten der true whigs gefunden haben. Wir müssen teilweise das Argument zurückweisen, dass die Radikalen nicht kohärent und einfallsreich waren, oder dass sie nicht genau wussten, wie sie ihre Ziele umsetzen konnten. Ganz im Gegenteil: Die innovativen Formen des Protestes, die ihnen zuzuschreiben sind, waren bezeichnend und haben eine Spur in der Geschichte hinterlassen. Das Zaudern der Radikalen war erstens auf die prohibitive Gesetzgebung zurückzuführen, der die Verbände unterlagen und zweitens auf die kategorische Ablehnung der Behörden zu kooperieren. Die Zeitgenossen der Epoche, die sich von der Französischen Revolution bis zum Chartismus erstreckt, haben nie über den Sinn des Begriffs radikal debattiert. Dies bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass alle Radikalen gleich waren, oder dass sie zu derselben Einheit gehörten. Horne Tooke und der Priester Stephens waren beide Radikale, so wie der Schuster Hardy und der extravagante Burdett. Ob man ein Adliger, ein Mitglied des Bürgertums, ein Handwerker, ein Gutsbesitzer oder ein Mann der Kirche war: Nichts hinderte einen daran, ein Radikaler zu sein. Jeder konnte auf seine Art ein Radikaler sein. In dem Radikalismus gab es in der Tat eine groβe Bandbreite, die sich vom revolutionären Radikalismus bis zum paternalistischen Torysmus erstreckte. Wir waren daran interessiert, genau zu verstehen, was der Begriff radikal bedeutet, denn sein integrativer Charakter wurde von Historikern übersehen. Wir haben uns deshalb so genau mit der Bedeutung des Begriffs « radikal » beschäftigt, weil dieses Adjektiv im Plural im Titel die radikalen Strömungen enthalten ist. Mit dem im französischen Titel enthaltenen Gleichklang zwischen den Wörtern « voie » (Weg, Strömung) und « voix » (Stimme) wollten wir zeigen, dass sich der Begriff « radikal » sowohl auf ein Ideenbündel als auch auf eine Person bezieht. Die methodische Vorgehensweise In dieser Arbeit richtet sich unser Augenmerk weniger auf die Frage, wie eine Gesellschaftsschicht entstanden ist, als auf die Umstände, die die Menschen dazu bewogen haben, ihrem Schicksal und dem Ihresgleichen oder gar der ganzen Gesellschaft eine andere Wendung zu geben. Wir stellten das Werk von E.P.Thompson in Frage, welcher in seinem bekannten Buch "The Making of the English Working Class" radikale Bewegungen, entsprechend einer Vorstellung von Klasse, definiert. Wie kam es, dass ein einfacher Schuster wie Thomas Hardy, während eines Prozesses, in dem er beschuldigt wurde, eine moderne Revolution anzuzetteln, im Zentrum der Öffentlichkeit stand? Wie kam es, dass ein Autodidakt und ein Anhängiger der Ultra- Tories wie William Cobbett sich nach und nach für das allgemeine Wahlrecht einsetzte, zu einer Zeit, in der es unpopulär war? Wie kam es, dass sich die ganze Bevölkerung in Massen um Henry Hunt scharte, einen Gutsbesitzer, der nicht gerade dazu bestimmt war, sich für die Belange des Volkes stark zu machen? Unser Ziel ist es, das Universum, in dem die wichtigsten Beteiligten lebten, wiederzugeben, so als wären wir ein privilegierter Zeuge dieser Epochen. Die einfachste Art diese Fragen zu beantworten und die Beschaffenheit der Volksbewegungen zu verstehen besteht unserer Meinung nach darin, das Leben jener Männer zu studieren, die sie gestaltet haben. Wir hatten den Einfall, mehrere Männer, die in einem Zeitraum von mehr als 50 Jahren gelebt haben, miteinander in Verbindung zu bringen, als uns aufgefallen ist, dass Schlüsselmomente der Reformbewegungen miteinander korrespondieren, wie z.B der Prozess von Thomas Hardy und das Massaker von Peterloo 1819. Je mehr wir uns mit diesen Ereignissen beschäftigten, desto mehr weckte dies unsere Neugier auf das Leben jener Menschen, die sie verursacht haben. Schlussendlich konnte man sich fragen, ob radikal zu sein nicht eher eine Frage des Charakters als eine Frage der Klassenzugehörigkeit war. Die verschiedenen Volksbewegungen für eine Parlamentsreform haben in der Tat viel mehr unterschiedliche Menschen vereint und waren um einiges vielfältiger als es die Historiker behauptet haben. So war es zum Beispiel Thomas Hardys Vorhaben, die Führung des Verbandes einer intellektuellen Elite unter Horne Tookes Kommando zu überlassen, nachdem er es geschafft haben würde, genug Mitglieder der Arbeiterschicht zu versammeln. Auβerdem haben die Sympathisanten mit Freude Führer akzeptiert, deren Schicksal sehr wenig mit dem Ihrigen gemeinsam hatte. O'Connor z. B erhob den Anspruch, der Nachkomme eines irischen Königs zu sein. Cobbett, der Besitzer einer bedeutenden Zeitung, erinnerte daran, dass er aus einer Bauernfamilie stammte. William Lovett, der den Liberalen und einigen Parlamentsmitgliedern nahe stand, stammte aus einer armen Fischerfamilie. Wir haben diese fünf Männer Thomas Hardy, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt, William Lovett und Feargus O'Connor in Verbindung gebracht, um gewissermaßen eine Saga der Radikalen zu erstellen. Dies erlaubte es uns, uns ein genaueres Bild zu machen von den Merkmalen der verschiedenen Bewegungen, an denen sie teilgenommen haben, von dem Kontext, in dem die Bewegungen entstanden sind, von ihren Misserfolgen, von der besonderen Atmosphäre, die in diesen unterschiedlichen Epochen herrschte, von den Männern, die diese Bewegungen beeinflusst haben und zuletzt von dem Zeichen, das sie gesetzt haben. Diese Männer waren im Mittelpunkt eines Netzwerkes und standen in Verbindung mit anderen Akteuren, die an peripheren Bewegungen beteiligt waren. Sie waren umgeben von treuen Weggefährten, mit denen zusammen sie viele Kämpfe ausgetragen haben, oder mit denen sie sich heftig gestritten haben. Unsere Vorgehensweise ist insofern neu, als wir die Fluktuationen der radikalen Bewegungen weder linear bzw. chronologisch beleuchten, noch in einer zersplitterten Weise, indem wir die Problematik in mehrere Themen unterteilen. Wir sind ganz einfach dem Leben der Männer gefolgt, die am Ursprung dieser Bewegung standen. Jedes Kapitel behandelt eine historische Person und die gesamte Abhandlung ist chronologisch aufgebaut. Manchmal war es notwendig, Rückblenden einzubauen oder die gleichen Ereignisse mehrmals zu erwähnen, wenn verschiedene historische Personen daran beteiligt waren. Die radikalen Bewegungen wurden von Menschen aus verschiedenen Horizonten beeinflusst. Verbunden waren sie vor allem durch ihr Bestreben, eine Normalisierung der politischen Welt zu erreichen, gegen die Ungerechtigkeiten zu kämpfen und eine Parlamentsreform durchzusetzen. Wir haben uns auf die Momente konzentriert, in denen das Leben der Männer mit einem aktiven Handeln in der radikalen Bewegung oder mit einer Veränderung ihrer Ideen oder in ihrer Organisation einherging. Ihre emotionalen Beziehungen und ihre Einstellung zu belanglosen Fragen interessierten uns nicht. Ihre Meinungen zu Fragen, die unser Studienobjekt nicht betreffen, waren auch nicht Gegenstand dieser Abhandlung, es sei denn sie ermöglichten es uns, ihre Persönlichkeit besser zu umreiβen. Unser Augenmerk richtete sich ausdrücklich und vor allem auf die radikale Tätigkeit der Beteiligten. Natürlich haben wir auch die Lebensumstände und die geistige Entwicklung dieser Männer geschildert, denn wir wissen, dass Meinungen sich im Laufe eines Lebens ändern können, wie es der bemerkenswerte Fall von Cobbett verdeutlicht. Das Leben dieser Personen fiel zeitlich mit markanten Momenten in der radikalen Bewegung zusammen, wie z. B die ersten politischen Organisationen der Arbeiterschichten, die ersten Massendemonstrationen oder die ersten politisch ausgerichteten Volkszeitungen. Wir wollten die menschlichen Züge jener Männer wiedergeben, die Reden gehalten haben und die in den radikalen Verbänden anwesend waren. Man könnte uns vorwerfen, dass wir- wenn wir uns auf eine historische Person konzentriert haben- andere Fakten oder Personen, die nicht zu ihrem Umfeld gehörten aber dennoch an der Bewegung beteiligt waren, ausgeblendet haben. Uns schien es aber wesentlich, die analytische Methode oder die historische Chronik, die die Studien über die radikalen Bewegungen maßgeblich prägt, aufzugeben. Unser Ziel war es nämlich, diese Schilderungen zu vervollständigen, indem wir den menschlichen Aspekt in den Vordergrund stellten. Dazu haben wir die biografische Perspektive gewählt und unserer Studie angepasst. Schluss Jeder Mann, dessen Rolle wir hervorgehoben haben, lebte in einer bestimmten Phase der radikalen Bewegung. Der Vergleich der Reden, die sie in verschiedenen Epochen gehalten haben, hat aufgezeigt, dass die radikale Ideologie sich im Laufe der Zeit verändert hat. Die Verteidigung der Menschenrechte verlor an Bedeutung und die Argumentation wurde konkreter: Es ging z. B mehr und mehr um das Recht, die Früchte seiner Arbeit zu genieβen. Dieser Wandel fand in der chartistischen Epoche Feargus O'Connors statt. Die Traditionen des Radikalismus und die Erinnerung daran spielten jedoch weiterhin eine wichtige Rolle. Die Rhetorik des Konstitutionalismus und der Volksmythos waren Themen, mit denen die Arbeiterschichten sich immer identifiziert haben, und die ihre Forderung nach dem allgemeinen Wahlrecht gerechtfertigt haben. Wir haben uns auf das Leben einiger einflussreicher Männer des Radikalismus konzentriert, um seine Entwicklung und sein Wesen zu verstehen. Ihre Lebensläufe haben uns als Leitfaden gedient und haben es uns ermöglicht, eine Kohärenz in unserer Abhandlung zu wahren. Zwar sind die Kapitel unabhängig voneinander, aber die Ereignisse und die Reden korrespondieren miteinander. Man könnte manchmal den Eindruck haben, dass sich Fakten, Handlungen und die Geschichte im Allgemeinen endlos wiederholen. Allerdings ist der Zeitgeist im ständigen Wandel begriffen, so wie dies auch beim technischen Fortschritt der Fall ist. Wir sind der Ansicht, dass diese Besonderheiten fundamentale Elemente sind, die es ermöglichen, historische Phänomene zu begreifen, die nicht auf philosophische, soziologische oder historische Konzepte reduziert werden können. Die Geschichte als Wissenschaft weist die Besonderheit auf, dass die physische Realität und die erwähnten Phänomene auch eine menschliche Realität sind. Daher ist es wesentlich, bei der intellektuellen Auseinandersetzung mit einem historischen Phänomen den menschlichen Aspekt nicht aus den Augen zu verlieren. Wir wollten einen Weg einschlagen, der dem vieler Historiker entgegengesetzt ist. Unser Augenmerk richtete sich zunächst auf die Männer, die ihre jeweiligen Epochen maβgeblich geprägt haben, bevor wir uns mit Konzepten beschäftigt haben. Die Männer, die wir auserwählt haben, gaben uns einen neuen und frischen Blick auf den Radikalismus und brachten uns diesen näher. Natürlich sind wir nicht die ersten, die sich mit diesen historischen Personen beschäftigt haben. Durch die chronologische Anordnung unserer Abhandlung, wollten wir- so wie Plutarch, der griechische und römische historische Personen miteinander in Verbindung brachte- die Wesensmerkmale ihrer Reden, Persönlichkeiten und Epochen aber auch ihre Unterschiede in den Vordergrund rücken. Wir haben also versucht, eine Bewegung zu umreiβen und im Kern zu erfassen und die Wege nachzuzeichnen, die zum Radikalismus führten. Wir behaupten nicht, dass wir eine neuartige und ausschlieβliche Definition dieser Bewegung geliefert haben. Wir haben nur versucht, die Wesensmerkmale eines Radikalen zu begreifen und herauszufinden, aus welchen Gründen tausende Männer an diesen Mann geglaubt haben. Wir wollten uns von der ideologischen Debatte über den Kalten Krieg losmachen, die sogar auf die Interpretation zurückliegender Ereignisse abgefärbt hat. Zu oft wurde die Geschichte des Radikalismus mit einer Art revolutionären Nostalgie erzählt, oder mit der Absicht, die Vorzüge des Liberalismus zu preisen. Der Chartismus leitete zwar im 19. Jahrhundert das Ende der groβen Massenbewegungen in England ein, aber diese Methode hat sich im 20. Jahrhundert überall auf der Welt verbreitet. In der Tat zeigt der arabische Frühling am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts, dass die zahlenmäβige Überlegenheit das beste Druckmittel des Volkes ist, um seine Rechte einzufordern und das bestehenden Regime zu destabilisieren. Ein Volk, das demonstriert, zeigt, dass es keine Angst mehr hat. Von dem Moment an, in dem ein autoritäres Regime diese psychologische Waffe, die es ihm ermöglicht hat, an der Macht zu bleiben, verliert, kehrt sich das Machtgefälle zwischen der autoritären Staatsgewalt und dem unterworfenen Volk um. Diesen psychologischen Sieg haben die englischen Radikalen vor mehr als 150 Jahren errungen. Jedoch wurde das allgemeine Wahlrecht erst ein Jahrhundert später eingeführt. Damit es also nicht bei Prinzipienerklärungen bleibt, sondern die Freiheiten in die Wirklichkeit umgesetzt werden, bedarf es einer Bewusstseinsänderung, die nur durch eine langwierige Arbeit zustande kommen kann. Für die Schwächsten ist dies ein langer Kampf. In Anbetracht der abendländischen Geschichte muss man die Freiheiten als Rechte betrachten, die es immer wieder zu verteidigen gilt. Paradoxerweise scheint die Revolte also eine grundlegende und unabdingbare Bedingung zu sein, um die Demokratie zu erhalten.
Summary of the Study Introduction Sudan is the third largest country on the African continent with a total area of 1,882,000 sq km. before the secession of South Sudan in 2011; Sudan was the largest country in Africa, covering I million square miles. Sudan is unique and complex in its climate, politics, environment, languages, cultures, religion and ethnicities. Demographically, Africans are the majority (52%), with Arab and Beja tribes constituting 38% and 6% of the population, respectively. Over 597 tribes live in Sudan that speak more than 400 dialects and practice different religions, live in Sudan. Muslims make up 70% of the total population of Sudan, followers of indigenous beliefs comprise 25% and Christians constitute 5% of the population. The complex mixture of the Sudanese social fabric renders it neither distinctly African nor Arab country. The Sudanese, however, have long disagreed about Sudan's identity. For some, Sudan should be Arab and Muslim. Other believe that the country should respect and accommodate all the cultures, religions and minorities within its territory. Most of Sudan constitutions stated that Islam and Arabic language should define the national identity. Politically, since the independence, Sudan has experienced a fluctuation between military rule and democratic rule. In fact, Sudan spent thirty years under the military rule, and only twelve years under democratically elected governments. The successive governments have frequently made use of emergency legislation to broaden the executive powers. These legislative measures have contributed to conflict and facilitated a range of human rights violations. In addition to the political instability, Sudan has the distinction in Africa in enduring a devastating civil war: that is: Sudan's north-south civil war. The conflict started just a year before the independence of Sudan, in 1956. The cumulative impact of that conflict has been massive. The conflict has caused horrendous loss of life in any interstate war, and has produced the largest internally displaced population (IDP) in the world. Sudan north-south conflict has long been perceived as ethnic or even religious conflict between the north and the south. Ethnicity has been used generously in the description of that conflict. Yet, a closer look at the history of the conflict reveals that the root-causes of that conflict are highly complex. But, this is by no means to say that conflict has had no ethnic, racial and religious overtones. The eruption of the north-south conflict was the result of a combination of factors. One could trace the root-causes of the conflict to the invasion of the south from the north by Turkiyya that expanded southwards, and the simultaneous development of slave trade. Thereafter, the British rule contributed in different ways to the crystallizing of the north-south dichotomy. After the independence of Sudan, successive governments, were unsuccessful in handling the growing southern problem, ranging from neglect to attempts to reverse the British isolation by enforced Arabisation and Islamization of the southern Sudan. The north-south conflict ended, in 1972, when Addis Ababa Agreement was signed by then President Nimeiry. But, the conflict broke out again, in 1983, when the Addis Ababa Agreement was abrogated by the then President Nimeiry. After a series of peace talks (which witnessed 'start and stop'), a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was concluded, in 9 January 2005, between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM/SPLA) to end the conflict. The CPA provides for a temporary solution for the conflict through, inter alia, the distribution of the power between the north and the south of Sudan by establishing a decentralised system of government with a significant devolution of powers within which the Southern Sudan is to enjoy a regional autonomy and share half of the resources with north Sudan for a period of six years. Furthermore, the CPA creates joint institutions, such as, the Government of the National Unity (GoNU) in which the Southern Sudan participate and share ministerial posts. The CPA also provides for the establishment of a number of commissions for implementing and monitoring the CPA, for instance, the Evaluation and Monitoring Commission, the National Human Rights Commission, etc. At the end of the interim period, a referendum on the self-determination is to be held, in 2011, in which the people of the Southern Sudan will decide whether to remain within a united Sudan or to secede and form an independent State. The Aim of the Study The significance of this study derives from the conclusion of the CPA and the adoption of the Interim National Constitution (INC) that called for democratic transformation so as to bring an end to Sudan north-south conflict. While the CPA ended Sudan's north-south conflict, a lasting peace and a democratic transformation, in Sudan, may prove elusive unless the CPA provisions are translated into reality, especially the implementation of constitutional, legislative and institutional reforms, including human rights protection and respect for the rule of law. The study aims to answer whether the CPA and INC can fulfil their roles in securing peace and establishing a framework in which the constitutional protection of human rights are recognised and effectively implemented through the availability of the various mechanisms. In this respect, the CPA provided for the adoption of a new constitution (INC), with a view to embedding constitutionalism, rule of law promotion, and protection of human rights. It is, therefore, this study is meant to analyze the constitutional, legislative and institutional reforms of the CPA and INC with a view to examining whether such constitutional reforms may be conducive for a lasting peace, in Sudan, that is based on human rights protection, constitutionalism and the rule of law. The CPA stipulated the need for institutional and legislative changes to reduce the risk of recurrence of human rights violations. To this end, the CPA mandated the adoption of a bill of right (for the promotion and protection of human rights) and provided for re-restructuring of the courts system. Such institutional reforms are aimed at embedding constitutionalism. That is to say: establishing a system in which the constitution provides an agreed upon framework for the exercise of powers and the protection of human rights. In this respect, the study examines whether the outcome of the constitutional reforms process (to recognise, implement, and protect human rights as provided for in the INC) have been reflected in institutional and legislative reforms to protect and prevent human rights violations and address past violations and systemic factors that have contributed to violations. To that end, the human right jurisprudence of the constitutional court will be examined. The Organization of the Study a) The Structure of the Political/Governance System in Sudan under the INC With the devolution of the powers and resources to the Southern Sudan level and other States, the governance system, under the INC, is structured with four levels of government: the national level at the apex, the Government of South Sudan level, the State level (25 States), the local level. Now, the government responsibilities are decentralized and the national government allocates a significant proportion of revenues to the States. It is, therefore, that the first question that this study poses is: What is the impact of the current governance in giving greater equity of representation and decision-making influence to communities across Sudan, thereby facilitating conflict management to achieve a lasting peace in Sudan? In Sudan, previously appropriate design of institutions to ensure political accommodations for all social groups has not been established in a way that would give them the chance to function properly. Now, the INC restructures the prevailing governance system by establishing a decentralized system of government that bears the characteristics of asymmetrical/symmetrical federalism - asymmetrical in the structure and responsibilities of subunits, with the level of South Sudan having more powers and resources than other States across Sudan. Establishment of a federal structure may constitute a mechanism for preventing a relapse into conflict through the devolution of the powers to the State level. For a federal to work effectively, it requires a functional court system to decide on the jurisdictional limits of the different levels of government. Nevertheless, the relevance of the court system in resolving the intractably political contentions in federal countries, especially in transition situations, is uncertain. Noticeably missing from the literature is the study and analysis of the impact of the role of court system in post conflict countries. That said, the role of the court system in preserving democracy has grown in importance with the increase recognition of the judicial review of the constitutionality of the acts of the government organs and the recognition and the protection of human rights provisions. It is, therefore, that the involvement of the courts is necessary to ensure the successful operation of the federalism and thus the failure or the success of federalism is contingent on the implementation of the federal system by the courts. According to some scholars, 'federalism means legalism – the predominance of the judiciary in the constitution- the prevalence of a spirit of legality among the people'. As '[the] courts …are actually telling a government how far it can go with its assigned constitutional rights'. This leads to the second question that this study addresses which relates to the analysis of the constitutional reform as provided for in the INC, in general, but with a special focus on the role of the court system, through the application of judicial review and protection of human rights, to resolve not only disputes in litigations between private parties, but also to prevent the arbitrary exercise of the government power. b) The Structure of the Legal System (Court System) in Sudan under the INC The available literature presents different views as to the role of the court system in new democracies. On one hand, one view assumes that the courts have a fairly wide discretion to decide the outcome of the controversial cases to the needs of the political moment. The other view, on the other hand, takes the position that political actors do not exert any kind of influence at all on the way judges make their decisions. A third source, and with which I agree, argues that legal rules do put constrains over the exercise of the judicial discretion in controversial cases. A fourth view argues that in new fragile democracies constitutional courts/supreme courts should not be involved in judicial review, especially on adjudicating issues related to social and economic rights, which may profoundly affect the allocations of resources and violate the doctrine of separation of powers. In this respect, the study considers whether the court system, as restructured in the INC, and other constitutional guarantees introduced to the legal system as a whole, offer good prospects for constitutionalism that may control the power of the government so as not act arbitrarily. The role of court system in resolving disputes is highly contingent on the substantive law and the institutional structure within which the courts apply laws. Thus, this study examines to what extent the current structure of the legal system under the INC and the protection of human rights through the application of the Bill of Rights by the courts may signal the State's commitment to constitutionalism and respect to the rule of law. It is, therefore, that the role of the court system (in contributing to democratic transformation in Sudan) should be evaluated against the legal framework: that is the INC, with a focus on the independence of the judiciary, the application of the Bill of Rights and the rules governing the judicial review. c) The Legislative and Institutional Reforms under the INC The functions of the courts, in developing countries, have experienced increasingly transformative role as institutions that can hold the government organs accountable. The study aims to examine the practice of constitutionalism: that is, the implementation of the INC constitutional, institutional and legislative reforms, especially the compliance with the provisions of the INC and the CPA, in particular the role of the constitutional court as "a positive legislator". In this regard, the Sudanese Constitutional Court may play an important role in the law reform process given its power to annul laws found unconstitutional. This entails the non-applicability of such laws and, as a result, would compel the government institution/organ concerned to adopt new legislation that is in conformity with the INC. Thus far, the Sudanese constitutional court, under the INC, has received a number of human rights cases that involved issues related to violations of human rights or related to the constitutionality of key legislation, such as counter-terrorism laws, immunities for officials and statutes of limitation for torture. So what role the constitutional court has played in the law reform process under the INC? For the court system to play a role in the democratic reform, a comprehensive law reform process is seen as a prerequisite to bring the existing laws in line with the provisions of the INC and enacting new laws. Therefore, this study identifies what legislative and institutional reforms that have been undertaken by the parties to the CPA during the interim period to address human rights violations, root-causes of the conflict; inequality; marginalization, rule of law vacuum and weak democratic structures. Furthermore, this study offers empirical evidence for the judicial behavior of the Sudanese constitutional court through a systematic examination of selected human rights jurisprudence of the constitutional court to gauge its role in the law reform process in Sudan since the adoption of the INC. Overview of the Study and the Main Findings of the Study Introductory Chapter: Overview of the Study The Introductory Chapter provides an overview of the study, including, the key features of the State of Sudan, the aim of the study, the main objectives of the study, and a general overview of the study. Chapter One: A Historical Background of Sudan's North-South Conflict Chapter One gives a rich and deep account of Sudan north-south conflict. It looks at the root-causes of the conflict by elaborating on different factors that directly and indirectly contributed in making that conflict protracted. Chapter one moves on to consider the end of the first Sudan's north-south conflict which was ended when Addis Ababa Agreement was signed in 1972. Chapter one further elaborates on Sudan's second north-south conflict which broke out in 1983. Finally, Chapter one touches on the various peace initiatives that ended by the conclusion of the CPA. Chapter One concludes by analysing the CPA. In the final analysis, the CPA made significant changes the prevailing governance and legal systems in Sudan by establishing a federal system, introduced a dual legal system a bill of rights, provided for the right to self-determination for the south Sudan, established institutions for the protection of human rights by establishing mechanisms such as National Human rights Commission, and distributed the wealth equally between the north and the south. However, the CPA failed to include the Sudanese people in the talks leading to the conclusion of the CPA, as the CPA was bilateral reflecting the views of the north and the south. Chapter Two: The Structure of the Governance System under the INC The INC describes Sudan as a decentralized State with different levels of government: the national level, the Southern Sudan level, the State level and the local level. It further grants the Southern Sudan autonomy status. A careful analysis of the current governance arrangements reveals that the INC provides for asymmetric/symmetrical federalism system of governance. Chapter Two discusses the allocation of legislative powers between the national government, the Southern Sudan and the rest of the country and the nature of the constitutional design of the INC to manage diversity of Sudan (ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity). At the outset of Chapter Three provides an overview the fundamental principles of federalism and provides a brief historical background of federalism in Sudan and how federalism arrangements can play a role as a tool for peace-building. In the final analysis, in contract with old constitutions of Sudan, the INC establishes a federal system, with four levels of government; national, south Sudan, State and local levels. The INC federal system guarantees the special characteristics of all ethnic and religious groups in Sudan through the creation of the Council of the States. However, all the States in Sudan are not treated equally, because (1) two States have special status (South Kordofan and Blue Nile States), and (2) between the ten States in the South and the national level, the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) is inserted to exercise authority in respect of the ten States at South Sudan level. This means the INC creates asymmetrical/symmetrical federalism, as the South Sudan level enjoys significant autonomy and exclusive authority over ten States in South Sudan. All the States in Sudan are not treated equally, because (1) two States have special status (South Kordofan and Blue Nile States), and (2) between the ten States in the South and the national level, the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) is inserted to exercise authority in respect of the ten States at South Sudan level. This means the INC creates asymmetrical/symmetrical federalism, as the South Sudan level enjoys significant autonomy and exclusive authority over ten States in South Sudan. The INC Schedules (A – C) distribute the exclusive and legislative powers to the national level (A), the GoSS level (B), and the state level (C). Schedule (D) lists the concurrent powers and Schedule (E) allocates the residual powers as per its nature. Schedule (F) is a provision to resolve conflict that might arise under Schedule (D). It should be noted that not all issues listed in the INC schedules are allocated to one level of government only. For example, several substantive issues are granted to the national level as an exclusive competence, to the South Sudan level as an exclusive competence and at the same time to all levels of government as a concurrent power, such as telecommunication. With regard to the legislative powers allocated to the tens states at the South level, the GoSS according to Schedule (B) has the competence to enact a kind of framework with regard to issues that fall under the exclusive South Sudan State competence, thereby limiting the legislative powers of the ten States in South Sudan. Finally, the INC has reinforced existing power relations and failed to provide structural changes for democratic transformation, as the INC asymmetrical federalism accommodates the demands of the South Sudan only. As the INC does not accommodate the demands of the different ethnic and cultural groups in the different regions of Sudan as demonstrated in Darfur Peace Agreement and East Sudan Agreement. Chapter Three: The Structure of the Legal System under the INC The INC altered the Sudanese legal system with a view to accommodating the competing views: Sharia law and secularism. For a proper understanding of the present Sudanese legal system and an assessment of the role of the court system in contributing to democratic governance, a glance at the Sudanese legal history is necessary. Firstly, Chapter Three reviews the constitutional developments in Sudan since the independence to the present day. Secondly, Chapter Three provides overview of the structure of the court system in a decentralized system and focuses on the contribution of the court system to democratic transformation through limiting the acts of the government. Chapter Three further discusses issues that may impact of the role of the court system in contributing to democratic transformation. Yet, the role of the court system in promoting democratic transformation is contingent on the constitution, the substantive law, etc. For instance, instituting the principles of constitutionalism is contingent on the independence of the judiciary, as an independent judiciary is required for the protection of constitutional rights and to restrain the actions of the government. Thus, it is important to understand under what conditions the court system develops such accountability functions: that is, what conditions favor the ability of the court system to exercise an effective accountability functions. It is, therefore, Chapter Three examines (a) how the INC re-structures the court system in the north and the south of Sudan so as to give effect to the principles of the federalism and legal pluralism; (b) the rules regulating the judicial review, and (c) the protection of human rights through the implementation of the bill of rights by the court, all of which signal the commitment of the State to establish democratic governance. Finally, Chapter Three attempts to evaluate the independence of the judiciary and the rules that govern the judicial review before and after the adoption of the INC with a view to assessing the fidelity of the government to the principles of constitutionalism, and whether the limitations observed in the actual conduct of the government. In the final analysis, the INC constitution making process was bilateral reflecting the views of the parties to the CPA and lacked inclusiveness, but provides for a pluralism legal system by providing for a constitution for south Sudan and 25 State constitutions. The INC introduces State judiciary and South Sudan judiciary and opted for an integrated the court system. That is: the State courts apply the State laws, the national laws and the South Sudan laws. In the North, the State courts are still organized by the national level, although the NC provides for the establishment of the State judiciary. At the South Sudan level, all State courts are organized and financed at the level. Towards the South Sudan, the National Supreme Court is the final court of on matters arising under national laws The INC emphasizes the importance of protecting; respecting and promoting human rights through the inclusion a bill of right and incorporation via Art. 27(3) of the INC all human rights treaties that Sudan has ratified, thereby the human rights contained in the INC directly applicable before the Sudanese courts. Also, the implementation of some human rights requires revision of the existing statutory laws. To date there has been limited legislative reforms to address human rights violations. A few laws have been reformed but fall short of Sudan international obligations, such as Criminal Act, Security Laws, Immunity Laws, etc. The INC differentiates between the north and the south regarding the sources of legislation. Art. 5 of the INC lists Sharia as one of the sources of legislation along with the consensus of the people at the national level. Art. 5(2) of the INC names popular consensus and the values and the customs of the people of Sudan as the sources of legislation in South Sudan. The INC contains special rules for national legislation if its source is religion or custom. In that case, a state where the majority of residents do not practice such religion or customs may introduce different legislation allows practices or establishes institutions in that State that are consistent with its own religion or customs. The INC establishes human rights commission for the implementation of the bill of rights as well as a commission for the protection of non-Muslims in the Capital. The INC has chosen a concentrated system of judicial review and a hybrid system of judicial review with respect to the South Sudan as the Supreme Court of South Sudan acts as a constitutional court and a high court of Appeal with respect to South Sudan. The newly enacted Judicial and Administrative of 2005 does not provide for concrete judicial review of law and bars the court from question the constitutionality of law by way of making referral to the constitutional court, thereby renders the judiciary unable to deal with crucial constitutional issues. Chapter Four: Institutional and Legislative Reform: Practice of Constitutionalism In order to understand whether the adoption of the INC has brought any changes may enhance the role of the court system in contributing to democratic transformation; Chapter Four scrutinizes the compliance of the statutory law with the provisions of the INC, the law reform process in Sudan and the implementation of law in practice. Chapter Four further presents an analysis of more pertinent provisions of civil and political rights in the light of the laws and practices prevailing in the country to assess the extent to which the principles laid down in the INC are complied with. It further assesses the involvement of the Sudan constitutional court in the law reform process by reviewing a selected human rights jurisprudence of the constitutional court. Finally, Chapter Four makes a reference to the jurisprudence of other constitutional courts (the German constitutional court, the Indian Supreme Court and the South African constitutional court) by way of comparison. In the final analysis, a) the INC does not set out procedure for concrete review and access to the court is not free; b) The court has a broad power to consider and adjudge and annual any law in contravention with the constitution and restitute the right to the aggrieved person and compensate for the harm. The court may also order interim measures to avoid any harm. As such, the court can abolish laws and compel the government to enact new law; c) the constitutional court has reviewed a number of cases that alleged the violation of human rights. The court has demonstrated reluctance to declare legislation unconstitutional. Interpretation of the bill of rights and reference to international human rights lacked consistency and the court has taken deference to the executive; d) the constitutional, legislative and institutional changes did not acknowledge past human rights violations through mechanisms that would question the way of governance and persisting inequalities and injustices; e) the constitutional court has institutional weaknesses and its jurisprudence has largely upheld existing laws such as immunities laws and the constitutional court made limited reference to international human rights law; f) the constitutional, legal and institutional reforms failed to generate the sense of constitutionalism and the fundamental change that were to remove the causes for human rights violations and provide effective remedies. A number of laws contravening the human rights are still in force, such as, Public Order Act, Immunity of police, security and army officers, inadequate laws for the protection of women's rights; and finally, the implementation of CPA as a means of democratic transformation left an unreformed government virtually intact Chapter Five: Post- Referendum Sudan Chapter Five looks at the constitutional developments after the secession of South Sudan, with a focus on constitution making process in Sudan. The Southern Sudan Referendum for self-determination, held in July 2011, clearly indicated that the absolute majority of those who participated in the referendum for the Southern Sudan favour separation of the Southern Sudan from Sudan. The secession of the South Sudan on July 9, 2011, as a result of the referendum on self-determination provided by the CPA has created a new reality in Sudan with far reaching economic, political and social implications. Economic and financial losses related to the secession are substantial and have affected all sectors of the economy. Sudan has lost three-quarters of its largest source of foreign exchange (oil), half of its fiscal revenues and about two-thirds of its international payment capacity. In general, the secession of South Sudan resulted in a 36.5% structural decrease in overall government revenues. The unresolved issue of Abyei constitutes a trigger for potential violent tension in the future between Sudan and South Susan. Abyei status is yet to be decided, as both Sudan and South Sudan claiming it as part of its territory. Its final status will be decided by a Referendum for which implementation mechanisms have not yet been agreed upon by the two countries. The end of the CPA necessitated a constitutional review process to decide on the new constitution to replace the INC. However, for a constitution to be able to win the affections of the citizens of the State, it will be necessary to involve those citizens in the constitution-making process that establishes such a constitution, so as to ensure that the process is inclusive and reflects the aspirations of the Sudanese people at large. It is, therefore, important to increase public involvement in the constitution-making process by inviting public participation. In order for the design of a constitution and its constitution-making process to play an important role in the governance system, the design of the constitution has to be responsive to the aspirations of the ordinary people. A constitutional review process is currently under way but has not resulted in any clear proposals. That said, since 2011, a constitutional review has been underway in Sudan. The constitutional review process has not been participatory or inclusive. Lively debates on the new constitution in general, and the Bill of Rights and human rights protection in particular, have nevertheless ensued. These debates have been driven by a keen awareness of the importance of constitutional rights. These debates reflect both traditional concerns over the protection of civil and political rights, particularly in the administration of justice, and other issues that have also become a cause of acute concern. These include the desire for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and the rights of members of groups who suffer discrimination, particular women, religious and ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. Currently, public debate over the new constitution is proceeding, although the Government has not yet announced a timeframe for the constitution making process, amid a polarization of views on diverse issues such as the decentralization of power and wealth sharing between the different regions of Sudan. Since 2011, the Government of Sudan, in collaboration with the UNDP and other UN agencies, initiated the forum on public participation in constitution making to facilitate open and public dialogue. This approach has been based on the need to pursue the constitutional process/review inclusively, transparently and participatory to ensure all sectors of society including civil society organizations and opposition political groups participate fully in the process.
cf thèse ; L'objet de cette étude est d'analyser le fonctionnement des marchés internationaux et les répercussions de ce fonctionnement sur la gestion de l'entreprise. Dans un chapitre introductif, l'actualité du sujet est soulignée: depuis 1973, avec l'abandon du système des parités fixes, le fonctionnement des marchés financiers internationaux a été particulièrement chaotique. L'adoption d'un système de cours de changes flottants qui devait favoriser une allocation rationnelle des ressources au niveau international, a eu comme résultat le plus visible, l'apparition de variations de grande ampleur des cours de change à intervalles très rapprochés. Une telle modification de l'environnement international n'a pas été sans conséquences sur la gestion des entreprises; dans certaines conditions, en effet, il est apparu que les variations des cours de change ont pu modifier les résultats engendrés par l'activité des entreprises. Ces variations étant de plus en plus fréquentes, une sensibilité nouvelle s'est développée au sein des entreprises face à leurs répercussions possibles, et à la façon de les contrôler; ces variations n'étant plus le résultat de décisions politiques, mais le fruit du fonctionnement des marchés, il est apparu progressivement qu'une bonne compréhension de ce fonctionnement était nécessaire avant qu'il soit possible de définir une stratégie de l'entreprise à l'égard du cheminement des cours de change. L'idée que la compréhension du fonctionnement des marchés est nécessaire, non seulement à la connaissance économique, mais également à l'élaboration d'une stratégie d'entreprise peut sembler presque évidente dans un monde où les mécanismes de marché deviennent prépondérants. En ce qui concerne l'élaboration d'une stratégie à l'égard des variations des cours de change, il semble qu'une telle idée est valide dans la mesure où au moins l'une des deux conditions suivantes est réalisée: d'une part, si les prévisions effectuées par le gestionnaire sont dépendantes de la compréhension qu'il a du fonctionnement des marchés; d'autre part, si cette compréhension lui permet de mieux évaluer l'impact sur la valeur de l'entreprise d'une variation des cours de change. A priori, l'élaboration de prévisions des cours de change peut se fonder ou non sur une compréhension des fonctionnements des marchés. Au niveau de chaque agent économique, une prévision peut être effectuée, fondée sur une appréciation subjective (même si elle utilise des méthodes scientifiques) de la distribution de probabilité des cours futurs. Dans certains cas, cette appréciation est réduite à sa plus simple expression: la formulation d'un cours anticipé. Parfois s'ajoute à cette anticipation la prise en compte du risque associé à la forme de la distribution. En aucun cas, bien entendu, la prévision ne peut être assurée de coïncider avec la réalité: d'une part, parce qu'il existe objectivement, en raison de l'incertitude sur le futur, un risque de se tromper; d'autre part, parce que le caractère subjectif des prévisions effectuées augmente ce risque en proportion des capacités prédictives individuelles. Sans qu'il soit possible d'éliminer ce risque subjectif, il peut néanmoins paraître utile de l' "objectiviser", en fondant les prévisions sur une base plus large que l'appréciation individuelle d'un agent économique: une telle base peut être constituée par les anticipations de l'ensemble des agents économiques, telles qu'elles sont susceptibles d'être reflétées par les prix du marché. Une telle démarche nous ramène à l'étude du fonctionnement des marchés internationaux, et en particulier à celle des liens qui peuvent exister entre le mode de fixation des prix et les anticipations des agents économiques. De même, l'appréciation de l'impact des variations de cours de change sur la valeur de l'entreprise peut apparaître, au premier abord, comme étant dissociée de l'étude du fonctionnement des marchés internationaux. Une telle conception semble d'ailleurs justifiée par l'existence de règles permettant de déterminer cet impact, règles dont les fondements reposent sur les principes généraux de la comptabilité. Il apparaît cependant que les principes comptables ne permettent pas de définir une règle unique et incontestée permettant de mesurer l'exposition de l'entreprise à une variation du cours de change. D'autre part, quand bien même une telle règle existerait, elle ne permettrait d'apprécier l'impact des variations de change que sur la valeur comptable de l'entreprise, non sur sa valeur économique. Pour évaluer l'impact sur cette dernière, il convient de prendre en compte les liens existant entre les cours de changes et les prix des biens et services produits et utilisés par l'entreprise. Une telle reformulation du problème nous ramène une fois de plus à l'étude des marchés internationaux, et en particulier à l'examen des rapports entre les marchés financiers et les marchés de biens et de facteurs. Il apparaît, par conséquent, que l'étude du fonctionnement des marchés internationaux est le point de passage obligé de toute réflexion s'efforçant de définir les conditions d'une adaptation de la gestion de l'entreprise au cheminement du cours de change. C'est à cette étude que s'attache cette thèse, dans une première partie à un niveau global, en analysant l'impact du fonctionnement des marchés internationaux sur la valeur de la firme à la lumière de la littérature existante, puis en s'efforçant, dans une deuxième partie, d'étendre l'analyse au problème particulier du choix d'un horizon de gestion, à la lumière d'une étude théorique et empirique originale de la structure des primes de change à terme. Le premier chapitre aborde l'analyse de l'impact d'une variation de change sur la valeur de la firme en partant des pratiques actuelles de calcul de "l'exposition comptable" de l'entreprise, avant de passer en revue diverses méthodes proposées pour appréhender une "exposition économique" de l'entreprise. L'exposition de l'entreprise est définie comme l'élasticité de la valeur de l'entreprise par rapport à une variation du cours de change. Selon l'approche comptable traditionnelle, une entreprise est exposée à la variation du cours de change, dans la mesure où certains postes en devises du bilan sont exposés. Lorsque le cours de change, par rapport à la devise de référence, varie d'un certain pourcentage, la valeur en devise de référence de ces postes varie d'un pourcentage identique, provoquant par là même une variation de la situation nette du bilan. Un problème surgit cependant du fait qu'aucun principe comptable ne permet de définir quels postes en devises sont exposés. Aussi plusieurs méthodes coexistent-elles: la première, considérant que tous les postes en devises du bilan sont exposés, - la deuxième, que seuls les postes à court terme le sont, - enfin, la troisième, attribuant cette qualité aux seuls postes monétaires du bilan. Si le choix entre les diverses méthodes ne peut être fondé sur des principes comptables, on s'aperçoit en revanche, qu'il est possible de discriminer entre les diverses méthodes en fonction d'une analyse économique. En particulier, la deuxième méthode semble n'être pas sans rapport avec une analyse "keynesionne" du comportement du cours de change, ce dernier étant considéré comme imprévisible à court terme, mais devant se rapprocher d'un cours "normal" à long terme. De même, la troisième méthode, adoptée par l'ordre des experts-comptables américains, semble reposer à la fois sur le caractère imprévisible du cheminement du cours de change, et sur la conviction que ce caractère ne saurait modifier la valeur en monnaie de référence des éléments réels du bilan, dans la mesure où ceux-ci se réévaluent en proportion de la variation du cours de change. Ainsi, des arrières-pensées économiques ne sont pas absentes des définitions de l'exposition comptable de l'entreprise. Certains auteurs ont voulu aller plus loin en donnant des définitions économiques à l'exposition de l'entreprise. Le premier, LIETAER (1971) se borne à apporter certaines retouches à l'approche comptable, en introduisant entre les postes exposés et non exposés du bilan, des postes dont la valeur a, par rapport à une variation de change, une élasticité différente de un. D'autres, (DUFEY 1972, SHAPIRO 1975), étendent cette idée d'élasticités différenciées à l'ensemble des flux de liquidité engendrées par l'entreprise. HECKERMAN (1972) formalise cette dernière conception en élaborant un "bilan économique" à partir des flux de liquidités futurs actualisés de l'entreprise, et en étudiant les répercussions d'une variation de change sur ce bilan. Cependant, le modèle d'HECKERMAN est peu clair, en ce qu'il fait dépendre l'impact de cette variation de change de la variation de valeur d'un actif intangible dont l'existence apparait justifiée par la nécessité de maintenir en permanence un levier financier déterminé. Si l'on admet cette contrainte contestable, on peut néanmoins montrer que lorsque la variation du cours de change a un caractère purement monétaire, la valeur de l'entreprise ne change pas. Cette conclusion, inaperçue par HECKERMAN, n'est pas sans rapport avec certaines conclusions ultérieures de cette thèse. Néanmoins, elle ne peut ici être obtenue qu'en raison d'hypothèses très fortes et contestables du modèle, que les chapitres suivants s'efforcent de lever. Dans les chapitres II et III, une approche semblable à celle de HECKERMAN est développée, mais le cadre conceptuel est différent. Comme dans le modèle d'HECKERMAN, un effort est fait pour distinguer les conséquences sur la valeur des flux de liquidité futurs d'une variation du cours de change, en distinguant les activités réelles et financières de l'entreprise. Une entreprise dont les flux de liquidité sont en devises, sera considérée comme exposée, non pas si la variation du cours de change modifie sa valeur au cours du temps, mais si cette modification est différente de celle d'une entreprise identique ayant uniquement des flux de liquidité en monnaie domestique. Il s'agit en effet d'appréhender l'influence spécifique de la dénomination en devise des flux concernés, et non un autre phénomène économique qui modifierait simultanément la valeur de toutes les entreprises. De même, afin de vérifier qu'une variation de change est susceptible en soi d'avoir un impact sur la valeur de ces flux, l'analyse est menée dans le cadre de marchés internationaux parfaits. Ne sont donc pas abordés les effets pouvant résulter des opportunités d'arbitrage qu'offrent éventuellement les imperfections des marchés. Enfin, une distinction est faite entre les effets susceptibles d'être produits par la variabilité du cours du change, et par l'incertitude sur cette variabilité. Pour cela, une hypothèse un peu artificielle est utilisée dans le chapitre II : celle de la connaissance parfaite du futur. Cette hypothèse est relâchée dans le chapitre III. En univers de certitude, un raisonnement d'arbitrage intuitif permet d'établir, à la suite de nombreux auteurs, la validité d'un certain nombre de relations d'équilibre. Ces relations peuvent être classées en deux catégories : celles qui résultent d'un arbitrage en termes nominaux, - et celles qui résultent d'un arbitrage en termes réels. Les premières sont la loi du prix unique, la relation de parité des taux d'intérêt, la relation de "FISHER Open" entre la variation du cours de change et le différentiel d'intérêt, et la relation des anticipations sur les rapports entre cours à terme et cours futur. Les secondes sont la relation d'unicité du taux réel sur un bien, la relation entre ce taux réel et le taux d'inflation sur ce bien, enfin la relation de Fisher en économie fermée entre taux réel et taux d'inflation sur un panier de biens. Dans la mesure où ces relations sont valides, en particulier en ce qui concerne la loi du prix unique et la relation de "FISHER Open", il est facile de montrer qu'une variation (certaine) du cours du change ne modifie pas la valeur des flux réels ou financiers en devises, par rapport à des flux libellés en monnaie domestique. Il convient de remarquer que cette absence d'exposition à la variation du cours de change n'est nullement la conséquence de la parité des pouvoirs d'achats (CASSEL 1923), laquelle, même en univers de certitude, ne saurait résulter d'un simple phénomène d'arbitrage, mais constitue une théorie de propagation de l'inflation. Une telle remarque nous amène à critiquer les conceptions d'ALIBER (1976) quant aux relations d'équilibre sur les marchés internationaux. En univers d'incertitude, des quatre relations monétaires mentionnées précédemment, seules la loi du prix unique et la relation de parité des taux d'intérêt restent valides. Des homologues de la relation des anticipations sur les rapports entre cours à terme et cours futur, et de la relation de "FISHER Open", peuvent être proposés, mais ce sont des relations d'arbitrage spéculatif faisant apparaître une prime de risque. De même, des trois relations réelles, seule reste valide la relation d'unicité du taux réel sur un bien. De cette modification de ces relations d'équilibre résulte un certain nombre de conséquences quant à l'exposition de l'entreprise. Tout d'abord il est montré que les flux réels ont un impact identique sur la valeur de l'entreprise lorsqu'ils sont libellés en devises ou en monnaie domestique, que la variation du cours du change soit égale à celle anticipée ou non. En revanche, toute tentative pour couvrir les flux réels en devises par un contrat de change à terme serait susceptible de modifier la valeur anticipée de ces flux, dans la mesure où la prime de risque incluse dans le cours à terme existe. Même si une telle prime de risque n'existait pas, la valeur de ces flux réels pourrait être modifiée à posteriori si la variation de change effective est différente de la variation anticipée. Au contraire, du fait de la non validité en présence d'incertitude de la relation de "FISHER Closed" (contra ALIBER 1976) la valeur anticipée des flux financiers en devises non couverts est susceptible d'être différente de la valeur des flux financiers en monnaie domestique s'il existe une prime de risque incluse dans le cours à terme. Il en va de même pour la valeur à posteriori des flux financiers en devises lorsque la variation de change effective est différente de la variation anticipée. La couverture des flux financiers en devises futurs permet d'égaliser la valeur de ces flux avec celle de flux en monnaie domestiques. Ainsi, c'est bien l'incertitude, et non pas la seule variabilité des cours de change, qui est à l'origine de l'exposition de l'entreprise. Encore faut-il souligner que cette exposition est la conséquence des seuls flux financiers en devises, à l'exclusion des flux réels. Enfin, cette exposition est susceptible de se matérialiser par une variation de la valeur de l'entreprise, non seulement dans le cas où la variation de change effective est différente de la variation anticipée, mais également lorsque cette dernière se réalise, s'il existe une prime de risque incluse dans le cours de change à terme. Ce résultat est confirmé et étendu aux primes de risques incluses dans les cours de change à terme futurs lorsque l'on introduit les délais de paiements liés aux ventes à tempérament, et que l'on prend en considération la possibilité de différer le rapatriement des bénéfices réalisés à l'étranger. Ces conclusions reposent sur un raisonnement intuitif quant au comportement d'agents confrontés à des opportunités d'arbitrage et de spéculation sur des marchés des biens et sur des marchés financiers supposés être parfaits. Elles permettent de préciser la notion d' "exposition à la variation de change" dans un sens étonnamment proche de la conception des experts comptables américains. Elles doivent cependant, pour être retenues, être soumises à une double vérification, tant théorique que pratique. Sur le plan théorique, le chapitre IV a fourni l'occasion de confronter les résultats du raisonnement intuitif d'arbitrage avec ceux qui découlent des modèles théoriques d'équilibre général ou partiel des marchés internationaux. Ces modèles permettent de déterminer la forme des relations d'équilibre en fonction d'hypothèses spécifiques sur les préférences des consommateurs, et sur les ensembles d'opportunités auxquels ceux-ci sont confrontés. Les deux principaux modèles théoriques existant sont ceux de SOLNIK (1973, 1974) et de GRAUER, LITZENBERGER et STEHLE (G.L.S., 1976). Tous deux définissent les conditions de l'équilibre sur les marchés internationaux dans les mêmes termes : celui-ci est le produit du comportement de consommateurs qui répartissent leur richesse entre consommation présente et investissement, en maximisant l'espérance d'utilité de leur consommation présente et future. En revanche, les ensembles d'opportunités auxquels sont confrontés les individus, sont légèrement différents. L'investissement peut, dans les deux modèles être réparti entre l'actif sans risque domestique, les actifs sans risque étrangers, et les actifs risqués domestiques et étrangers, mais la consommation des individus varie selon leur nationalité pour SOLNIK, alors que pour G.L.S. les individus consomment un panier réel identique: seul le taux d'inflation (aléatoire) associé à ce panier est différent selon les pays. Il apparaît rapidement que la qualité de l'équilibre est affectée par cette hypothèse au niveau du panier de consommation. L'hypothèse de SOLNIK introduit un risque de change réel, lié à l'incertitude sur les prix relatifs des paniers nationaux, qui modifie les conclusions habituelles du Modèle d'équilibre des actifs financiers (MEDAF) (SHARPE 1964), et amène à reformuler ce dernier sous une forme originale. En revanche, chez G.L.S., le risque de change est une variable purement monétaire, lié à l'incertitude sur les différentiels d'inflation nationale, et ne modifie nullement la formulation traditionnelle du MEDAF tant que les individus ne sont pas victimes de l'illusion monétaire. Ces différences quant à la qualité de l'équilibre obtenu, ne sont pas sans influence sur la formulation des relations d'équilibre proposées dans les chapitres II et III. Sur le plan formel, les deux modèles montrent que le cours à terme reflète bien les anticipations sur le cours futur, mais de façon biaisée, du fait de l'existence d'une prime de risque qui rémunère les spéculateurs pour la position ouverte qu'ils acceptent de supporter. C'est la confirmation du résultat intuitif déjà obtenu, dont l'importance pour l'exposition de l'entreprise est cruciale. Cependant, la structure de cette prime de risque diffère selon les modèles. SOLNIK montre que la prime dépend de la covariance entre le cours de change considéré et les cours de toutes les autres devises. Le résultat de G.L.S. a une formulation beaucoup plus complexe, dont les auteurs ne précisent pas la signification économique. Il est possible de montrer que cette prime dépend essentiellement des effets réels des politiques monétaires nationales sur la richesse mondiale. En l'absence d'illusion monétaire, une prime de risque marginale subsiste, liée à l'incertitude sur le différentiel d'inflation. Cette prime est cependant virtuelle, car si les individus raisonnent en termes réels, ils ne souscriront aucun contrat de change à terme. En effet, dès lors que la parité des pouvoirs d'achat est vérifiée, le rendement réel d'un actif financier est indépendant de la devise dans laquelle il est libellé. En ce qui concerne les autres relations d'équilibre abordées dans les premiers chapitres, SOLNIK (1977) en donne une formulation complète et différenciée selon qu'il existe ou non des marchés à terme de marchandises. Les résultats valident et précisent ceux qui avaient été obtenus à l'aide d'un raisonnement intuitif d'arbitrage. En particulier, la relation de parité des taux d'intérêt apparaît chez lui comme chez G.L.S. découler automatiquement des modèles théoriques. Cette conclusion est contestée par ADLER et DUMAS (1975), qui montrent que cette relation n'est pas vérifiée lorsqu'existe un risque politique. Ceux-ci utilisent pour leur démonstration une fonction d'utilité quadratique. Leur démonstration est ici reprise et élargie; leurs résultats concernant la parité des taux d'intérêt restent valides quelle que soit la fonction d'utilité. Néanmoins ces résultats supposent des hypothèses très fortes, généralement incohérentes avec les conditions habituelles du fonctionnement des marchés. De même, un modèle de BARON (1976) valide la relation de parité des taux d'intérêt. Le modèle est intéressant en ce qu'il s'efforce d'intégrer les conditions macroéconomiques de l'équilibre et leur répercussion sur l'exposition de l'entreprise. Cependant, l'excessive simplicité des hypothèses de départ retire au modèle une grande partie de son intérêt. Ainsi l'étude des modèles théoriques d'équilibre permet de préciser et de nuancer certaines conclusions développées dans les chapitres II et III. Les principales relations d'équilibre sur lesquelles repose le calcul de l'exposition de l'entreprise, ont bien la forme qui avait été prédite. En particulier, la parité des taux d'intérêt reste valide en présence de l'incertitude, tandis que le cours à terme est bien égal à l'espérance du cours futur majoré d'une prime de risque. Cependant la portée pratique de cette prime de risque dépend de la validité d'une troisième relation : celle de parité des pouvoirs d'achats. Dans la mesure où celle-ci serait vérifiée, le risque de change relèverait de la pure illusion monétaire. Dans le cas contraire, cette prime rémunèrerait un risque réel, susceptible de modifier la valeur des flux financiers en devises. Ces conclusions des modèles théoriques doivent maintenant être confrontées avec les enseignements tirés du monde réel. L'objectif du chapitre V est double: vérifier, à la lumière de la littérature existante, la robustesse des deux principales relations d'équilibre sur lesquelles repose l'analyse théorique de l'exposition de l'entreprise; discriminer, en fonction des vérifications empiriques de la parité des pouvoirs d'achat, entre les deux modèles théoriques d'équilibre sur les marchés internationaux. La relation de parité des taux d'intérêts a été testée empiriquement par un certain nombre d'auteurs. Les résultats peuvent être résumés par deux propositions. Tout d'abord, si l'on adopte comme prédicteur de la prime de change à terme le différentiel d'intérêt calculé sur les dépôts en eurodevises, l'erreur prédictive moyenne n'est pas significativement différente de zéro; le résultat est sensiblement moins satisfaisant lorsque le prédicteur utilisé est le différentiel d'intérêt sur Bons du Trésor domestiques (ALIBER 1973). D'autre part, si l'on considère les coûts de transactions qu'engendrerait une opération d'arbitrage visant à profiter d'un différentiel d'intérêt couvert non nul, il apparaît que ce différentiel d'intérêt est inférieur aux coûts de transactions dans 100 % des cas, lorsqu'on le calcule par rapport aux euro dépôts, et seulement dans 33 à 100 % des cas selon les périodes lorsqu'on le calcule par rapport aux bons du Trésor (FRANFEL et LEVICH 1975). Si l'on tient compte des inévitables erreurs sur les variables liées à la difficulté d'obtenir des données parfaitement concomitantes, on peut donc considérer que sur les devises et pour les périodes ayant fait l'objet du test, la parité des taux d'intérêts a été largement vérifiée. Les tests de la relation des anticipations sur les liens entre cours à terme et cours futur répondent à la volonté de répondre à une double question : le cours à terme est-il un bon prédicteur du cours futur? La prédiction fournie par le cours à terme comporte-t-elle un biais, représentatif d'une éventuelle prime de risque. Sans entrer dans le détail des tests pratiqués, la réponse à la première question s'articule autour de trois idées. Le niveau du cours à terme apparait généralement comme un bon prédicteur du niveau du cours futur : cela tient essentiellement au fait que sur courte période, l'ampleur des fluctuations est relativement modérée par rapport au niveau des cours de change. En revanche la prime de change à terme est un prédicteur médiocre du niveau de la variation de change, même si elle semble prévoir avec une efficacité relative le sens de cette variation. Enfin, bien que la prime de change soit un médiocre prédicteur, ses performances ne sont pas plus mauvaises que d'autres prédicteurs, en particulier ceux fondés sur des modèles autorégressifs. Ce dernier résultat souligne cependant la difficulté de la prévision plus que l'efficacité de l'un quelconque des prédicteurs. La réponse à la deuxième question semble devoir comporter deux éléments. Sur longue période, la plupart des auteurs montrent que le cours de change futur n'est pas significativement différent du cours de change à terme: il n'existerait donc pas de biais moyen, représentatif d'une prime de risque stable quant à son ampleur et à son signe. En revanche une étude approfondie par ROLL et SOLNIK (1975), confortée par une lecture fine des tests pratiqués par d'autres auteurs (KOLHAGEN 1974) semble confirmer l'existence d'un biais instable, représentatif d'une prime de risque dont le signe et l'ampleur peuvent varier d'une période à l'autre. Enfin, l'analyse de la littérature consacrée à la parité des pouvoirs d'achat permet de discriminer entre les deux modèles théoriques. En effet, la parité des pouvoirs d'achat semble assez largement vérifiée dans deux cas: Si l'on compare le différentiel d'inflation à la variation de change sur une très longue période, ou si les indices de prix utilisés sont ceux des prix de gros. En revanche, à court terme, si les indices de prix utilisés sont ceux des prix de détail, la parité des pouvoirs d'achats n'est pas vérifiée; bien plus, l'erreur prédictive constatée ne permet pas d'inférer les variations ultérieures du cours de change. Par conséquent, au moins à court terme, il semble bien que ce soit le modèle de SOLNIK (1973, 1974) qui soit validé empiriquement, dans la mesure où les bons résultats obtenus avec les indices de prix de gros reflètent plus la validité de la loi du prix unique que celle de la parité des pouvoirs d'achat au sens classique du terme. Ainsi l'analyse critique développée dans cette première partie, à la fois sur le plan théorique et sur le plan empirique, de la littérature sur les marchés internationaux permet de formuler deux conclusions importantes. D'une part, en ce qui concerne la mesure de l'exposition de l'entreprise, celle-ci dépend uniquement de l'existence de flux financiers en devises; elle est proportionnelle, pour chaque maturité, à la prime de risque incluse dans le cours à terme, en ce qui concerne l'exposition anticipée, et à l'écart entre ce cours et le cours au comptant réalisé, en ce qui concerne l'exposition au risque de change. D'autre part, au niveau des stratégies envisageables, l'analyse des marchés internationaux ne fournit pas, ainsi qu'il est observé au chapitre VI, les bases théoriques d'un choix entre ces stratégies. Un tel choix ne peut résulter que d'une théorie de l'entreprise, en tant qu'intermédiaire entre les individus et les marchés. Elle fournit en revanche des indications sur les conséquences de certaines stratégies. Il apparait notamment que la couverture systématique des flux financiers permet d'éliminer totalement l'exposition de l'entreprise, tandis que l'acceptation d'un certain degré de risque s'accompagne, du fait des effets positifs de l'exposition anticipée, d'une amélioration de la rentabilité anticipée. La richesse de l'analyse des marchés internationaux n'est cependant pas épuisée par les résultats obtenus dans la première partie. Cette analyse peut en effet être poursuivie et approfondie, de façon à examiner les conséquences du fonctionnement des marchés sur les stratégies que l'entreprise peut adopter dans le choix d'un horizon de gestion. Dans les chapitres précédents, le raisonnement théorique et les vérifications empiriques ont été menés comme si le temps pouvait être divisé en deux périodes : le présent et le futur. Un effort est mené dans les chapitres VII et VIII pour élargir ce cadre d'analyse et réexaminer les résultats obtenus lorsque le futur comporte lui-même plusieurs horizons. Dans le chapitre VII, un modèle théorique est développé, qui reprend la plupart des hypothèses de celui de SOLNIK (1977), mais qui considère que les agents économiques maximisent l'espérance d'utilité de leur consommation présente et future sur trois périodes. Les principales relations d'équilibre établies aux chapitres III et V sont réexaminées à la lumière de ce modèle. Les résultats sont formellement identiques à ceux déjà obtenus, si l'on considère les relations entre la période présente et l'une ou l'autre des deux périodes futures. En particulier, la relation de FISHER en économie fermée, la relation de "FISHER Open", la relation de parité des pouvoirs d'achat et la relation entre cours à terme et cours futur ont une formulation différente en univers incertain de celle qui prévaut en univers certain. En revanche, si l'on considère les rapports entre les deux périodes futures, les relations précédentes ont une formulation identique à celle qui prévaut en univers certain. En particulier le cours de change à terme futur ne commande à priori aucune prime par rapport au cours au comptant pour la maturité considérée. Un tel résultat, surprenant au premier abord, est cependant logique: pour un investisseur à l'instant t, il n'est pas moins risqué de spéculer sur la valeur du cours à terme au t + 1 que sur celle du cours au comptant en t + 2. Enfin le modèle théorique permet de spécifier une nouvelle relation d'équilibre: celle, traditionnelle, de la structure des taux d'intérêt. Il apparaît que les taux longs comportent une prime par rapport aux taux courts anticipés, si l'utilité marginale de la dépense en deuxième période n'est pas indépendante du rapport des utilités marginales de la dépense en deuxième et troisième période. A contrario, si l'achat d'un panier de consommation supplémentaire donne la même satisfaction en périodes deux et trois, la structure des taux d'intérêt sur cet horizon sera sans biais. En revanche le modèle théorique ne permet pas de définir une structure maturité des primes de change à terme. En effet, un effort pour préciser la structure de la prime de risque selon la maturité a été tenté, en utilisant une fonction d'utilité particulière. Le résultat ne permet pas d'établir un lien entre les primes de risque selon les maturités. En revanche, il permet pour chaque maturité de montrer que la prime de risque sur une devise particulière est égale au produit de la prime de risque du marché par un coefficient de volatilité. Ainsi retrouve-t-on au niveau de chaque maturité un résultat traditionnel de la théorie financière moderne. Un tel résultat permet d'apprécier pour chaque devise et chaque maturité, la façon selon laquelle une position spéculative est rémunérée par rapport à une position bien diversifiée. Il ne permet pas, en revanche, de comparer l'intérêt de positions dans une même devise pour deux maturités différentes. L'étude empirique entreprise dans le chapitre VIII s'efforce à la fois de vérifier la validité du modèle théorique, et de suppléer à ses silences en ce qui concerne les rapports entre les diverses maturités. Un test du modèle théorique de marché est effectué par la régression des primes de risque individuelles pour diverses maturités sur un indice de marché naïf égal à la somme pondérée des primes de risque sur quatre devises. Le test fait apparaitre des coefficients de détermination relativement élevés, entre 50 et 30 %. Les coefficients de volatilité ne sont pas très différenciés entre les devises, et restent relativement stables pour des maturités différentes. L'étude fait cependant apparaître un rôle particulier du Franc suisse, qui commande une prime constante par rapport à toutes les autres devises. Lorsque le Franc suisse est pris comme base, on obtient une différenciation importante entre les devises, le dollar apparaissant très volatile, le deutsche mark très peu volatile, surtout pour les plus courtes maturités. Quant à la prime de risque moyenne du marché, elle semble augmenter proportionnellement à l'horizon choisi. L'étude empirique s'efforce ensuite de différencier entre les maturités, en ce qui concerne .la capacité prédictive des individus d'abord, puis en ce qui concerne les relations entre cours au comptant et à terme. En ce qui concerne la capacité prédictive des individus une étude ponctuelle a été réalisée auprès de treize cambistes parisiens sur leurs prévisions des cours du dollar et du mark pour diverses maturités. Cette enquête révèle une très grande homogénéité des prévisions, un très faible écart entre les cours à terme et les prévisions, et un très fort écart entre prévisions et réalisations. Cependant, l'écart est relativement moindre pour les maturités moyennes (2 ou 3 mois) que pour les courtes ou longues maturités. Enfin, les relations entre cours à terme et au comptant sont examinées. La capacité prédictive du cours à terme à l'égard du cours au comptant futur apparaît comme très faible et peu différenciée selon la maturité. Le dollar occupe une place particulière dans la mesure où ses variations semblent avoir fait l'objet d'erreurs systématiques de prévision. D'autre part, un effort est fait pour appréhender les relations entre cours à terme de maturités différentes. Les résultats de cet effort sont mitigés. En effet, la structure des cours à terme apparaît comme un mauvais prédicteur de la variation future du cours de change. En revanche, la capacité prédictive de la structure des cours à terme à l'égard de la prime de change future apparaît assez importante. De plus, cette capacité est assez différenciée selon les devises et l'horizon considéré. Dans le cas du Franc français cette différence est suffisamment sensible pour suggérer la possibilité d'une stratégie de spéculation dans un sens déterminé. Ainsi l'analyse théorique et pratique de la structure des primes de change à terme permet de compléter les résultats obtenus dans la première partie. Le fait que la structure horizontale des primes de risque obéit à la logique d'un modèle de marché pour chaque maturité semble une conclusion importante. Il implique qu'une entreprise souhaitant conserver une position ouverte en maximisant la rémunération de son risque doit conserver une position diversifiée en devises, maturité par maturité. Les résultats empiriques indiquent d'autre part que le risque encouru est proportionnel à l'éloignement de l'horizon. Ils suggèrent en revanche, sur la base d'une étude ponctuelle, qu'il pourrait exister un horizon de prévision privilégié. Enfin, ils semblent ne pas exclure la possibilité de définir des stratégies naïves de spéculation, en fonction d'une certaine rigidité de fait de la structure des primes de change à terme. Néanmoins certains résultats empiriques restent peu satisfaisants. Ils indiquent que des progrès restent à faire dans la compréhension du comportement des agents sur le marché des changes. En particulier une analyse plus fine des séries statistiques paraît souhaitable, en même temps qu'il conviendrait de préciser l'impact vraisemblable des imperfections des marchés.
Diplôme attribuée avec la mention très honorable avec félicitations ; RÉSUMÉDans la délimitation de notre corpus, constitué exclusivement de romans relatifs aux fazendas de café esclavagistes, nous avons été amenée à utiliser certaines notions redevables à la sociologie. Tout d'abord, celle où Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco élucide l'ordre esclavagiste comme celui qui, en donnant sa forme à la société brésilienne à un moment donné, exclut par sa propre nature « les hommes libres et pauvres » d'un univers polarisé entre maîtres et esclaves. Cet ordre est celui qui sous-tend toute l'organisation de la période impériale et qui permet à la jeune nation de rebondir, grâce au café, dans les années difficiles qui s'ensuivent à son indépendance en 1822. Dans cette « civilisation du café », d'immenses fazendas, partant des alentours de Rio de Janeiro, couvrent d'abord la vallée du Paraïba, remontant le cour du fleuve en direction notamment de São Paulo. C'est toujours la forme fictionnelle du roman qui semble la mieux adaptée à la fazenda de café littéraire, avec son organisation d'où sont exclus les hommes libres et pauvres, pour lesquels elle n'a pas de place.Leurs propriétaires, des fazendeiros associés à des financiers et à d'autres agents citadins, accroissent leur pouvoir et leur richesse, notamment à partir de 1850, où l'interdiction du trafic négrier libère d'immenses capitaux réinvestis désormais dans la modernisation des villes comme des fazendas. C'est aussi en cette année que s'inaugure une ligne régulière de vapeurs entre Liverpool et Rio de Janeiro mettant en consonance le temps brésilien, impérial et esclavagiste avec le temps industriel et urbanisé de l'Europe. Cette date, souvent évoquée par l'historiographie, a aussi impressionné trois écrivains brésiliens du XIX° siècle qui, tous, choisissent cette décennie comme le noyau central de leurs romans écrits entre 1871 et 1914. La fazenda de café esclavagiste vers le milieu du XIX° siècle au Brésil est un univers en plein épanouissement, où règne en maître absolu sur tout ce qui vit à l'intérieur de ses domaines le fazendeiro. Ce grand propriétaire, en s'enrichissant, abandonnera un mode de vie jusque là austère et isolé ; il voudra s'anoblir et achètera au pouvoir impérial des titres de noblesse qui feront de lui une figure ambiguë, respectée et raillée à la fois, celle des « Barons du café » de la période impériale brésilienne. Souvent évoqués par la littérature dans leurs riches villas citadines, ces nouveaux aristocrates créés par D. Pedro II attirent moins l'attention à l'époque de la construction de leurs personnages et de leur fortune dans les mondes réduits que sont leurs fazendas, polarisées entre la Casa Grande où résident les maîtres et la Senzala réservée aux esclaves. Dans cet univers, les rapports intensément vécus entre les uns et les autres, constitutifs de la vie nationale, composent le noyau d'échanges quotidiens qui envahissent un cadre rural et seigneurial. Trois romans se sont penchés sur ce mode de vie, installant son action dans une riche maison de maître au centre d'une immense propriété où les relations entre dominants et dominés vont évoluer d'une trompeuse harmonie jusqu'à l'éclatement d'une violence tardive mais d'autant plus meurtrière.De ces romans qui constituent le corpus principal de notre thèse, le premier est O tronco do ipê, écrit par José de Alencar en 1871, où apparaît pour la première fois la désignation du siège de la propriété comme Casa Grande, par la suite adoptée par la sociologie et par le langage courant au XX° siècle. Ce terme, plus connu pour son application à la réalité du Nord-est des moulins à sucre, apparaît ainsi comme originaire de la littérature relative à cette vallée caféière, qui a été au centre des discussions économiques et politiques du Brésil impérial et dont la fiction romanesque montre l'ascension fulgurante, suivie de sa disparition encore plus rapide et étonnante, de la mémoire nationale. Le deuxième roman est A escrava Isaura, de 1875, où Bernardo Guimarães a créé l'icône la plus célèbre de la lutte pour l'abolition de l'esclavage au Brésil, dans une œuvre au succès populaire jamais démenti et proportionnel au mépris où il est tenu dans les milieux académiques. Son insertion dans ce corpus permet, en le plaçant à côté des autres deux romans qui traitent du même thème, de mettre en lumière la profonde implication de cette intrigue feuilletonesque et séduisante dans la problématique de son temps et l'habile déconstruction qu'elle fait des clichés usuels dans ce genre de récit. Les deux premiers romans du corpus sont écrits à un moment où le romantisme n'avait pas quitté le centre de la scène littéraire brésilienne, mais où il recevait de plein fouet les attaques d'un régionalisme réaliste, plus représentatif des aspirations qui prenaient corps dans une société qui ne se contentait plus de l'unité impériale et esclavagiste du pays. Finalement, le troisième roman qui se penche sur les fazendas de la vallée est un ouvrage apparemment anachronique, puisque, écrit en 1914, empreint de toutes les tendances qui se croisent dans ce contexte du « Pré-modernisme » brésilien, il met en discussion les problèmes de l'esclavage aboli depuis 1888 et qui n'intéresse plus personne. Les esclaves alors libérés et jetés sur les routes pour mourir de faim, font désormais partie des hommes libres et pauvres toujours exclus de l'organisation sociale du pays. Pour en parler, Coelho Neto crée dans Rei Negro un héros entre romantique et parnassien, une figure olympique et pleinement noire, toutes des caractéristiques associées pour la première fois dans un roman brésilien, ce qui permet de douter de l'anachronisme attribué à cette œuvre. Ce roman vient combler un vide que la fiction romantique brésilienne n'avait pas osé ou pas pu remplir, au moins tant qu'elle était contemporaine de l'esclavage : le droit au centre de la scène pour un protagoniste esclave, le droit à la beauté associée à une peau noire comme l'ébène, le droit à la révolte conduite et assumée par le nègre, sans qu'aucun protagoniste blanc ne vienne lui voler sa fonction de héros romantique, teinté ici du naturalisme, du symbolisme et du régionalisme partout présents dans l'expression littéraire du pays à ce moment-là.Ces romans réunis autour du thème de la fazenda recréent dans leur diversité un même aspect de l'évolution sociale et culturelle du Brésil, la vie et les valeurs qui se développent à l'écart de la ville jusqu'à cette moitié du XIX° siècle qui constitue le moment choisi par les trois auteurs. C'est alors que l'ordre traditionnel se voit contesté par des valeurs nouvelles qui prennent de l'ampleur dans une population qui commence à peser du côté urbain, à échanger des idées avec une Europe en pleine mutation, tout en essayant de consolider son indépendance politique et de réduire sa dépendance économique héritée de l'époque coloniale. Ces facteurs rassemblés et reflétés dans l'espace symbolique d'une vallée autrefois sauvage, rapidement conquise par une culture qui l'occupe, l'enrichit et la détruit en un cycle extraordinairement court, fournissent des caractéristiques communes à nos trois romans. D'autre part, le création littéraire qui en résulte, tout en présentant une grande complexité dès les premier roman du corpus, éprouve le besoin d'expliciter de plus en plus clairement la place centrale de l'esclavage dans la problématique sociale brésilienne.Tout comme la période, le cadre où se situent ces romans fournit des traits déterminants pour leur construction et pour la figuration de la réalité dont ils se chargent. Le fleuve Paraïba, puissant et mythique jusqu'à l'arrivée du café et à la profonde altération de l'environnement alors survenue, est peu à peu ensablé par un sol épuisé et par l'abattage des forêts et se voit petit à petit amoindri, n'étant plus capable des inondations légendaires recréées par Alencar dans un roman précédant, le Guarani. Dans ce roman que l'auteur lui-même situait dans une période coloniale mythifiée, où le langage et les coutumes de l'envahisseur se modifiaient sous l'influx de la nature américaine, le Paraïba était le facteur déterminant du dénouement, puisque c'est lui qui provoque la catastrophique inondation créatrice de la nouvelle humanité qui va occuper l'espace géographique national à partir de cette vallée née en même temps que le pays indépendant. Le fleuve demeure l'espace des mythes dans O tronco do ipê, mais comme un miroir du passé, des légendes et de l'image de la mort qui se cache désormais dans tous les éléments du récit et du paysage. Dans A escrava Isaura, il occupe le fond du décor, les marges de la fazenda, il fait partie de la nature brute domptée et écartée par l'homme du centre du tableau et de l'action. Son cours est évoqué pour tracer les limites d'un immense verger qui allait se perdre dans ses marges escarpées et imposantes, « nas barrancas do grande rio ». Encore majestueux dans ce deuxième roman, bien qu'éloigné par le regard d'un narrateur qui ne s'intéresse qu'aux interactions humaines reflétées dans les discours des personnages, le Paraïba disparaît du décor dans Rei Negro. Dans le dernier roman du corpus, écrit à la veille de la Première guerre mondiale, le paysage n'est plus que symbolique et vaporeux, les terres sont couvertes par des cultures elles-mêmes vues de très loin, tandis que l'eau est devenue un élément sombre et sinistre, apportant la mort et la reflétant. Ce paysage complètement occupé par l'homme n'est évoqué que dans des visions polarisées entre des regards de maîtres et des regards d'esclaves, symbolisant un droit d'appropriation ou la transgression de ce même droit. Dans un conte (« Banzo ») contemporain de son roman, Coelho Neto compare le fleuve desséché et abandonné par le café à l'esclave jeté sur les routes après l'abolition, tous deux vivant de l'aumône d'une pluie ou d'un reste de nourriture. Quant aux terres, elles se transforment tout aussi vite, la forêt sauvage disparaît en quelques années faisant place à l'or vert des caféiers gourmands de terres vierges et d'esclaves en nombre croissant, tous deux engloutis dans la construction de la richesse des fazendeiros. Dans leurs maisons devenues de vrais châteaux, ces propriétaires raffinés ne se contentent plus de l'espace de la fazenda, peut-être trop marqué à la fois par le souvenir lointain d'un travail trop pénible et par la violence nécessaire à son acquisition, toujours présente dans les romans. La propriété de la terre apparaît partout comme originaire de la trahison et de l'usurpation, et le souvenir de ces crimes hante tous les paysages. Abandonnées par leurs propriétaires qui s'en vont vers la capitale ou vers d'autres destinations, maison et plantations tombent en ruine dans la vallée géographique, devenant un thème obsédant pour la fiction. Symptomatiquement, la représentation de la vallée et de ses fazendas dans le dernier roman du corpus est emboîtée dans une sorte d'ellipse qui, associée à l'historiographie, rend évidente la rapidité et la paradoxale fragilité de ce processus. Pour nos trois auteurs, postérieurs à Balzac, leur écriture est une histoire du cœur humain ou histoire sociale, où le terme « histoire » n'indique pas un examen scientifique d'événements passés, mais une invention relativement libre ; ce qu'ils font c'est de la fiction et non de l'history, pour utiliser les termes anglais, particulièrement précis, comme l'a si bien remarqué Auerbach. Ce n'est pas du passé que traite leur écriture, mais d'une époque qui leur est contemporaine et dont la connaissance est indispensable à la compréhension de leurs œuvres, comme l'accentue ce même critique dans son analyse de la représentation de la réalité dans la littérature occidentale.La rapidité des transformations intervenues au Brésil vers la moitié du XIX° siècle a, de toute évidence, retenu l'attention de nos trois romanciers. C'est le passage ravageur du temps le vrai conducteur de leurs intrigues. La représentation qu'ils en donnent reflète le moment fugace de fluctuation entre le monde ancien, rural, fermé, isolé et l'ouverture aux valeurs nouvelles qui aspireront vers la ville, vers l'Europe, vers le monde citadin les propriétaires terriens ainsi que leur richesse. La vallée, désertée par des maîtres qui n'y ont pas créé des racines, ainsi que par le café qui l'a épuisée, s'appauvrit, se dessèche pour être abandonnée au profit d'une avancée vers les terres rouges de l'Ouest pauliste, qui attirent désormais de nouveaux maîtres et de nouveaux travailleurs, les colons européens immigrés, qui viennent remplacer le Noir africain. Accrochée à son économie basée sur la force esclave, qu'elle veut à tout prix conserver, et absorbée par le besoin de rénovation constante de ces « machines humaines » remplaçables à peu de frais jusqu'en 1850, la richesse de la vallée se crée et se détruit en moins d'un siècle, dans un temps qui se précipite vers une modernité qu'elle ne voit pas ou ne veut pas voir venir. La répercussion de tous ces changements offre à nos trois romans un cadre circonscrit où dramatiser et condenser ces événements que nos auteurs ressentent comme décisifs pour les destins de leur société. Situés ainsi entre un ordre conservateur et une aspiration à la modernité que chacun d'eux voit reflétée sous un aspect différent dans la vie de la fazenda, nos trois romanciers ont recours à quelques constantes dans la construction de leurs récits. Les constellations des personnages et le jeu de leurs désirs autour de la propriété de la terre, condition incontournable pour devenir un personnage respectable depuis les premiers temps de la colonie ; l'éducation de l'héritier qui doit se cultiver en Europe mais revenir à un ordre le plus rétrograde qui soit ; les personnages féminins de la sinhá libre et de la mucama esclave qui interagissent à l'intérieur de la Casa Grande sont quelques-uns des thèmes de tout le corpus. Les représentations des esclaves, idéalisés mais point simplifiés chez Alencar, apportent à notre premier roman les voix du mythe, des légendes et de la mémoire du passé. Bernardo Guimarães élabore un personnage d'esclave blanche, tout à fait représentative des changements subis par la société brésilienne vers la moitié du XIX° siècle, chargée de commenter et retourner les raisonnements de ses maîtres dont l'hypocrisie, aujourd'hui patente, était parfaitement en conformité avec la doxa pratiquée par ses contemporains et lecteurs moins avertis. Finalement, l'esclave de Coelho Neto, enfin pleinement noir, est l'instrument de la vengeance épique contre toute une période où sa représentation le condamnait à la farce ou à l'ombre des fonds du tableau romanesque, comme le prouvent d'ailleurs les précédents romans : l'esclave noir de José de Alencar, pour devenir personnage littéraire, doit occuper des espaces mythifiés et légendaires, et l'esclave de Bernardo Guimarães, pour venir débattre dans les salons, est d'abord dépouillée de sa couleur. D'autre part, pour parler des valeurs qui importent à leurs lecteurs sans trop les secouer, les narrateurs de ces romans sont tous très prudents, ironiques, presque sournois dans leurs commentaires et suggestions. Les discours les plus incisifs seront généralement laissés pour le compte de personnages plats, capables d'attirer dans leur interaction la sympathie ou l'aversion de ces lecteurs à la fois éclairés et dépendants des esclaves pour le moindre de leurs gestes, voire pour leur apporter le roman abolitionniste qu'ils s'apprêtent à lire.Les espaces de vie à la fazenda se trouvent représentés dans nos trois romans de différentes manières. La Casa Grande est le lieu du discours civilisé, des échos du monde référentiel et historique contemporain, des arts à la mode et des idées éclairées ou conformistes qui divisent les opinions. Elle est aussi un espace de lecture, activité par ailleurs confiée aux esclaves ; ils sont aussi les seuls personnages chargés de l'acte de raconter. Ainsi, dès le premier roman, c'est dans la cabane de l'esclave que revit tradition orale, c'est là que les légendes sont ressuscitées et la mémoire du passé pieusement conservée. Dans le deuxième, la parole qui raconte retourne au salon en musique, mais portée par une figure d'esclave surdouée qui envahit et occupe entièrement cet espace de sociabilité. Elle ne cède jamais le centre de la scène à ses maîtres ou maîtresses, dont le discours elle réfute point par point, sans jamais se départir de son humilité ; en toute modestie, c'est elle qui occupe le piano pour chanter sa propre épopée (la muse qui l'inspire d'après la narration est la muse épique Calliope) et émouvoir le public le plus traditionnel du pays. Dans le troisième roman, le roi nègre a son propre oracle noir pour recréer un passé de gloire qui lui rendra insupportable l'humiliation de l'esclavage, mais ici les discours les plus significatifs des personnages n'ont plus pour cadre la maison seigneuriale, dont l'espace rétréci et ne peut plus rendre compte de la progression de l'action. À l'opposé de la casa grande, dans la polarisation inhérente à cette organisation, les romans de la fazenda donnent tout d'abord l'impression d'avoir laissé un vide inexplicable, car la senzala, le lieu d'habitation des esclaves n'y apparaît pratiquement jamais et ce qui fait vivre, ce qui permet à la fazenda historique d'exister, soit le travail de la terre, encore moins. Et pourtant, tout est là. Par des allusions, par des histoires racontées dans des digressions opportunes, par des rebondissement provoquées ailleurs qu'au premier plan de l'intrigue. Tout ce que le récit ne dit pas clairement agit sur lui ; tout ce que les intrigues laissent dans l'ombre les éclaire d'une lumière commune, et toutes ces fazendas se constituent ainsi en un univers fictionnel cohérent et problématisé par la structure romanesque. Ces romans mis ensemble offrent des possibilités de lecture inédites, mais il faut aussi les lire « à l'envers », comme le fait remarquer Heloisa Toller Gomes à propos du Tronco do ipê. En portant notre regard au-delà des protagonistes blancs et en concentrant notre attention sur la communauté environnante, et surtout en observant comment les uns et les autres interagissent, nous découvrons la diversité des moyens mis en œuvres par ces textes pour nous fournir un panneau très vivant et illustratif du Brésil esclavagiste au XIX° siècle. Par ailleurs, le brouillage de l'espace des esclaves, avec l'effacement de la senzala qui avait d'abord attiré notre attention, semble susciter encore des discussions, car si la senzala existe jusqu'à la fin de l'esclavage, les cabanes des esclaves avec leur petites plantations vivrières ou d'agrément font tout aussi partie d'un paysage référentiel absorbé et utilisé comme matériau littéraire.C'est dans ce cadre que la lutte entre passéisme et modernité peut se nouer dans des intrigues parfois presque pédagogiques grâce à la concentration permise par la délimitation restreinte du cadre, au nombre relativement réduit des personnages, et au dialogue forcé et constant entre ces deux classes de personnages, les maîtres et les esclaves. Il devient clair que les auteurs de notre corpus ont voulu construire une fiction complexe, capable de toucher un public ambivalent, peu nombreux mais liseur avide, éclairé et esclavagiste à la fois, conservateur mais curieux des nouveautés qui lui arrivent en nombre croissant depuis l'Europe, un public qui commence à changer ses habitudes d'habillement, de sociabilité - et de lecture. ; RESUMONa constituição deste corpus, foram usadas noções fundamentais para a compreensão dos romances das primeiras fazendas de café brasileiras, como aquelas em que Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco elucida a « ordem escravagista » como sendo a que, ao dar forma à sociedade exclui os "homens livres e pobres" de um universo polarizado entre mestres e escravos. A ordem evocada nessa obra é aquela que subtende toda a organização imperial e que possibilita à jovem nação, graças ao café, reconstruir-se nos anos difíceis que se seguem à sua independência em 1822. Esse estudo refere-se à velha "civilização do café" e às imensas fazendas que cobrem inicialmente o vale do Paraíba, a meio-caminho entre o Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, onde fazendeiros associados a comissários e agentes financeiros citadinos formam uma sociedade cada vez mais poderosa, cujas características de ruralidade vão rapidamente ceder espaço à urbanização do país. As mudanças sofridas por essa sociedade se aceleram precisamente em torno do ano de 1850, momento que, freqüentemente evocado pela historiografia, impressionou também três escritores brasileiros do século XIX, que escolhem essa década como o nódulo central de seus romances escritos entre 1871 e 1914. Nos três casos, a forma ficcional do romance parece ser a que mais se adapta à fazenda de café literária, com a sua organização que exclui os homens livres e pobres, para os quais tanto a fazenda como sua representação romanesca parecem não ter lugar.A fazenda de café escravagista, na metade do século XIX é um universo em plena expansão, no qual reina e governa o fazendeiro com poderes absolutos sobre tudo o que vive em suas terras. Este grande proprietário, ao enriquecer, deseja também tornar-se nobre e compra seus títulos do poder imperial, tornando-se assim essa figura ambígua, ao mesmo tempo respeitada e ironizada, do Barão do café do período imperial brasileiro. Freqüentemente evocado pela literatura nas suas mansões citadinas, esses novos aristocratas criados por D. Pedro II, não chamam tanto a atenção na época da construção de seus personagens e de sua fortuna nesses mundos reduzidos que são as fazendas polarizadas entre Casa Grande e Senzala. Nesse universo, as relações intensamente vividas entre mestres e escravos, constitutivos da vida nacional, compõem o nódulo de trocas quotidianas que invadem um quadro rural e senhorial. Três romances se interessaram por esse modo de vida que, na época de sua escritura, dizia respeito à maior parte da população brasileira (no que se refere ao aspecto de ruralidade), instalando sua ação numa rica casa de senhor de escravos no meio de uma imensa propriedade na qual as relações entre dominantes e dominados vão evoluir de uma enganosa harmonia à explosão de uma violência tardia mais tanto mais mortífera.Desses romances que constituem o corpus principal de nossa tese, o primeiro é O tronco do ipê, escrito por José de Alencar em 1871, onde aparece pela primeira vez a designação da sede da propriedade como Casa Grande, em seguida adotada pela sociologia e pela linguagem corrente durante o século XX. Esse termo, mais conhecido por sua aplicação à realidade do Nordeste dos engenhos de açúcar, aparece assim como originário da literatura relativa a esse vale cafeeiro, que esteve no centro das discussões econômicas e políticas do Brasil imperial, e cuja ficção romanesca mostra a ascensão fulgurante, seguida de seu desaparecimento ainda mais rápido e surpreendente, da memória nacional. O segundo romance é A escrava Isaura, de 1875, no qual Bernardo Guimarães criou o ícone mais célebre da luta pela abolição da escravidão no Brasil, numa obra cujo sucesso popular nunca desmentido é proporcional ao desprezo que lhe votam os meios acadêmicos. Sua inserção neste corpus, ao lado dos outros dois romances que tratam do mesmo tema, permite esclarecer a profunda implicação dessa intriga folhetinesca e sedutora na problemática de seu tempo, bem a como a hábil desconstrução dos clichês usuais nesse gênero de narrativa. Os dois primeiros romances foram escritos num momento em que o romantismo ainda não tinha abandonado o centro da cena literária brasileira, mas em que ele já era alvo dos ataques furiosos de um regionalismo mais preocupado com o realismo e mais significativo das aspirações que tomavam corpo numa sociedade que não se satisfazia mais sob a unidade imperial e escravocrata do país. Finalmente, o terceiro romance a tratar das fazendas do vale é uma obra taxada de anacronismo pois, escrita em 1914, prenhe de todas tendências que se cruzam nesse contexto do Pré-modernismo brasileiro, põe em discussão os problemas da escravidão abolida desde 1888 e que não interessa mais ninguém. O país tem pressa de esquecer tanto o antigo regime escravagista quanto os escravos libertados para fazer parte dos homens livres e pobres que continuam excluídos da nova organização social do país. Para tanto, Coelho Neto cria em Rei Negro um herói romântico e parnasiano, uma figura olímpica e plenamente negra, características essas associadas pela primeira vez num romance brasileiro, o que permite duvidar do anacronismo atribuído a uma obra que vem preencher um vazio que a ficção romântica brasileira não pudera ou não ousara ocupar, pelo menos enquanto contemporânea da escravidão: o direito ao centro do palco para um protagonista escravo, o direito à beleza associado a uma pele negra como o ébano, o direito à revolta conduzida e assumida pelo negro, sem que nenhum protagonista branco venha lhe roubar sua função de herói romântico, tingido aqui pelo naturalismo, pelo simbolismo e pelo regionalismo presentes na expressão literária do país nesse momento.Os romances reunidos em torno do tema da fazenda recriam em sua diversidade um mesmo aspecto da evolução histórica do Brasil, a vida e os valores que se desenvolvem à margem da cidade até essa metade do século XIX que constitui o momento escolhido pelos três autores. É então que a ordem tradicional se vê contestada por valores novos que se amplificam numa população que começa a pesar do lado urbano, a trocar idéias com uma Europa em plena mutação, enquanto tenta consolidar sua independência política e reduzir sua dependência econômica herdada da época colonial. 1850 é o ano em que a cessação do tráfico de escravos africanos libera enormes quantidades de divisas e fornece aos fazendeiros os créditos que vão mudar um modo de vida até então austero e isolado. É também nesse ano que é inaugurada uma linha de navios a vapor entre Liverpool e o Rio de Janeiro, pondo em consonância o tempo brasileiro, imperial e escravocrata, com o tempo industrial e urbanizado da Europa. Esses fatores reunidos e refletidos num espaço simbólico de um vale outrora selvagem, rapidamente conquistado por uma cultura que o enriquece e o destrói num ciclo extraordinariamente curto, fornecem as características comuns que vão se acentuar na passagem do primeiro ao último romance.Tanto quanto o período, o cenário desses três romances fornece traços determinantes para sua construção e para a representação da realidade que eles trazem. O rio Paraíba, poderoso e mítico até a chegada do café e à profunda alteração do meio-ambiente sobrevinda então, já não é mais capaz das inundações legendárias recriadas por Alencar num romance precedente, O Guarani. Nesse romance que o próprio autor situava num período colonial mitificado, em que a linguagem e os costumes do invasor se modificavam sob o influxo da natureza americana, o Paraíba era o fator determinante do desenlace, pois é ele que provoca a catastrófica inundação criadora da nova humanidade que vai ocupar o espaço geográfico nacional a partir desse vale nascido ao mesmo tempo que o país independente. O rio permanece o espaço dos mitos no O tronco do ipê, mas como um espelho do passado, das lendas e da imagem da morte que se esconde doravante em todos os elementos da narrativa e da paisagem. Em A escrava Isaura, ele ocupa o fundo do cenário, as margens da fazenda, faz parte da natureza bruta, domada e afastada pelo homem do centro do quadro e da ação. Seu curso é evocado para traçar os limites do imenso pomar que ia se perder nas suas margens escarpadas e imponentes, "nas barrancas do grande rio". Ainda majestoso nesse segundo romance, se bem que descartado pelo olhar de um narrador que só se interessa pelas interações humanas refletidas nos discursos dos personagens, o Paraíba desaparece do cenário em Rei Negro. Nesse último romance do corpus, escrito às vésperas da Primeira Guerra Mundial, a paisagem torna-se simbólica e vaporosa, as terras são cobertas de culturas vistas de bem longe, enquanto a água se torna um elemento sombrio e sinistro, trazendo a morte e refletindo-a. Esta paisagem completamente ocupada pelo homem só é evocada em visões polarizadas entre olhares de mestres e olhares de escravos, simbolizando um direito de apropriação ou a transgressão desse mesmo direito. Num conto ("Banzo") contemporâneo de seu romance, Coelho Neto compara o rio ressecado e abandonado pelo homem ao escravo jogado nas estradas após a abolição, os dois vivendo da esmola de uma chuva ou de um resto de comida.Quanto às terras, elas se transformam tão depressa quanto o rio; a floresta desaparece em alguns anos, dando lugar ao ouro verde dos cafezais famintos de terras virgens e de escravos cada vez mais numerosos, ambos engolidos na construção da riqueza dos fazendeiros. Em suas mansões que se transformam em verdadeiros castelos, esses proprietários refinados não se contentam mais com o espaço da fazenda, talvez duplamente marcado pela lembrança longínqua de um trabalho demasiado penoso, ou pela violência necessária à sua aquisição. Nos romances, a propriedade da terra aparece sempre ligada à traição e à usurpação, e a lembrança desses crimes assombra todas as paisagens. Abandonadas por seus proprietários que partem para a capital ou ainda mais longe, casa e plantações ficam arruinadas, o que é um outro tema obsedante para esta ficção. Sintomaticamente, a representação do vale e de suas fazendas no segundo tempo de escritura dos romances, encaixa-se numa espécie de elipse que, associada à historiografia, torna evidente a rapidez e a paradoxal fragilidade desse processo. À medida que se aproximam a Abolição e a República, e que se percebem os progressos reais então conquistados, os escritores são obrigados a constatar a grande decepção que esses dois acontecimentos representaram para aqueles que ainda acreditavam em mudanças profundas, quando foram escritos os dois primeiros romances. Para os três autores, como para Balzac, sua escritura é uma "história do coração humano" ou "história social", na qual o termo história indica, não um exame cientifico de acontecimentos passados, mas uma invenção relativamente livre; o que eles fazem é fiction e não history, para usar termos ingleses particularmente precisos, como bem notou Erich Auerbach. Para esses escritores posteriores a Balzac, não se trata de passado, mas de uma época que lhes é contemporânea. Assim, o conhecimento do referente histórico é indispensável à compreensão de suas obras, como acentua esse mesmo crítico na sua análise da representação da realidade na literatura ocidental, ao evocar, após a obra de Balzac, a íntima relação entre a construção do romance de Stendhal, Le rouge et le noir, e os anos 1830 na França.A rapidez das transformações ocorridas no Brasil por volta da metade do século XIX não podia deixar de chamar a atenção de nossos três romancistas. A representação construída por eles reflete o momento fugaz de flutuação entre o mundo antigo, rural, fechado, isolado, e a abertura aos valores novos que atrairão para a cidade, para a Europa, para o mundo citadino os donos das terras com suas riquezas. O vale, desertado por senhores que não criaram raízes, bem como pelo café que o esgotou, empobrece, seca, para ser abandonado em proveito de uma corrida para as terras vermelhas do Oeste paulista, que atraem a partir de então novos senhores e novos trabalhadores, os colonos europeus imigrados, que vêm substituir o negro africano. Apoiada na sua economia baseada na força escrava, que ela quer conservar a qualquer preço, e absorvida pela necessidade de renovação constante dessas "máquinas humanas" facilmente descartáveis até 1850, a riqueza do vale se cria e se destrói em menos de um século, num tempo que se acelera para precipitá-lo numa modernidade que ele não vê ou não quer ver chegar. A repercussão de todas essas mudanças na fazenda oferece aos três romances um quadro circunscrito para dramatizar e condensar esses acontecimentos que nossos autores sentem como decisivos para os destinos de sua época.Assim, situados entre uma ordem conservadora e uma aspiração à modernidade que cada um deles vê refletida sob um aspecto diferente na vida da fazenda, os três romancistas recorrem a algumas constantes na construção de suas narrativas. As constelações de personagens e o jogo de seus desejos em torno da propriedade da terra, condição indispensável para fazer parte dos "homens bons" e respeitáveis desde os primeiros tempos da colonização; a educação do herdeiro que deve se cultivar na Europa para depois voltar à ordem a mais retrógrada; as personagens femininas da sinhá livre e da mucama escrava que interagem no interior da Casa Grande são alguns dos temas que percorrem todo o corpus. As representações de escravos, idealizadas mas não simplificadas por Alencar, trazem para o primeiro romance as vozes do mito, das lendas e da memória do passado. Bernardo Guimarães elabora um personagem de escrava branca, perfeitamente representativa das mudanças sofridas pela sociedade brasileira na metade do século XIX, encarregada de comentar e retornar os argumentos de seus mestres, cuja hipocrisia, hoje patente, estava perfeitamente em conformidade com a doxa praticada por seus contemporâneos e leitores menos prevenidos. Finalmente, o escravo de Coelho Neto, enfim plenamente negro, é o instrumento da vingança épica contra todo um período em que sua representação o condenava à farsa ou à sombra dos fundos do quadro romanesco, como provam aliás os romances precedentes: o escravo negro de José de Alencar, para se tornar personagem literário, deve ocupar espaços mitificados e legendários, e o escravo de Bernardo Guimarães, para vir debater nos salões, é primeiro despojado de sua cor. Por outro lado, para falar de valores que importam a seus leitores sem desestabilizá-los, os narradores desses romances são todos muito prudentes, irônicos, dissimulados em seus comentários e sugestões. Os discursos mais incisivos ficam geralmente por conta de personagens planos, capazes de atrair a simpatia ou a aversão desses leitores ao mesmo tempo ilustrados e dependentes dos escravos para o menor gesto, até mesmo para lhes trazer o romance abolicionista que eles se preparam para ler.Os espaços de vida na fazenda se acham representados nos três romances de diferentes maneiras. A Casa Grande é o lugar do discurso civilizado, dos ecos do mundo referencial e histórico contemporâneo, das artes da moda e das idéias esclarecidas ou conformistas que dividem as opiniões. É também um espaço de leitura, atividade que aliás passa progressivamente dos mestres aos escravos, que em todos os relatos são os únicos personagens encarregados do ato de contar. Assim, desde o primeiro romance, a tradição oral revive na cabana do escravo, onde as lendas são ressuscitadas e a memória do passado é piedosamente conservada; no segundo, a voz que conta (e canta) retorna ao salão, espaço agora inteiramente ocupado por uma figura de escrava excepcional. Ela não cede jamais o centro do palco a seus sinhôs ou sinhás, cujo discurso ela refuta ponto por ponto, sem jamais abandonar sua humildade; sempre modesta, é ela que ocupa o piano para cantar sua própria epopéia (a musa que a inspira, segundo a narração, é a musa épica Calíope) e emocionar o público mais tradicional do país. No terceiro romance, o rei negro tem seu próprio oráculo negro para recriar um passado de glória que torna insuportável a humilhação da escravidão, mas aqui os discursos mais significativos dos personagens não têm mais por cenário uma casa senhorial, cujo espaço encolheu e não pode mais dar conta da progressão da intriga. Do lado oposto à casa grande, na polarização inerente a essa organização, os romances da fazenda dão inicialmente a impressão de ter deixado um vazio inexplicável, pois a senzala, o lugar de moradia dos escravos, não aparece praticamente nunca, menos ainda aquilo que faz viver, que possibilita a existência da fazenda, ou seja, o trabalho da terra. E, no entanto, tudo está presente. Por alusões, por histórias contadas em digressões oportunas, por peripécias provocadas fora do primeiro plano do relato. Tudo o que a narrativa não diz claramente age sobre ela; tudo que as intrigas deixam na sombra as esclarece com uma luz comum, e todas essas fazendas constituem assim um universo ficcional coerente e problematizado pela estrutura romanesca. Esses romances oferecem possibilidades de leitura inéditas, mas deve-se lê-los "pelo avesso", como nota Heloísa Toller Gomes a propósito do O tronco do ipê. Projetando nosso olhar além das personagens brancas e concentrando nossa atenção sobre a comunidade negra, sobretudo observando como uns e outros interagem, descobrimos a diversidade dos meios empregados por esses textos para nos fornecer um painel vivo e ilustrativo do Brasil escravocrata do século XIX. Aliás, os contornos mal delimitados do espaço dos escravos, que desde o início tinha atraído nossa atenção, não ficam mais claros na historiografia, pois se a senzala existe até o final da escravidão, as cabanas dos escravos, com suas pequenas roças ou jardins, também fazem parte de uma paisagem referencial absorvida e utilizada como material literário.É nesse quadro que a luta entre passadismo e modernidade pode se travar em intrigas às vezes quase pedagógicas graças à concentração possibilitada pela delimitação restrita do quadro, ao número relativamente reduzido de personagens, e ao diálogo forçado e constante entre essas duas classes de personagens, os senhores e os escravos. A introdução dessas duas linguagens diversas na intriga romanesca, bem como a imbricação dramática entre tempo e espaço que predominam na construção de nossos romances, foram explicitados graças aos conceitos de "polifonia" e de "cronótopo" desenvolvidos por Mikhaïl Bakhtine. Torna-se claro que os romancistas do corpus queriam construir uma ficção complexa, capaz de sensibilizar um público ambivalente, pouco numeroso mas leitor ávido, ilustrado e escravagista ao mesmo tempo, conservador mas curioso das novidades que lhe chegam em número cada vez maior da Europa, um público que começa a mudar seus hábitos de vestuário, de moradia, de sociabilidade e, o que mais nos interessa, de leitura.
Issue 18.4 of the Review for Religious, 1959. ; Two, Prayers John XXIII Prayer for the Church of Silence [On January 23, 1959, the Sacred Penitentiary pub|ish~d the Italian text ~f a prayer composed by the Holy Father for the. Church of Silence. The original text, a translation of which appears.below, is to be found in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 51 (1959), 112~13. A partial indulgence of three years can be gained by the faithful when they recite the prayer with contrite heart.] OJESUS, Son of God, who lovedthe Church and who gave Yourself for it to sanctify it and to make it appear before You glorious and immaculate (Eph 5:23-27), look down with mercy on the painful conditions to which Your mystical spouse is subjected in certain parts of the Catholic world and especially now in the great nation of the Chinese. ! See, O Lord, the treachery that threatens the souls of Your faithful' and consider the calumnious insinuations leveled against Your pastors, Your ministers, and Your faithful followers who long to spread the truth of the Gospel and that kingdom of Yours which is not of this world. How insistent and dangerous are the attempts to tear the seamless robe of Your spouse, the one, holy, catholic, apostolic, and Roman Church, by separating the hierarchy and the local communities from the only center of truth, authority, and salvation, the See of Peter! Before this spectacle of such grave evils, we ask first of all for pardon for the offenses which are being committed against You. In truth the words spoken by You to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" (Acts 9:4), can well be repeated today, as they could be in the course of recent and past history. We trust always in the efficacy of the sublime words You addressed to Your Father from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34). As Your sacrifice was the source of universal salvation, so through your grace may the martyrdom which the Church, Your spouse 193 JOHN XXIII Review [or Religious and our mother, suffers in different regions bring salvation all men. O Prince of Peace, grant that the bishops and the priests, the religious and the laity, may always and everywhere be "solici-tous to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3). May Your omnipotent power overcome every hu-man calculation so that pastors and flocks may remain obedient to the voice of the only universal Pastor, the Roman Pontiff, who feels in his heart the responsibility of that supreme desire of love: "Holy Father, keep in Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are" (Jn 17:11). Finally~ O Redeemer, look with satisfaction at the merits and prayers of Your and our Mother, the august Queen of the missions and of the universal Church; look at the labors, the sacrifices, and the blood of "the innumerable heralds of the faith who have always and are still giving heroic testimony to You; and, mindful above all of Your precious Blood shed for many for the remission oz sins, give Your peace to China and to the entire world, because in no other is there hope and victory .and peace, but only in You, our Lord and immortal King of the ages and of the nations. Prayer to the Eucharistic Christ [The following prayer, the orighaal text of which is given in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 51 (1959), 163-64, was composed by the Holy Father as a preparation for the coming International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Munich, Germany. His Holiness (AAS, 51 [1959], 164) has granted a partial indulgence of ten years to the faithful who devoutly recite the prayer with contrite heart; moreover once a month they may gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, if they have recited the pra~,er daily for a whole month.] O Jesus, King of nations and of ages, accept the acts of adoration and of praise which we, Your brothers by adoption, humbly offer to You. You are "the living Bread come down from heaven which gives life to the world" (Jn 6:33) ; High Priest as well as Victim, You offered Yourself on the cross in a bloody sacrifice of expia-tion to the Eternal Father for the redemption of the human race; 194 July, 1959 Two PRAYS.US and now each day You offer Yourself on our altars by the hands of Your ministers so that there might be restored in each heart Your "kingdom of truth and of life, of holiness and of grace, of justice, of love, and of peace~' (Preface of the Mass of Christ the King). O "King of Glory," may Your kingdom come! Rule from Your "throne of glory" (Heb 4:16) in the hearts of children so that they may keep immaculate the shining purity of their baptismal innocence. Rule in the hearts of youth so that they may grow in wholesomeness and purity and in docility to the voice of those who represent You in the family, in school, and in the Church. Rule in the heart of the home so that parents and children may live united in the observance of Your holy law. Rule in our country so that in the harmonious ordering of the social classes all its citizens may regard themselves as children of the same heavenly Father, called to work together for the common temporal good and happy to belong to that one Mystical Body, of which Your Sacrament is both the symbol and the everlasting source. Rule, finally, O King of Kings and "Lord of Lords" (Deut 10:17) over all the nations of the earth and enlighten the rulers of each nation that, inspired by Your example, they may nourish "thoughts of peace and not of affliction" (Jer 29:11 ). O Eucharistic Jesus, grant that all people may serve You freely in the knowledge that "to serve God is to reign." May Your Sacrament, O Jesus, be a light to the mind, a strength to the will, an attraction to the heart. May it be a support to the weak, a comfort to the suffering, a viaticum of salvation to the dying, and for all may it be a "pledge of future glory." Amen. 195 The Rest:oral:ion ot: All Things in Christ: Richard Cardinal Cushing, D.D., UL.D. [The following address by the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston was delivered as the main address of the Sacred Heart Institute for Nuns conducted by American Directors of the Apostleship of Prayer and held at Roberts Center, Boston College, on April 4, 1959.] THE DEVOTION TO the Sacred Heart makes no appeal whatever to those outside the Church and to some within the Church. It is the story of a nun who had a vision of our Lord in which He showed her a wound on His side. Then He said to her: "Behold the Heart which loves so much, and is loved so little in return." What is this but sentimentalism, and a kind of senti-mentalism which does not appeal to people of our times. My dear Sisters: Is there anything more undignified than the figure of the rejected lover who cannot keep his abandon-ment to himself, but must go about exposing his wounded feel-ings for all the world to see, inviting sympathy because he unloved? Yet that is the figure under which Divine Love rep-resented itself to the apostle of the Sacred Heart--St. Margaret Mary. Why? It may help to understand the answer if we recall that all through the Old Testament this is the kind of language in which Almighty God refers to the disloyalties of His people. The covenant which He made with the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt was like a marriage contract com-mitting both sides to fidel.ity; and when they turned to the wor-ship of idols, he appealed to that covenant. "And thou," He says through the prophet Jeremias, "and thou with many lovers have been unfaithful; come back to me, and thou shalt find welcome." This is pleading language, and it is God who pleads. When a prophet of the Old Testament speaks like that, he is using a metaphor. The Old Testament is full of metaphors. When others talk about God raising His hand, stretching out 196 I:~ESTORATION IN CHRIST His arm, keeping a watchful eye over His friends, giving a ready ear to their prayers, we'do not think that God, who is pure spirit, has hands or arms or eyes or ears like ourselves. And so it is when God describes himself as a jealous lover. He means that if He were a man, this is how the infidelity of His friends would affect Him. If He were a man? In the fullness of time, He became man; He trod our earth, and was subject, as man, to the play of emotions; He wept and rejoiced. He was indignant, and felt fear. The metaphors had come true at last: God Incarnate really saw with human eyes and stretched out a human hand to save us. And He was accessible like ourselves, to the expressions of feeling which we find so difficult to control. When an injury was done to the honor of His Father in heaven, He flared up; and we read in the New Testament: "Jesus looked upon them with anger." The success of His first missionaries gave Him the same feeling which comes to you and me when good news reaches us, and we read that "At that time, Jesus was filled with gladness." The tragedy of a friend's death was told him. The sad news drew from Him, as it would from us, a 'tribute of natural tears and we read: "Jesus wept." Our Lord did not even hide from us His disappointments: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, still murdering the prophets, and stoning the messengers that are sent to thee, how often have I been ready to gather thy children together, and thou didst refuse it!" How often--He looks back over the sad record of Jew'ish history; the authentic accents of a Divine Person pierce through the veil of His humanity and here is God weeping with human eyes over tl~e pent-up sorrows of a human heart. Now I think we have the real meaning of the Sacred Heart devotion; it translates the Divine Nature into human terms for us. After all, we find it hard, don't we, to get God into our mind-picture? We cannot portray Him--His glory dazzles us; we are confused b~ the thought of the enormous gulf which lies between Him and creatures. We know that His Providence 197 CARDINAL CUSHING Review for Religious extends over all His works; He cares even for the sparrows, and yet. He is so great, and we are so small! Even our sins-- just an unkind word said about a neighbor, and we tell ourselves and we confess that we have offended God; think of the scale of the thing, our little lapse, and His infinite existence, put side by side! And then think of tl~e Sacred Heart, and all at once the whole thing becomes vivid, clear. Jesus Christ in heaven, taking an interest in our tiny needs, as He took an interest in many tiny needs on earth. Jesus Christ hurt by our sins, as He was hurt by so many slights and disappointments up and down the villages of Galilee. The echoes of our prayer no longer seem to die away in infinite distance; they strike a chord in the Sacred Heart, and become vocal to us, real to us. If critics object that we are too sentimental over our devo-tion in honor of the Sacred Heart, that we single out one partic-ular side of our Lord's character, represent Him too insistently in one particular attitude, one of mercy and tenderness and wel-come, let us remind them that it is these qualities in the Divine Nature which we find it most difficult to believe. Here, most of all, we need a diagram in flesh and blood to convince us. How can God, so upright a judge, be merciful? How can He, who is without passion, be tender to us? How can He, who has no need of human companionship, welcome us? It is these qualities, that we rejoice to see mirrored in the Sacred Heart. Our Sacred Heart statues and holy pictures represent our Lord in one particular attitude, as He revealed Himself to Sister Margaret Mary, an attitude of tender abasement, of mournful pleading with mankind. Again critics wonder. Is this your Christ, they ask, this weak, womanish figure, in a posture of sentimental appeal? Is your religion all sugary sweetness, all variations on a minor key? Has it stopped still with the seventeenth century; has it no mes-sage for today? And to that we answer, No, you have it all wrong. The Sacred Heart is the treasury of all those splendid qualities with which a perfect life was lived; it is the repository of 198 July, 1959 RESTORATION IN CHRIST all those noble thoughts which mankind still venerates in the Gospels'. It was the Sacred. Heart that burned with anger when the traders were driven out of the Temple; it was the Sacred Heart that loved the rich young man, yet would not spare him; it was the Sacred Heart that defied Pilate in his own judgment-hall. It is strong and stern and enduring; it hates prevarications and pretences. The perfect flowering of a human life, not on this occasion or that, but all the way, all the time, the utter sacrifice of a human will-- that is what the Sacred Heart means. There is no picture, no statue on earth that can portray its infinite beauty. The perfect flowering of our life at all times and in all ways; that should be the harvest of our devotion, dedication, and con-secration to the Sacred Heart. Religious, more than any other group of the followers of Christ, have the opportunity to reach that ideal. They have the available means and opportunity to answer the plea of the Sacred Heart for the return of human love for love divine. In the silent anonymity of your community life, you offer day by day the sacrifice of your personal independence and your natural yearning for recognition and human affection. If you live consist-ently with the ideals of your religious profession, you can truly say that you have left all things and have become so Christlike as to have produced the perfect flowering of your own life in the life of the Sacred Heart. Your vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience leave nothing for yourself. Through these vows, the essence of the religious life, you become one with God. How could you attain to a more perfect flowering of your life? Truth-fully you are called Sponsae Christi. In this capacity you can kneel each morning before the alkar on which the Sacrifice of Calvary is renewed and identify your love with the love of the Eternal Priest in humble and self-less fulfillment of the ideals of perfection which He Himself estab-lished in His earthly life. It is not without significance, therefore, that the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart in modern times owes its origin 199 CARDINAL CUSHING Review for Religious to the apparitions of our Blessed Lord not to some renowned scholar or churchman but to a lowly nun. St." Margaret Mary was one of yourselves. Her call to the religious life, her postu-lancy and novitiate, her profession of religious vows, her long years of obedience to her rule and prayerful cooperation with the wishes of her superiors--all these circumstances of her life have their counterparts in the life of each one of you, St. Margaret Mary also found the same difficulty which you experience in following up the inspirations of God's grace which come so mysteriously to those who are closely associated with apostolic works. Neither religious themselves, nor those who cooperate with them in realizing the objectives of their various communities, can ever understand completely the divine orienta-tion of the human impulses out of which the success of any reli-gious community is drawn. As we look back over the centuries at what happened be-tween 1673 and 1675 in a little French village, we can see clearly that the judgments of psychologists and the cautious reserve of theologians and canonists have all played their part in the spread of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of which St. Margaret Mary was destined to be the modern apostle. They could not under-stand sentimentalism of this kind for they did not recall that Christ was man as well as God, human as well as divine. What stands out unmistakably in her life is her humble and charitable forbearance in the face of adverse personal criticism and her unquestioning submission to the authority of the Church. That indeed is one of many phases of the perfect flowering of human life: the total sacrifice of one's will to the will of another. Her spiritual directors understood her and guided her with sympathy and encouragement; she followed their counsel and obeyed to the last detail their suggestions of hopeful expectancy of eventual approval, A soul which is illumined by divine grace, a will that is one with the will of God, is never stubborn or un-disciplined. Margaret Mary's own certainty of the truth of the revelations made to her brought likewise the conviction that God's 200 July, 1959 RESTORATION IN CHRIST plans would be realized in God's own way and in God's own time. She knew that she was but the instrument of the power and mercy \ of Him who had afforded her unquestionable evidence of His love. She knew that the Christ, who had revealed to her the richness of His own inner life, was also the Christ who had founded His Church and who had'sent His Holy Spirit to abide within it until the end of time. In this peaceful and undisturbed awareness of her own relation to Christ our Lord, she was content to suffer the disappointment and frustration that would be in-volved in the reconditioning of men's souls which the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart would bring about. When we look at Margaret Mary from this point of view, we see in her a great-ness of soul and a discerning penetration of divine wisdom which the humble circumstances in which she lived and died could never have revealed to those who knew her as a sister in religion and as a fellow human being. She is the messenger, the apostle of the devotion to the Sacred Heart because her heart gave all to the Heart of Christ. The beauty of her soul was the perfect flowering of life. And here, I think, is the great lesson which you, my beloved religious, can take to yourselves. In your life as religious you must share in the sorrows and sufferings which were glorified on the Cross. This is the meaning for you of the mystery of the Sacred Heart which was made known to the world by one of your number. How can that be accomplished? First of all, by self-immolation. To seek for oneself alone in religious life any measure of comfort or self-gratification is to substitute the prudence of the world for the prudence of the brides of God. As spouses of Christ, you must be faithful to your mystical espousal and marriage and accept cheerfully the burdens of community life and surrender yourselves without reservation to the demands which your respective congregations may make on you as they carry on their appointed apostolic works. Secondly, in your religious life you must resemble Christ in the mediating functions of His priesthood. The sacred humanity 201 CARDINAL CUSHING Review for Religious of Christ, symbolized in its ministrations of love by the Heart which was pierced with a lance, enable Christ to stand as a mediator between God and men. So too the religious, living in the world even while separated from it by the boundaries of her cloister, brings God into the lives of others as she carries on her varied works. The religious is thus in a very real sense a mediatrix between God and men. Those whom you serve are thereby raised from earth to heaven by the unselfish detachment with which you apply your-selves to works upon which material values may be set. Thus you are able to stand at Christ's side as His devoted helpers. Thus you are drawing men's souls to Christ as did Christ Him-self in His revelation of God's love for man in the visible form of His human nature. Thirdly, your principal objective as religious must always be to diffuse into the souls of others the love of Christ. How dismally we fail, even while we seem to be successful, if we have gained spectacular victories in ambitious undertakings at the cost oi: arousing bitterness and dissension among those with whom we live and work! In the companionship of your sisters in reli-gion, in your relations with your superiors, in the services which you render to your community, in your ministrations of charity and mercy to the faithful, you must always be a messenger of divine love and an inspiring example of the practice of Christian charity. I don't know of any othdr way in which we can respond to the appeal for love from the heart of Christ unless it would be to crystalize that response by fidelity to the spirit and letter of the Morning. Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer. This is more than a prayer formula, it is a way of life by which every act of the day becomes transformed into a prayerful tribute to the Sacred Heart. It is also the way of gpiritual child-hood for it sanctifies the ordinary things of life into extraordinary spiritual power and unites us to the sacrifice of the Mass through-out the world~ The Morning Offering is also the greatest means by which we can recognize the importance of each day in our lives. Each 202 July, 1959 RESTORATION IN CHRIST day is life in miniature. Today is unique; it has never happened before, it can never happen again. For one moment it is all-important, fills the.stage; tomorrow it will have taken its place in the unreal pageant of dead yesterdays. It has a significance, then, all its own; but this significance belongs to it because it is related to a series. We may think of it as the beginning of a series, the first day of a new departure in our lives. Or we may think of it as one day among others, with the same duties, cares, temptations as the others. Or we may think of it' as the last~ of a series; one today will be the last of all our todays, with eternity for its infinite tomorrow, and it may be this. Think of this day, for example, as the beginning of a new departure. How shall we begin? Not by any frantic efforts of our own; we will begin by listening to the voice of God: Hodie si vocem eius audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra. We speak to Him through ou.r spiritual exercises, and we unite ourselves with all the members of His Mystical Body throughout the world by today's offering of everything we do to Him. There is another use we may make of the magic word today. Instead of worrying about whether we shall ever commit our cus-tomary sins again, let us simply resolve not to commit them today. Dignare Dornine die isto sine peccato nos custodire; let us see if we can't cheat the devil, like some grasping creditor, by saying "Not just yet; not today." And let us ask simply for the grace which is needed to avoid those sins just in the sixteen hours that lie between bed-time and bed-time. Die isto, let us make today a holiday from our venial sins. This day without sin- we will avoid, His grace helping us, those little daily repeated irreverences by which we offend Him. This day without sin- we will especially avoid sinning against ourselves, by the wrong use of God's creatures. And we will avoid sinning against our neighbors. We know the sisters we have to live with, the little t~aults ot~ manner and behavior .which get on our nerves, all the more surely because they are repeated day by day. This day, with this gladness in our hearts, we will 203 CARDINAL CUSHING greet them with a cheerfulness which is infectious, which lightens their burden as well as our own. A smile at all times- how much difference that can make to life's tragedies! Today, sanctified and enriched by the Morning Offering, becomes like a sacrament from which we can derive not only an inspiration for the future, the future that may be so different if we will use today aright; not only a warning for the present, to make us avoid this day the temptations that every day beset us, but an attitude, also, towards the past, an attitude of abiding penitence and reparation. Let us remember our sins each day, as if we had no more space left for sinning; let us repent for them, as this were our last opportunity of contrition. And He, who re-turned to heaven with the penitent thief for His escort, will shorten our purgatory and hasten to unite us with Himself. Hodie vocem audieritis ~ it can never be too early to begin our conver-sion. Hodie eris mecum in paradiso ~ thank God, it can never be too late. Our renewed consecration today to the Sacred Heart gives evideace of our appreciation of the tremendous potential which you have at your disposal for the restoration of all things in Christ. We consecrate you anew to the Sacred Heart because you belong to Christ, because you are one with Christ, and because your efforts are so powerful and so indispensable for the realization of His divine mission. Let me become the spokesman for each one of you as I repeat the words of consecration which St. Mar-garet Mary formulated as she gave expression to her own consum-ing love ot: Christ her Lord: I consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being save to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart . Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will. Let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart that I shall never more be able to forget Thee or~to be separated from Thee. May I obtain the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happi-ness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee. Amen. 204 The AAariology of Pope Plus XII John A. Hardon, S.J. IT IS EASY to write on Pope Pius XII and the Blessed Virgin Mary because there is so much to say. We might recall how as a young boy in Rome he would stop every day to visit the shrine of Madonna della Strada at the Church of the Gesu where, as he told his mogher, "I pray and tell Mary everything." Or we might reflect on his life-long devotion to the rosary, his frequent sermons on our Lady, his constant reference to her in his writings or, in summary, his own testimony shortly after election to the papacy, that "our priestly life began with Mary and has always been directed under her motherly eye." In all this profusion of Marian piety, one aspect may be overlooked. Pius XII made a substantial contribution to the science of Mariology, a contribution concerning which, no doubt, volumes will be written in the years to come. We shall examine only the highlights of a large subject, whose implications have an important bearing on the whole body of Christian asceticism. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary On November i, 1950, Pius XII answered the requests of the Catholic hierarchy with a solemn definition that, "by the authority.of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by Our own authority, We pronounce, declare and define as a divinely revealed dogma: The Immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, after her life on earth, was assumed body and soul to the glory of heaven." The spontaneous reaction of the faithful was gratitude for the exalted honor paid to the Mother of God. The Pope's own sentiments were expressed to the bishops gathered in Rome for the occasion, when he told them the joy he felt over the proclamation and the assurance it gave him that Mary would obtain the graces of which mankind stood in such dire need. On the level of piety and devotion, therefore, Mary's Assumption was only the climax in a series of definitiong 205 JOHN A. HARDON Review for Religious to honor the Blessed Virgin, beginning with the divine maternity at Ephesus and terminating in the past century with her Immaculate Conception. But dogmatically the constitution Munificentissimus Deus has a much deeper significance that de-serves to be recognized. Shortly before the actual definition but after its public an-nouncement, the Anglican bishops of England lodged a formal protest against the "new" dogma. "We profoundly regret," they said, "that the Roman Catholic Church has chosen by this action to increase dogmatic differences in Christendom and has thereby gravely injured the growth of understanding between Christians based on a common possession of the fundamental truths of the Gospel." The Anglican complaint was not a wild gesture. It exposed their radical opposition to the Church's authority over Christian doctrine, which I believe many Catholics ~do not fully appreciate. Pope Pius defined Mary's Assumption as a truth divinely revealed. Of the two sources of revelation, theologians com-monly say the Assumption was implicit in tradition, in spite of the practical absence of documentary evidence before 300 A.D. Some years before the definition, a scholarly work was published under Vatican auspices on The Silence of the Early Centuries on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The author frankly admitted that except for apocryphal sources we have no explicit witness in the early patristic age. Yet the Pope finally declared the doctrine was in revelation. How do we know? On the answer to this question rests a new insight into Christian tradi-tion which had been gaining momentum since the eighteenth century. Briefly stated, tradition is coming to be identified more and more with the Church's magisterium or teaching office and less exclusively as the genetic source, along with Scripture, of the truths of salvation. Behind this new emphasis is a development of dogma since the Council of Trent which reveals hidden depths of power in the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church is being seen more clearly as not only the guardian of a faith once and for 206 July, 1959 MARIOLOGY OF PIUS XII all given-to the Apos.tles, but as perpetual expositor of that faith in every age to the end of time. In August of the same year that he defined the Assumption, the Pope laid down the principles~ which guided the Marian defini-tion. The Church's teaching authority, he said in Humani generis, is not confined to reflecting or consolidating the past. It is also, ~nd especially, the vital, presetit-day function of an organism animated by the Spirit of God: "Together with the sources of revelation (Scripture:and tradition) God has given to His Church a living magisterium to elucidate and explain what is contained in the deposit of faith only obscurely :and, as it were, by implication," The degree of obscurity, we may add, is irrelevant. Given this faculty by her 0~:ounder, whose" Spirit of truth abides with her at all times, the Church can infallibly discern what belongs to revela-tion no matter how cryptic the contents may be. Consequently whenl Pius XII defined the Assumption, he did more than propose the doctrine for acceptance by the faith-ful or give them a new motive for devotion to the Blessed Mother. He vindicated as never before the Church's i~ower to authorize a legitimate development in doctrine .and pii~ty that scandalizes those outside the true faith and may even surprise b~elieving Catholics. The Assumption thus becomes part Of a'larger process, along with Catholic Action, the litui:gical movement and even such practical matters as the mitigated Eucharistic fast, in which the current problems of the Church and the present needs of souls are being met by the Holy Spirit: It was no coincidence that on the day following the Assump-tion d~finition the Pope expressed, the hope that this new honor to Mary would intrbduce "a spirit of penance to replace the' prevalent love of pleasure, and a renewal of family lifE, stabilized where divorce was common and made fruitful where birth control was practiced." If there is one feature that characterizes the modern world it is 'the cult of the body. Science and ingenuity exhaust themselves in providing for bodily comforts, avoidance of pain, and the.pampering of every sensual desire. Divorce and 207 JOHN A. HARDON Review for Religious birth control, lurid reading and entertainment are only symptoms of a deeper malady for which revelation provides at least one Certain remedy: faith in the resurrection of the body, for us on the last day as for Mary on the day of her departure from this life. Since the body is made to be immortal, it is infinitely im-portant to provide for its eternal happiness by discipline and sell control--because the alternative is also bodily immortality, but in hell, as the price of earthly pleasure against the will of God. The Immaculate Conception Three years after defining the dogma of the Assumption, Pius XII Called on the Catholic world to join in the observance of a Marian Year from December, 1953, to December, 1954, to commemorate the centenary of Pius IX's definition of the Immaculate Conception. He introduced the Marian Year with the encyclical Fulgens corona, whose doctrinal content went far beyopd the immediate purpose of proclaiming a season of special prayers to the Mother of God. According to the late Pontiff,. the Assumption was a conse-quence of the Immaculate Conception, not merely in the super-ficial sense of something suitable, but in the. strict logic of supernatural merit and providence. "These two singular privi-leges bestowed upon the Mother of God stand out in most splendid light as the beginning and the end of her earthly journey. ,For the greatest possible glorification of her virgin body is the comple-ment, at once appropriate and marvelous, of the absolute inno-cence of her soul which was free from all stain. Just as she took part in the struggle of her only-begotten Son with the serpent of hell, so also she shared in His glorious triumph over sin and its sad consequences." This correlation between the two mysteries has a long and respected theological history, which other statements of Pius XII indicate that he knew very well. Addressing the National Eucha-ristic Congress of Cuba in 1947, he acknowledged the petition which the Cubans 'had sent to the Holy See relative to Mary's 208 July, 1959 MARIOLOGY OF PIUS XlI Assumption. "This mystery must certainly be true, according to the mind of him who has rightly been called the Doctor Eximius, who teaches that this privilege is most eminently congruent with the innocence and purity of the Virgin Mary." The Doctor Eximius was Francis Suarez, the sixteenth-century theologian. whose Disputations on the Blessed Mother are the most exhaustive in classic Mariology. Again in the actual document of definition, the Pope referred to Suarez's conclusion that "the mystery of the Assumption was to be believed with the same firmness of assent as that given to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Thus he already held that such truths could be defined." How are the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption related in Suarez, and by implication in Pius XII? Their rela-tion arises from the subtle but necessary connection between sin and its consequences in the after-life. The souls of the just in heaven, says Suarez, still desire and seek the glorification of their bodies. To the extent to which this is lacking to them, they are deprived of the perfection of beatitude, even though only in accidentals. When the soul of Mary, therefore, was separated t~rom her body, this hunger and desire for "the perfect perfection" were not absent. Being always full of grace, she had a title to perfect glory on leaving this world. And what Mary desired, she must immediately have obtained, in virtue of her exalted position and "by a mother's right." Therefore just as during her stay on earth she had never contracted the least stain ofsin, so after this life she was freed from every corruption and sequel that are the wages of sin. Her body was not to decay, nor was she to wait until the last day, as others who are sinners, to rise with her body from the grave. In the same document, Fulgens corona, the Pope made an-other association, this time a historical one, and not between the first and final mysteries in the life of the Blessed Virgin but be-tween the Immaculate Conception and the supernatural phe-nomena at Lourdes. In his judgment, "the Virgin 1QIary herself wished to confirm by some special sign the definition which the 209 JOH~ A. HARDON Review for Religious Vicar of Christ her divine Son on earth had pronounced amid the applause of the whole Church. Four years had not yet elapsed ¯ ~hen, in the French town at the foot of the Pyrenees, the Virgin Mother showed herself to a simple and innocent girl at the grotto of Messabielle, And to this same girl, earnestly inquiring the name of her with whose vision she was favored, with eyes raised to heaven and sweetly smiling, she replied, 'I am the Immaculate Conception.' " Following the original visions, thousands of peo-ple from every country in the world have made pilgrimages'to Lourdes, where "miraculous favors were granted them, which excited the admiration of all and confirmed the Catholic religion as the only one given approval by God." This judgment is highly significant. In the last analysis, a Catholic wants to prove that no other religion than his own is from God, he must invoke some principle by which any religious system can be tested and its divine authorization verified. Such a principle is the norm of miracles, which even the unlettered primitive can understand. It says simply that when God com-municates a revelation (as claimed in some form by every organ-ized religion), He will confirm the mysteries He reveals and make them rationally acceptable by working miracles in favor of the truths that He wants believed. Or put negatively, He will not work miracles in support of a pretended revelation because, as master of the miraculous, He would be actively cooperating in a lie. In the context of the Lourdes apparitions and the constant stream of preternatural wonders there granted by God, this means that what Lourdes stands for is perennially attested as true. The Immaculate Conception is a strict mystery, not even conceivable apart from revelation. Miracles are visible signs of divine inter-vention that lead the well-disposed to believe (or strengthen their belief) in what cannot be seen, on the argument that the same agency which produces the phenomena also revealed the doc-trine in whose atmosphere the phenomena take place. 210 July, 1959 MARIOLOGY OF P~us XII Mediatrix of Graces . The !ast element in the triad of Marian privileges to which Pius XII made a lasting theological contribution is Mary's role as universal mediatrix of graces. On the fourth anniversary of the Assumption dogma and in closing the Marian Year, the Pope instituted a new feast of the Queenship of Mary, for May 31, and in the encyclical Ad caeli Reginam elaborated on the basic principles that underlay Mary's royalty, namely, her unique posi-tion as liaison between Christ and the humar~ race. An examination of the teaching of the fathers of the Church since the rime'of Origen, Ephrem, and St. Jerome shows a prac-tical unanimity in regarding the mother of Jesus as sharing with Him, albeit subordinately, a truly royal dignity~. Ephrem called her "Empress and Ruler"; Origen, "Mistress and Queen"; the seventh ecumenical council spoke of her as "the Lady ruler ~of all Christians"; and in modern times, Benedict XIV gave her the title "Queen of heaven and earth." The ancient tradition is re-flected in the liturgy of the East which poetically addresses Mary as "carried into heaven on the. chariots of the cherubim, the seraphim wait upon thee and the ranks of the heavenly host bow before thee." Familiar hymns like the Salve Regina and prayers like the Litany of Loretto confirm the sentiments of Christian art since the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) which "portrays Mary as Queen and Empress seated upon a royal throne, adorned with the royal insignia, crowned with the royal diadem and surrounded by the host of angels and saints in heaven and ruling not only nature and its powers but also over the machinations of Satan." However, more important than the evidence of its traditional character is the dogmatic basis for Mary's queenship which the late Pontiff traced to her divine maternity and her association with Christ in the redemption .of the world. The Pope synthesized in bold analogy the Catholic doctrine which some theo.logians con-sider definable. The Blessed Virgin has not only received the grade of excellence and perfection which is supreme after that of Christ Himself but has also received some sharing 'of that et~icacy by which her Son and our 211 JOHN A. HARDON Review for Religious Redeemer is rightly and properly said to reign over the minds and wills of men. For if the word of God performs miracles and gives graces through the humanity He has assumed, if He employs the sacra-ments and His saints as instruments for the salvation oi~ souls, why should He not use His mother's office and efforts to bring us the fruits of the Redemption? We may transmit the comparison between Mary's intercessory power and that of other saints. Certainly if they can pray in our behalf and obtain favors we should not otherwise receive, how much more the Queen of Saints and the Mother of the Author of grace. The remarkable thing is to associate the Blessed Virgin's share in our Redemption with the humanity of her divine Son and to compare its efficacy with the function of the sacramental system. Both analogies are penetrating concepts. By relating Mary's role of mediatrix to the human nature of Christ, the Pope wished to emphasize what even Catholics are liable to forget, that while God can perform by His own power all that is effected by created natures, yet in the counsels of His providence He has preferred to help men by the instrumentality of other men- whose efficacy for sanctifying others depends on their proximity to the human nature assumed by the Son of God. Viewed in this light, the potentiality of the Blessed Virgin as an instrument of grace takes on staggering proportions. As the woman whose consent mad~ the Incarnation possible, who carried in her womb and brought into the world the Word made flesh, and whose association with Christ during His life and sympathy in death were the most intimate conceivable- her efficacy at the throne of God must be, without fear of exaggeration, "almost immeasurable in power." If we compare Mary's mddiation with the sacraments of the New Law, we gain a further insight into her place in the economy' of salvation. We know that on the level of sanctification nothing is more internal than heavenly 'grace which begets holiness; and yet the ordinary and chief means of obtaining grace are external, in the form of sacraments administered by men specially chosen for that purpose and by means of external rites. In baptism 212 July, 1959 MARIOLOGY OF PIUS XII there is pouring of water; in confirmation and extreme unction, anointing with oil; in orders, the imposition of hands; in matri-mony, the expressed acceptance by the two spouses; and in pen-ance, the vocal and visible absolution by the priest. All these actions are external and their agents are all human, but condi-tioned on their performance in the spirit of faith, such trans-cendent changes occur in the spiritual world as the removal of a life[ime of sin by a sign of the cross and the conversion of a piece of bread into the Body of Christ. ' The more clearly we see ho.w the Blessed. Virgin shares in this type of sacramental effciency, the less scandalized we shall be to say that "as God is the Father and Lord of the universe, preparing all by His power, so the Blessed Mary, repairing all things by her merits, is the ruler and mother of all." While re-maining subordinate to her Son as a creature to her Creator, she was instituted by Him on the cross as the great sacrament of His mercy and the visible sign of internal grace which He promised to those who, like Plus XII, "approach with confidence to the throne of our Queen and Mother to beg help in difficulty, light in dark-ness, and solace in trouble and sorrow." 213 Practice ot: t:he Noly See ,Joseph F. ~llen, S.,.J. CANON 509, § 1, obliges all superiors to inform their sub-jects of all decrees of the ~Holy See concerning religious and to enforce such decrees. The activity and mind and will of the Holy See are also revealed, and sometimes in a more practical manner, by approved constitutions and com-munications addressed to individual religious institutes. article drawn from these sources was published in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS in 1953. This article is based on the same sources concerning lay institutes ~ from January 1, 1954. The order of material followed in the article is the usual order the chapters of constitutions of lay institutes. This is the third part of a series of three. 14. Dismissal. It is canonically interesting that the con-stitutions of an order of women, who recently received permis-sion to resume solemn vows, contain the following article: "A professed of either perpetual simple vows or of solemn vows who is dismissed from the institute is by this very fact dispensed from her vows of religion.''3° 1 5. The general chapter. (a) Convocation and members. A most interesting fact canonically is the appearance of a procuratrix general to handle the affairs of a pontifical congre-gation of women with the Holy See. The article in a set of constitutions recently approved by the Holy See reads as follows: "The procuratrix general resides in Rome and transmits the affairs of the congregation to the Roman Curia according to the intentions and directions of the institute. The procuratrix general has the right to attend the general chapter and to give her suffrage.''31 (b) Invitation of non-capitulars to the general chapter. Several constitutions of recent date empower the IBM., 16-1957-282. Ibid., 16-1957-114-16. 214 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE superior general, either alone or with the advice or consent his or her council, to summon or invite the following non-capitulars to the general chapter: one or more religious ot: the same institute to .assist the secretary of the chapter as steno-graphers, other religious of the same institute to any session, and a priest or lay person to present and discuss a question of interest to the capitulars. It is evident that none of these are permitted to vote and that all such religious of the same institute are obliged to secrecy in the same manner as the capitulars. It seems prudent to add the observation that the capitulars should have sufficient time for discussion of a matter after such a consultant has left, since often they would at least hesitate to express their opinions fully before such a person, particularly if he or she is not a member of the same institute. I have seen such provisions only in recent constitutions; but some of them, for example, that on the stenographers, have been followed in fact by some institutes. Unless expressly forbidden by the particular constitutions, these ~. provisions may be followed by any institute, since they are not contrary to canon law and are entirely reasonable in themselves. In any revision of the constitutions, art institute should consider ar~ article of the following tenor: The superior general (or with the advice or consent of his or her council) may summon other religious to assist in the clerical or similar work of the chapter. He may also summon such religious and even invite an extem for consultation or to present and discuss questions with the chapter. None of these are permitted to vote, and all such religious have the same obligation as the capitulars to secrecy. (c) Delegates. i° Necessity of delegates. The Holy See de-mands a system of delegates for the general and provincial chapters and does not permit in centralized institutes what we may style a universal chapter, for example, that all the religious pf perpetual vows be members of the general or provincial chapter. This necessity was repeated in a recent reply to a quinquennial report. A system of delegates is also necessary 215 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious now for the general and regional chapters of nuns. The neces-sity of delegates was emphasized in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 10-1951-187-90. The elected delegates from a province to the general chapter are almost universally two, most rarely three or four. The Holy See has approved, eoen recently, variations of this norm, for example, "one or two delegates according as the province has less or more than a hundred members"; "one delegate for each province but two delegates for any province that exceeds three hundred." 2° Added delegates from larger houses. It has been practically universal that a larger house elected only one delegate, no matter l~ow many religious of active voice it contained. Added delegates were very rarely admitted, for example, one delegate for every twelve religious. There has been a greater willingness on the, part of the Holy See in recent years to permit such added delegates. However, one of the defects of the house system is that it puts a large and unwieldy number in the general or provincial chapter as the institute increases in size. This difficulty is evidently intensified by the system of added dele-gates. Furthermore, proportional representation is not de-manded. The business of a general chapter is not the interests or the affairs of a particular house or province but only those of the institute as a whole. The same principle is true of the provincial chapter. 3° New systems. A fundamental variation of the group system recently approved by the Holy See is as follows. A first list is made of all local superiors and a second of all the subjects with passive voice. The latter are arranged in groups according to horizontal precedence, that is, each group has a proportionate number of older and younger re-ligious~ Copies of the two lists are sent to every religious with. active voice. Each of these votes for a determined number of local superiors and a determined number of subjects from each group of the second list. Those with the next highest number of votes are the substitutes. Therefore, every such religious votes for all the local superiors and subjects who will 216 July, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE be members of the general or provincial chapter. The system may be further varied by sending out the list of superiors first and including in the second list all local SUl~eriors not elected in the first election. The following is an example of another new system, which has been approved for at least two institutes by the Holy See. The superiors of all houses of at least twelve religious are members of the general chapter in virtue of their office. The number of delegates from the houses is apparently established by the superior general with the consent of his council. Let us suppose that twenty is the established number. Each religious Who has active voice votes for twenty delegates from the entire institute. A graduated value is given to this vote: for example, if Brother Francis is the first name voted for, he receives twenty points; Brother Robert, the last name on the same ballot, receives one point. Or the relative value can be computed as one and one-twentieth. The votes are necessarily sent in to the general council, and thus a relative majority decides the elections. Those with the next highest number of votes are the substitutes. One objection to this system is the complicated computation of the votes. Some have objected also to the fact that the local superiors are members of the chapter in virtue of their office and to the power of varying the number of delegates from the houses. Another institute proposed the same system to the Holy See; but the number of delegates, twenty, was fixed by the constitutions, no local superior was a member of the chapter in virtue of his office, the delegates could be either local superiors or subjects, and the same value was given to a vote for a religious no matter in what place his name was found on the individual ballot. The Holy See approved this proposed text with two exceptions, the number of delegates was reduced to fifteen, and the local superiors of houses of at least'twenty subjects were made ex officio members of the general chapter. (d) Preliminary sessions. Some recent constitutions, as also several approved in the past, command the superior general to give the general chapter a 217 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious copy also of the last quinquennial report ~o the Holy See. (e) Postulation of superior general. The Holy See admitted the postulation of a mother gerieral for a third successivd six-year term but expressly excluded further postulation of the same religious. (f) Election of the general officials. 1° Election or appointment of the secretary general and bursar general. In a fairly recent communication to one institute, the Sacred Congregation stated that these two officials should be ex officio members of the general chapter because of their general knowledge of the institute. The validity of this reason is evident. .~It could be well appliedto some other offices, for example, the general supervisor of schools and studies. If elected, these two officials uniformly have such membership. The Holy See, also in recent years, has sometimes approved the appointment of either or both of these officials by the superior general with the consent of his council, in some cases with and in others without ex officio membership in the "general chapter. I personally doubt that a general chapter is a good judge ~f the specialized abilities demanded by these offices~32 It seems to me that the preferable policy is to appoint both of these officials with ex officio membership in the general chapter. 2° Incompatible offices. In the Former practice of the Holy See, one of the general councilors, except the first, could be elected also as secretary general; but the bursar general could not be a general councilor. Constitutions that contain this provision must evidently be observed. In constitutions more recently approved, the Sacred Congregation permits any of the councilors except the first to be also either secretary, or bursar general. One institute received an indult permitting the first councilor, or assistant general, to be also bursar general, provided that no inefficiency resulted to the first office. (g) Chapter of affairs. 1° Committees. An article of the following type is more efficient than the one usually found in constitu-tions: "At least two .weeks before the opening of the chapter, 32 Ibid., 10-1951-190-91. 218 July, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE a committee of three or more chapter delegates, appointed by the mother general in consultation with her council, shall examine and prepare for the chapter all the matters submitted by the hohses for which the decision of the chapter is necessary. This committee shall classify all questions submitted and present them to the general chapter for action." 2° Public voting. The general norm of public rather than secret voting in this chapter is also more efficient and is contained in some recent constitu-tions, for example, "The business of the chapter will be settled by the majority of votes, by secret ballot if the majority of the chapter requests it." 3° Duration of ordinances of general chapter. The following norm of a set of constitutions recently approved is more reasonable than the one commonly found in constitutions: "The decisions and enactments of the general chapter remain in effect permanently unless amended or rescinded by subsequent chapters." 4° Duration of ordinances of a ,superior. At least two recent sets of constitutions state: "Every order gi~,en by a superior ceases to. bind on the expira-tion of his term of office." This should have been qualified. As Van Hove well states: "Many ordinances enacted from dominative power continue to exist on the cessation from office of the superior who established them, because they are im-plicitly renewed by his successor, who is presumed to intend that the customary order in a community continue to be observed until he changes it.''33 16. The superior general. The quinquennial report. The only article in this chapter of the constitutions that needs com-ment is that on the quinquennial report to the Holy See. Every religious institute is now obliged to make this report, for example, independent monasteries, independent houses, and diocesan congregations of men and women are also held to the report.34 The following comments were i:ound in the replies of the Sacred Congregation to several reports. Whenever a Van Hove, .De Leglbus Ecclesiasticis, I, n. 359, note 4; cf. Jone, Commen. tarium in Codicem Iuris Canonici, I, 46. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 15-1956-156~57. 219 JOSEPH F. GALLEIq Review for Religious pontifical document is mentioned, its date and protocol number should be given, for example, March 19, 1955, Prot. N. 6097/54. Each house should have a book of chronicles in which the principal events of the house are recorded and should also have its own files and archives. The acts of the general chapter, that is, the elections made and the ordinances enacted, not the minutes, should be sent to the Sacred Congregation by pontifical institutes. The following question also caused difficulty: "How do superiors see to it that the decrees of the Holy See which concern religious be known and observed by their own subjects?" This obligation is incumbent on all superiors by the prescription of canon 509, ~ 1. The Sacred Congregation was dissatisfied with many replies to this question. It seems to me that the answer was easy with regard to knowledge, i. e., all houses subscribe to the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, in which such documents are explained, and all houses have the fol-lowing work, in which the text of such documents is given in Eng-lish, Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest, I-IV (The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee). Circular letters of higher superiors should call the attention of their subjects to such documents and insist their observance. Their enforcement should also be part of the ordi-nary government of all superiors, should be included in the reports of lower to higher superiors, and be investigated and insisted on in the canonical visitations of higher superiors. Since the Sacred Congregation insists even on local archives, it seems to me that a religious institute should always be given the original rescript from the Holy See that concerns it or at least a photographic copy of such a rescript, and not a mere summary in English of the contents of the rescript. The names of the prefects and officials of the Roman congregations who sign rescripts are often most inaccurately stated and trans-lated into English by lay religious. This is true of the name, the title, and the office. These mistakes are frequently quite public, for example, on the documents appended to the con-stitutions. Those who transmit rescripts should translate these 220 July, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE names into English for .lay religious. An indecipherable signa-ture can usually be. determined by cgnsulting the Annuario Pontificio. It would help if the signature were fully typed out on the original document below the written signature. 17. The general council. (a) Superior alone governs. Many constitutions, old and new, contain an article of the following tenor: "The congregation shall be governed by a superior general and four councilors." This is an error. The superior alone governs an institute, a province, or a house. The councilors are not associates in authority but advisers. Therefore, such an article should be more accurately phrased, as in the following recently approved constitutions: "Although the superior general must ask the opinion of the general council in matters of greater importance and must sometimes secure its consent, nevertheless, she issues all ordinances in her own name because she alone possesses the right to govern the congregation." (b) List of what a superior may do without the advice or consent of his council. Several constitutions, even some recently approved, contain such a list. This seems to me to be entirely superfluous. It is immediately evident that a superior has the right to govern completely unassisted except for the matters reserved by canon law or the constitutions to higher authorities or that from the same sources demand the con-sent or advice of his council. 18. The secretary general. Many constitutions keep repeat-ing, especially of the secretary, secondlyof the bursar, and lastly of the novice master, that he has no right to vote in a general or provincial council unless he is also a councilor. Isn't this evident? Are we vdry likely to affirm that anyone has the rights of an office that he does not possess? 19. The bursar general. Even recent constitutions continue to speak of a safe locked by three different keys in general-ates, provincialates, and local houses. One of those keys is to be kept by the superior, the second by the assistant, the third by the bursar. All three must therefore be present to open the 221 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious safe. How efficient is such a safe? How possible is it even buy such a safe? Religious institutes continue also to put determined sums in their constitutions, for example, the amount in extra-ordinary expenses for which recourse is necessary to the superior general. The changing of such an amount is a change of the constitutions and will demand the permission of the Holy See for a pontifical institute and that of all the ordinaries in whose dioceses the.institute has houses in the case of' a diocesan con-gregation. It would be sufficient and more practical to say, "according to the norms established by the general chapter." Such amdhnts may then be changed by any subsequent chap-ter. A recent set of constitutions enacts: "In the houses en-trusted with parish schools or other establishments which are responsible to ecclesiastical or lay administrations and where the sisters receive a fixed salary, the funds shall be .kept and admin-istered as indicated in article . ., except that any surplus shall be paid annually into the provincial fund." This matter was explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 14-1955-329. The article on alienation no longer contains the 30,000 t~rancs or lire, or $6,000, of canon 534, § 1 but is phrased, "of a value that exceeds the sum established by the Holy See." 20. Local houses and superiors. A recent set of constitu-tions states: "Though the sisters ought to be desirous of embrac-ing all human misery and of drawing the whole world to the service of God, nevertheless, the congregation shall not establish new houses if, in those already existing, there is not a sufficient number of sisters to insure that not only the works of mercy can be carried out adequately but also that religious observance can flourish." The last clause might well have been amended to: that religious observance and a normal human life can flourish. This very practical matter was commented on in the REVIEW FOR RE~LIGIOUS, 17-1958-121-22. Canon 516, § 1 demands that councilors be had in every formal house and favors or recommends councilors also in smaller houses, In several replies to quinquennial reports, the Sacred Congregation insisted on 222 July, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE the appointment of local councilors and that local council meet-ings be held with the frequency commanded by the constitu-tions. Insistence was also placed on the law that a local superior should not be the local bursar except in a case of necessity (c. 516~ § 3). A recent set of constitutions makes the prac-tical and necessary observation that everything said about local superiors applies also to the local superior of the 'mother house. The presence of a higher superior does not diminish the author-ity nor lessen the duties of this local superior. One order of nuns and two congregations of sisters have indults that dispense them from the law of canon '1306,§ 2, that is, that purificators, palls, and corporals used in the sacrifice of the Mass must be first washed by a cleric in major orders.3~ 21. The constitutions. The only thing noteworthy under this chapter in the present practice of the Holy See is a fre-quent addition to the norm on the obligation of the constitu-tions. It has always been evident that a divine or ecclesiastical law repeated in the constitutions retains the obligation it has in itself, that is, it obliges under sin according to the matter. The same obligation is equally evident of any action that falls under the vows. It has been the universal practice to declare that the other articles of the constitutions did not immediately oblige under sin but under the penalty imposed for their infraction. It was also universally stated that sin was committed in the violation of such articles by a sinful motive or by a violation that caused scandal. The following qualification is now fre-quently appended to the norm for these other articles: "The articles concerning government and the fundamental norms that determine the necessary functions or the duties and offices by which government is exercised, as also the articles that enact and consecrate the nature, spirit, and special purpose of the congr.egation oblige immediately in conscience according to the matter." This qualification is evidently taken verbatim from Ibid., 15-1956-101. 223 JOSEPH F. (~ALLEN Muzzarelli, Acta et Documenta Congressus Generalis de Statibus Perfectionis, I, 540. It does not seem to me to be too clear nor too precise. It "should be added here that a considerable number of both pontifical and diocesan congregations have made a general revision of their constitutions in recent years. 224 A Lit:e Table t:or. Religious Priest:s 1953-1957 Francis C. Madigan, S.J. THE JANUARY 1955 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS carried an article by Sister Josephina, c.s.J., on the average age at death of sisters in two communities of religious women, presumably of her own congregatmn1 . In view of the interest of religious, and particularly of religious superiors, in Sister Josephina's stat", s"tLcs, the writer believes that readers of the REVIEW will be equally interested in a life table setting forth the mortality experience of a large community of religious priests2 whose headquarters are located in New York City and whose principal field of operations embraces New York State ¯ and northeastern New Jersey.3 Some comments on life tables and their use are in order. First of all, they are based not on death records only, but on the proportion of deceased members to living members, for each age gr6up and calendar year studied. The present table gives average figures t:or the calendar years 1953-1957. Secondly, life tables are an accurate barometer of health conditions prevailing in the particular group to which they relate. They permit direct and unbiased comparisons of the mortality of this group with that of other groups through the mortality rates and expectations of life developed in the tables. Superiors of similar groups of priests should find these mortality rates and expectations of life helpful in coming to decisions about the number of men that must be prepared to keep certain lines of work adequately staffed. The table will also prove useful in determining whether health conditions in 1Sister Josephina, C.S.J., "Longevity of Religious Women," Review [or Religious, XIV, I (January, 1955), 29-30. 2Priest was defined for the purpose of the study to mean. both ordained priests, and religious seminarians ("scholastics") studying for the priesthood. 3There were 1247 priests in this community on June 30, 1955, which was the midpoint of the study. The main work engaged in by the members is education. 225 FRANCIS C. MADIGAN Review for Religious their community are satisfactory both in general and in regard to any particular age group. Some time ago through the use of such a table the superiors of a certain religious community found that the number of deaths yearly experienced in their scholasticate was entirely out of line with expectations, and upon investigation they found that certain health measures relating to diet and housing were being overlooked. Correction of the situation resulted in an immediate lowering of the death rates for the affected age groups. The table may also be of assistance to superiors, in another way. Of late a number of communities have been consider-ing or have actually bought group insurance for their members. The mortality rates and expectations of life in the table should prove helpful both to these communities and to insurance companies in determining what is a fair premium. The use of the table is simple. In the leftmost colunm one finds the age in which he is interested. Following this age across .its row, he comes first to the mortality rates. These are given for both five-year and one-year periods, and for the five-year periods, in terms of both observed and graduated rates. The observed rates are placed next to the age beginning the precise period to which they refer, as are the one-year graduated rates. The graduated five-year rates are placed in parentheses two lines below the observed rates and refer to precisely the same period of time as the observed rates. These mortality rates are probabilities of dying during the period 'specified for those priests who were alive on the birthday mark-ing the beginning of the period. In using the table to compare the probabilities of dying at any particular ages, it is better to use the graduated rather than the observed rates. This is because the latter rates con-tain fluctuations from age to age due to chance variation, whereas the former represent, as closely as can be determined by study, the general law of mortality, which seems to underlie the observed fluctuations of a particular set of rates. A priori we would expect mortality to follow a smoothly rising curve 226 July, 1959 A LIFE TABLE with the advance of age, and graduation is based on this expectation, while at the same time it attempts to keep very close to the original rates observed at each age. For example, if the age-specific mortality rates observed during the period 1953-1957 should continue in effect, we would expect an average oi~ 5.5 priests to die (on the basis of the graduated rates) before their fortieth birthday, out ot~ every thousand priests alive on their thirty-fifth birthday. However, in the general public we would expect thirteen out of every thousand to die during the same period.4 During the one-year period from their thirty-fifth to their thirty-sixth birthday, we would expect only one priest to die out of every thousand. The reference, of course, is only to priests of the community studied. How might a superior compare the experience of his own community with that of the priests described? He could do this by relating the number of deaths at any particular age in a calendar year to the number of persons in his community who had been of that precise age on their last birthday. Divid-ing the i~ormer by the latter would give the one-year probability of dying. Similarly, he could find the five-year probabilities of dying by relating members who had died within a specific five-year age bracket in the calendar year to the number of members of his community who were between these ages at the start ot~ the year. Rough approximations could be used if only ~ general picture of the mortality rates of the community is ~lesired, while more careful methods might be employed to nvestigate the records of age-groups which seem to have un- _~sually high mortality. Of course, unusually high mortality rates for a particular ~-ge-group may represent simply fluctuations due to chance. ~,ccordingly, it is well to combine the results of the observation ,f several calendar years, as these average rates will show fewer --xtremes due to mere sampling variation. It would not be 4The comparison is not perfect since the rates of the general public are "or 1954, rather than 1955 which is the mid-year of the period studied for ¯ riests. However, it is close enough to make differences inconsequential. 227 FRANCIS C. 1V[ADIGAN Review for Religious wise, however, to average more than ten years' experience be-cause of the change in medical techniques that takes place over that length of time. These affect the death rates. The column next after the white male mortality rates fifth column) shows the number of priests who survive to each quinquennial birthday out of 100,000 priests alive on, their fifteenth birthday. By mentally shifting the decimal point, can be converted into the number left alive out of 100. (Multi-plying by the proper multiple would give the number left out of 200, 300, 400, and similar numbers.) This column might prove helpt~ul to superiors in endeavoring to forecast size of a certain age group some years from the present. For example, one might get some idea from it of the number priests ordained today who would be expected to be still alive in twenty or thirty years, if we assume that these priests roughly of the same age. The following column (sixth), which gives the number of priests dying in each successive five-interval out of the original group of 100,000, might also prove helpful in this connection. The seventh column will probably not be particularly use-ful to superiors or other interested religious. It is included because of its relation to the following column. This seventh column presents the remaining total number of years of to be lived by the surviving members of the original 100,000 priests up to the time when the last survivor dies. The last column presents probably the most useful set figures in the table. These expectations of life are found dividing the total number of years to be lived (column by the number of persons surviving to start the period (column 5) at any particular age. The first expectation, at age 15, sums up the entire mortality and longevity experience of whole cohort of 100,000 priests, and is directly comparable t.h~ experience of other groups of persons at age 15. Expecta-tions of life at succeeding years sum up the entire experience t~rom that age onward to the death of the last member. 228 July, 1959 A LIF~- TABLE The expectation of life is the average remaining number of years to be lived by priests surviving to some particular specified age. For example, priests studied in this table had at 30 years of age an average remaining lifetime of 38.5 years while white males of the general public had only 36.4 years of life remaining. Care must be observed, however, in drawing conclusions from column eight. Because one has noted that the average lifetime of priests is greater than that of white males of the general population, he should not conclude that the oldest ages reached b)~ individual priests necessarily exceed those of the most long-lived members of the general population. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true because of the greater numbers in the general population and the greater resultant probability of extreme cases. The difference in average length of life is pri.ncipally due to the fact that a larger number of the general population die before reaching old age. For this reason one will notice that the expectations of life at ages above 60 do not differ as much as do the expectations at the younger years. A second caveat refers to the fact that the mortality rates and the expectations of life refer to statistical averages. We cannot be sure of any particular person or persons that their lives will be as long or short as the mathematical averages. For example, the expectation of life of priests aged 30 is 43.5 additional years of life. However, any particular priest might be killed tomorrow in an automobile accident, or on the other hand he might live considerably beyond the average expecta-tion of life. The same is true of any small group of priests, where sampling variations due to health or accident might be very large. In addition, one should bear in mind that as time goes on, health conditions continually improve. At least this has been the experience of the past hundred years. Thus one would expect that in 1958 a priest's expectation of life would be slightly better for any particular age than it was between 1953 and 1957, and that his chances of dying during any one-year or five-year interval would be correspondingly less. 229 FRANCIS C. ~V[ADIGAN Review for Religious Table 1. Life Table of Large Community of Religious Priests with Headquarters in Northeastern United States, for the Period 1953-1957, with Mortality Rates For Five-Year and One-Year Periods and Expectation of Life by Single Years of Age, Compared for Five-Year Age Groups with United States White Males, 1954. Priest Priests Total Survivors Dying Years Expectation MortaLity Beginning During Lived by of Rates Each Each Priesr~ Life Age 5-Year 1-Year 5-Year Five-Year Five-Year at Ages ¯ Priests U~S. Interval Observed~ Graduated U.S. Male Interval, Interval and Above Male 15-16 .00000 .00068a .00610b 100,000 0 5,797,816 57.98 55.0 16-17 .00068 56.98 17-18 (.00339)c .00068 55.98 18-19 .00068 54.98 19-20 .00068 53.98 20-21 .00549 .00068 .00890 I00,000 549 5,297,816 52.98 50.3 21-22 .00069 52.04 22-23 (.00349) .00070 51.09 23-24 .00070 50.15 24-25 .00071 49~20 25-26 .00578 .00073 .00800 99,451 575 4,799,069 48.26 45.7 26-27 .00074 47.31 27-28 (.00379) .00076 46.36 28-29 .00077 45.42 29-30 .00079 44.47 30-31 .00000 .00082 .00900 98,876 0 4,303,365 43.52 41.1 31-32 .00085 42.52 32-33 (.00439) .00088 41.52 33-34 .00091 40.52 34-35 .00094 39.52 35-36 .00628 .00099 .01300 98,876 621 3,808,975 38.52 36.4 36-37 .00106 37.57 37-38 (.00549) .00111 36:61 38-39 .00115 35.66 39-40 .OOll8 34.70 40-41 .00683 .00125 .02080 98,255 671 3,316,009 33.75 31.8 41-42 .00136 32.79 42-43 (.00757) .00149 31.83 43-44 .00166 30.88 44-45 .00186 29.92 45-46 .03874 .00214a .03530b 97,584 3,780 2,825,753 28.96 27.5 46-47 .00248 28.17 47-48 (.01490)e .00290 27.38 48-49 .00342 26.60 49-50 .00404 25.81 50-51 .03177 .00484 .05600 93,804 2,980 2,346,801 25.02 23.4 51-52 .00566 24.17 52-53 (.03333) .00661 23.32 53-54 .00773 22.46 54-55 .00899 21.61 July, 1959 A LIFE TABLE Mortality Age ~-Year l-Year 5-Year Interval O~serveds Graduated U.,S Male 55-56 .02900 .01058 .08380 56-57 .01231 57-58 .06765) .01374 58-59 .01545 59-60 .01727 60-61 61-62 62-63 63-64 64-65 65-66 66-67 67-68 68-69 69-70 70-71 71-72 72-73 73-74 74-75 Priest Priests Total Survivors Dying Years Beginning During Lived by Each Each ~ Priests Five-Year Five-Year at Ages x Interval Interval and Above 90,824 2,634 1,885,471 .09036 .01960 .02205 ¯ 11805) .02450 .02750 .03051 .12700 88,190 7,969 1,436,896 .28666 .03586 .03795 .19084) .04125 .04452 .04795 .13382 .05225 .05650 .273.10) .06150 .06685 .07150 ¯ 18570 80,221 22,996 1,011,626 ¯ 24920 57,225 7,658 668,076 75-76 76-77 77-78 78-79 79-80 80-81 81-82 82-83 83-84 84-85 Expectation of Life Priests U.S. Male 20.76 19.6 19.87 18.97 18.08 17.18 16.29 16.2 15.54 14.82 14.08 13.35 12.61 13.1 12.42 12.23 12.05 11.86 11.67 10.5 10.95 10.24 9.52 8.81 .45904 .07650 .35440 49,567 22,753 401,147 8.09 8.2 .08200 8.04 .35495) .08500 7.98 .08750 7.93 .08870 7.87 .36387 .09051d .48470 26,814 9,757 209,757 7.82 6.3 .O9149 7.46 .38689)e .09311 7.12 .09452 6.76 .09642 6.41 85-86 .39950 .10116 17,057 6,814 103,400 6.06 5.1 86-87 .10653 87-88 (.45904) .11340 88-89 .12299 89-90 .13367 90 and 1.00000e Above 1.0000e 10,243e 10,243e a The life table is based on the observed rates. These rates are for five-year periods. b The mortality rates for U. S. males, 1954, are for five-year periods. In the source they are given only to four places. A zero was added to each to assist the eye in comparisons. e The rates given in parentheses are five-year, graduated rates for priests. They are for the iame five-year period as the observed rate immediately above them. d The one-year graduated rates give the probabilities of dying during the next year, for persons of this exact age. ¯ o This final interval is not one if five years, but continues till the death of the last survivor. Source for the life table values of United States white males, 1954: National Office of Vital Statistics, "Abridged Life Tables. United States, 1954," Vital Sta-tistics- Special Reports, National Summaries, 44, 2 (May 15, 1956), 38. 231 Survey Roman Documents R. F. Smith, S.J. IN THE FOLLOWING survey those documents will be summarized which appeared in Acta Apostolicae Sedis through February and March, 1959. All page references throughout the survey will be to the 1959 ~AS (v. 51). Synod and Council On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, 1959, His Holiness John XXIII, together with the cardinals present in Rome, participated in the closing of the Church Unity Octave at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. After the ceremonies the Vicar of Christ delivered a private but solemn allocution (AAS, pp. 65-69) to the assembled cardinals. After telling them of his awareness of his duties both as Bishop of Rome and as Pastor of the universal Church, the Pontiff remarked that the diocese of Rome needs an increase of energy as well as a coordination of individual and collective efforts, if a more abundant harvest of souls is to be gathered. Moreover, he continued, the entire world has its needs; for though the grace of Christ continues to achieve its victories, still there are many who refuse to believe in Christ, immerse themselves in exclusively eartldy pursuits, and under the inspiration of the Prince of Darkness wage active opposition against what is true and good. To meet these needs, the Pope. said, there must be revived certain ancient forms of doctrinal affirmation and ecclesi-astical discipline which have in the past proved their ability to clarify thought, to increase religfous unity, and to reanimate Christian fervor. "Venerable Brothers and beloved Sons! Trembling a little from emotion but nevertheless with a humble resoluteness of purpose, We announce in your presence the name and proposal of a double celebration: that of a diocesan synod for the City and that of an ecumenical Council for the universal Church." After mentioning briefly that among other results of these two endeavors, there would be effected the hoped for revision of canon law, the Pontiff concluded his allocution by recommending his two proposals to the care of the Blessed Virgin and the saints of heaven. Previously on the same day and during the Solemn Mass that closed the Unity Octave, HIS Holiness had delivered a homily (AAS, pp. 70-74) in which he emphasized that the Church's linking of St. Paul with St. Peter should be a symbol of the unity of the bishops, 232 I~OMAN DOCUMENTS successors of the apostles, and of the faithful with the successor of St. Peter. It is from this unity, he concluded, that there will flow to the world the liberty and peace it desires. Closing of the Lourdes Centenary On February 15, 1959 (AAS, pp. 135-39), the Holy Father delivered an allocution in the Basilica of St. Mary Major to mark the end of the Lourdes centenary for the city of Rome. After reminding the Romans that the adoration of Christ is always the center of every form of devotion to Mary, HIS Holiness once more recalled to his listeners the permanent message of Lourdes: confident prayer of petition, exercise of penance, and solid piety manifested in the form of pilgrimages. These pilgrimages, he continued, whether to Lourdes or to the thousands of other shrines of our Lady, are not to be regarded as pleasure trips nor as the satisfying of some vague religious feeling; rather they should recall the eternal truths of life and- purify the soul so as to better fit it to appreciate the eucharistic banquet. In our prayer of petition, he went on, we need not fear to ask for temporal gifts; but our requests should not begin or end with these, for the goals of our life and the means thereto far exceed such things. Finally, he pointed out, because of the threefold concupiscence to be found in man, human beings need disci-pline and penance; accordingly there can be no Christian without the exercise of penance. The Holy Father concluded the entire allocution by lamenting the moral disorders that are multiplying at the present time and urged the faithful to petition heaven that good sense may return, that the faith may revive, and that perseverance never grow slack. Three days later on February 18, 1959 (AAS, pp. 144-48), the Pontiff sent a radio message to Lourdes and to the entire world for the conclusion of the centenary year, considering in it the message to be found in the life of St. Bernadette. Bernadette, he said, once more proves the statement of St. Paul (1 Cor 1:27-28) that. God chooses the weak things of this world to ~onfound the strong. Our generation, tie continued, has made admirable scientific progress, and humanity has been seized with a sense of pride at the possibilities now opening to the power of man. But, he added, St. Bernadette recalls to us our need for humility and prayer and reminds us that from Lourdes there comes a call to penance and to charity, a call to detach ourselves from riches and to teach us to share with those poorer than ourselves. Later during the same day (AAS, pp. 140-43) the Pope delivered an allocution to a group of Frenchmen in the Church of St. Louis, King of France. He recalled the long and noble history of Catholicism in France, noting that that history had culminated in the appearances of 233 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious Mary at Lourdes. Having remarked that in the plans of Divine Provi-dence each nation has its own special mission, he went on to describe the mission of France in the phrase: The country of France is the country of Mary. He concluded by reminding his listeners that the last previous Pope who bore the name of John was a Frenchman. Further Documents and Speeches Under the date of February 6, 1959 (AAS, pp. 129-35), John XXIII sent an epistle to the archbishops, bishops, and other local ordinaries of Italy in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the death of Pius XI and thirtieth anniversary of the Lateran Pact. In the epistle John XXIII recalled that in the last months of his life Plus XI had planned a plenary meeting of all the bishops of Italy and had in fact begun the composition of the talk he intended to give at the meeting. Sickness and death prevented the completion of the speech, but the unfinished manuscript furnishes us with sufficient knowledge of the last thoughts.of Pius XI. The first subject Pius XI had chosen to consider was that of the care that bishops should have for their seminaries. He reminded them of the need to watch over their seminaries vigilantly even in little matters; he particularly stressed the necessity of sustaining the rectors of seminaries in their severity in admitting candidates and in later promotions to orders. The next p.oint in the projected speech was a warning to the bishops that they should not be surprised if their words were often twisted and misinterpreted. (It should be remembered that Pius XI was writing when Fascism was at its height in Italy.) At this point in the manuscript, John XXIII noted, the writing becomes shaky and confused. But there was still enough strength in the dying pontiff to write a paragraph on the tenth anniversary of'the Lateran Pact. The paragraph is a moving and eloquent one, the dying Pope addressing the relics of the Princes of the Apostles, calling on them to exult because God has returned to Italy and Italy to God, imploring them to prophesy the perseverance of Italy in the faith, and ending with a desperate plea for peace for the entire world. These, remarked John XXIII in conclusion, were the last recorded thoughts of a great Pope. On January 18, 1959 (AAS, pp. 74-79), John XXIII delivered an allocution at the Gregorian University to the assembled professors and students, emphasizing how the very name of the institution recalls the glorious memory of Pope Gregory XIII, who during his pontificate from 1572 to 1585 effected the full restoration of Christian discipline in the Church. 234 July, 1959 ROMAN DOCUMENTS On January 30, 1959 (AAS, pp. 80-81), the Pope addressed members of the Christian Union of Business Executives and Managers. I-Ie regretfully reminded his audience that th~ ~rror still persists that industrial production inevitably involves the conflict of divergent interests. Actually, he said, executives, managers, and workers are not irreconcilable antagonists; rather they are cooperators in a common work which requires mutual comprehension and a sincere effort to overcome the temptation to seek only one's own profit. Under the date of January 17, 1959 (AAS, pp. 149-51), the Vicar of Christ sent a written message to the school children of the United States. His message, the Holy Father wrote, was one of love: God's love for all mankind and man's duty to love God in return and his neighbor for His sake. He urged the children to show their love for children less fortunate than themselves by praying for them and by giving them all possible material aid. Miscellaneous Matters In the issues of AAS under consideration there¯ are several docu-ments which concern Catholics of the Byzantine rite. By the apostolic constitution Singularern huius, dated May 10, 1958 (AAS, pp. 97-98), an exarchate was erected in Australia for Ruthenians of the Byzantine rite; Sydney was designated as the see of the exarchate. A later decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Oriental Church, dated December 12, 1958 (AAS, pp. 107-108), extended the jurisdiction of the exarchate to Ruthenians living in New Zealand and Oceania. A second decree of the same congregation and under the same date (AAS, p. 108) changed the see of the exarchate from Sydney to Melbourne. Byzantine Rite Catholics of Ukrainian origin living in the United States were the object of the apostolic constitution Apostolicam hanc, issued July 10, 1958 (AAS, pp. 156-57). The constitution raised the exarchate of ~Philadelphia to metropolitan status, while the exarchate of Stamford (Connecticut) was made an eparchate. The two together now form a new ecclesiastical province. AAS, pp. 112-13 and pp. 163-64, gives the original texts of two prayers composed by John XXIII for the Church of silence and in honor of the Eucharistic Christ. An English translation of the prayers is given elsewhere in this issue. The last document to be considered is a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued on August 11, 1958 (AAS, pp. 160-62). The decree approves the introduction of the cause of the Servant of God Clara Fey (1815-1894), foundress of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus. 235 Views, News, Previews FROM JULY 31 to August 7, 1960, there will be held the thirty-seventh World Eucharistic Congress, in Munich, Germany. The first four days of the Congress (Sunday, July 31, to Wednesday, August 3) will consist chiefly in conventions of Catholic organizations and g.roups, while the last four days (Thursday, August: 4, to Sunday, August 7) will emphasize liturgical and devotional services centered around the Mass and the Blessed Sac~:ament. Catholic associations who intend to hold meetings during 1960 are requested to hold the meetings in Munich during the days of the Eucharistic Congress. Inquiries about the Eucharistic Congress should be directed to the following address: Generalsekretariat des Eucharistischen Weltkongresses, Maxburgo strasse, 2, Munich, Germany. A community of sisters in New Hampshire has asked that the following communication be printed in the pages of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. "Perhaps some of the religious superiors of sisters in the eastern states would appreciate knowing of an ideal rest and nursing home for sisters desiring complete rest and an opportunity of regaining lost health. As far as we know, it is unique, in that regular medical attendance forms one of the necessary advantages of this quiet and well organized rest home . This home is well furnished and comfort-able, but not luxurious -- so that sisters would quite naturally feel right at home. Rates and information will be furnished on request from Reverend Mother Superior, St. Margaret's Convent, Rest-a-While Building, Gabriels, New York." The twentieth annual North American Liturgical Week will be held under the patronage of Most Reverend Leo A. Pursley, Bishop of Fort Wayne, at Notre Dame University, from Sunday afternoon, August 24, to Wednesday evening, August 27. The theme of the Week will be "Active Lay Participation in the Liturgy according to the Instruction of September 3, 1958." A guest of distinction, who has announced his attendance at the Week, will be James Cardinal Lercaro, Archbishop of Bologna. Room accommodations during the Week will be provided at nominal charge. F.or information regarding such accom-modations write to: Father William Leonard, S.J., Boston College, Boston 67, Massachusetts. It is a pleasure to announce a new magazine which will be of interest to religious. The title of the magazine is Lasallian Digest, a quarterly which began publication in Fall, 1958. The quarterly not only provides informative articles concerning the history, spirituality, 236 VIEWS~ NEWS, PREVIEWS and educational philosophy of the Brothers of the Christian Schools; but it also includes general articles that will be of value to all religious" engaged in educational work. The address of the magazine is: Lasallian Digest, Mont La Salle, Napa, California. The second World Sodality Congress will be held from August 20 to August 23, 1959, at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. All sodalists, directors, and moderators, whether members of federations that are affiliated to the World Federation of Sodalities or not, are invited to send representatives to the Congress. Youth sodalities are requested to send only members who are at least sixteen years of age. The theme of the Congress will be "The Vocation of Sodalists of Our Lady in the Crisis of the World Today." Further information concerning the Congress can be obtained by Writing: World Congress of Sodalities of Our Lady, 101 Plane Street, Newark 2, New Jersey. A special leaflet missal containing the Mass of St. Joseph the Workman and designed especially for use at Labor Day Masses is being published by the Catholic Council on Working Life (21 West Superior Street, Chicago 10, Illinois). The missal will be set in large, easy-to-read type with special drawings of men and women at work in a variety of occupations and professions. The leaflet will be ready for shipment on August 1, 1959. Single copies of the leaflet will cost fifteen cents; reduced prices on quantity orders may be obtained by writing the Council at the address given above. The Little Brothers of Jesus hope to begin a new quarterly to be called ~lesus Caritas; the title was a favorite phrase and emblem of P~re de Foucauld whose spirituality the Brothers continue and prolong. A French magazine of the same title has been in existence for some time and in the fall of 1958 a trial issue of an independent but similar English magazine under the same title was issued. The theme of the first issue was "The Gift of Friendship." The new magazine promises to enrich English spiritual reading, since it will mediate the spirituality of the famed Pbre de Foucauld. Persons interested in the magazine should contact: Brother Roger, 24 Autumn Grove, Leeds 6, England. Marquette University, 1131 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin, announces an Everett Curriculum Workshop which will grant three semester hours of graduate credit in education. The Work-shop, under the direction of Sister Elizabeth Ann, I.H.M., of Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, will explore the application of the Everett Report on Sister Formation to the needs of communities of sisters. 237 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious It has been designed specifically for directresses of study and for the administration and faculty of juniorates and scholasticates (college level) of sisterhoods. The Workshop has been scheduled for the mornings and afternoons of August 6 to August' 26, 1959. It is open only to sisters; the fee is $36. Inquiries concerning the Workshop should be directed to Dean John O. Riedl of the Graduate School of the University. ( ues!: ons and Answers [The following answers are given by Father Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland.] --20-- The constitutions of our pontifical congregation, approved recently, state three times that a religious who is legitimately dismissed is by that fact freed of all her religious vows. This statement is found after the articles on the dismissal of a professed of temporary vows, those on the dismissal of a professed of perpetual vows, and finally after the article on the automatic dismissal of canon 646. I thought that repetition was to be avoided in constitutions. Wouldn't it be much simpler and less confusing to state once that a sister professed of perpetual or temporary vows who has been legitimately dis-missed is by that very fact freed of all her religious vows? The Code of Canon Law itself, in virtue of canon 648, frees a professed of temporary vows, as soon as the dismissal is effective, from all the vows of his religions profession. The code itself (c. 669, § 1) does not free a religious of perpetual vows from the vows of religious pro-fession by the very fact of his dismissal. Such a liberation may be effected by a provision of the particular constitutions, and constitutions approved in more recent years usually contain this provision. (REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, September, 1957, 275, 282, 288) The evident reason therefore for the threefold statement is that the Sacred Congregation is opposed to the admixture of canonical with non-canonical matter in the one sentence. However, excessive repetition is to be avoided in the constitutions, and the present repetition is especially unfortunate because it occurs within the same chapter of the constitutions. In one official document, the Statutes for Extern Sisters of Monasteries of Nuns, n. 121, the Sacred Congregation of Religious itself stated this effect in the one article: "A sister legitimately dismissed according to the norm of the preceding articles is by that very fact freed of all her religious vows, whether temporary or perpetual." The Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith follows exactly the same principle in its typical constitutions for diocesan missionary congregations, n. 128. 238 July, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 21 Our pontifical constitutions state: "The written declaration of the profession, whether temporary or perpetual, signed by the professed sister, by the mother general or her delegate, in whose presence the profession was made, and by two other sisters as witnesses, must be preserved in the archives of the congregation." (Cf. c. 576, § 2.) What is the meaning of the phrase "in whose presence the profession was made"? If it means the one who received the profession, why doesn't it simply state this? The wording of your article in this respect is that of the canon. It does mean the one who received the profession, and it would have been much better if the canon had simply stated this. This meaning is clear from the nature of the act of profession, since canon law itself demands the presence only of the one professing and the one receiving the profession. Furthermore, the rest of the canon, evidently referring to the same person, speaks explicitly of the superior who receives the profession. The unwillingness to repeat a word, phrase, or clause in the same context is a frequent cause of ambiguity in canon law. We do not change the wording of the canons, even when one finds an evidently better and more accurate wording. The Sacred Congregation of Religious itself changed the wording in the Statutes for Extern Sisters of Monas-teries of Nuns, n. 48, to "who received the profession or renovation." --221 You advocate fewer trifling permissions. So do I. What about monthly permissions? We first assemble for this purpose. Each sister then kneels individually before the superior and says, "Please, may I ask my permissions?" Isn't it sufficient to ask permissions? Why must I ask to ask them? She then asks the permissions. "Please, may I rise, dress, wash, say my prayers, perform my community exercises, go to different parts of the house, do my charge, prepare my work, use books, borrow and lend, give away and keep small articles, and bathe when necessary? Please, may I have these permissions?" Don't I already have at least implicit permission for things I am directed or commanded to do, e. g., to rise, perform community exercises, do my charge, and to read at least the books neces-sary for my work? How can I go to the chapel without washing and dressing? If I have permission to wash, doesn't that include all of me? Why do I need pe~-mission to bathe? This ritual consumes from ten to forty minutes. Is it necessary or profit-able, especially when we cannot keep up with our duties? We are told that it is an occasion for increasing merit, but it seems 239 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious to me to be a very dumb one. Aren't there sensible ways arriving at perfection? This thing of becoming a fool for the sake of Christ can he taken too literally. Impatience has sharpened the style of the questioner and, I hope, has exaggerated the content of her question; but this is not a sufficient reason for de.nying her a hearing. A monthly renewal of such things as dispensations from any of the duties of common life is reasonable. It would also be reasonable to have a less frequent renewal. I have never been able to see the profit of the formalistic monthly permissions, of which the present case is a sufficiently good example. As the questioner says, she already has at least implicit permission for many of the things she is requesting in these monthly permissions. Such monthly per-missions are, in my judgment, an unnecessary, unprofitable, and formalistic detail. A woman's ability to handle details is a valuable talent, but in the religions life she often perverts it and grinds the spiritual life into a smothering dust of details. I believe it is a sound spiritual maxim that artificiality in spiritual matters is an infallible sign of error. Why should we need artificiality to follow perfectly the most reasonable and most highly integrated person who has. ever existed, Jesus Christ? It is not possible nor does obedience demand that we have the expressed will of a superior for every action. If the motive of our action is the vow of obedience (and it is presumed to be such), any action in conformity with the Rule, the constitutions, cnstoms, usages, and the tacit or presumed will of the superior has the merit of the vow. "In many cases, especially of sisters, one finds a manner of governing, a way of conceiving discipline and obedience that reduces the life and religious observance to an arid and oppressive formalism, a negation and death of the religious life itself and of zeal." Rev. J. Alberione, S.S.P., Acta et Docurnenta Congressus Generalis de Statibus Perfectio~nis, I, 270. 23 When is a vote uncertain and consequently invalid (c. 169, § 1,2°)? A vote is certain when the person voted for can be known without any fear of error from the vote itself. A vote for Brother Francis is invalid if there are two or more religious of that name. It cannot be argued that the elector intended to vote for the elder Brother Francis, who will very likely, be elected, rather than for the younger Brother Francis, for whom it is very improbable that anyone would vote. The vote itself must be certain. The family name or other identification must be included when .there is more than one religions of the same name. It is the almost universal custom always to append the family to the religions name. The vote is also uncertain when the writing cannot be deciphered or the sense understood. 240 July, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Our monastery of nuns recently resumed solemn vows. Was I, the superioress, obliged to inform the pastor of the parish of baptism of each of these nuns that she had made profession of solemn vows? Yes. Canon 576, § 2, prescribes: " . . . . and moreover, in the case of solemn profession, the superior who received the profession shall inform the pastor of the place of baptism of the solemn profession, in con-fortuity with the norm of canon 470, § 2~" The latter canon reads: "In the register of baptisms there shall'be noted also the record of the baptized person's confirmation, marriage (unless it was a marriage of conscience, as stated in canon 1107), reception of subdiaconate, or ~olemn profession; and these facts are always to be included in baptismal certificates." Canon 576, § 2, should be and usually is included in the constitutions of nuns. The evident reason for the obligation is that solemn religious profession is a diriment impediment to marriage. Therefore, the notification of the solemn profession of any religious is to be sent to the pastor of the parish of baptism. According to the canon, this duty falls on the superior who received the solemn pro-fession; but he or she may do it through another. In fact, the notification is the duty of the superioress of the monastery, even if she did not receive the profession; and this is the usual wording of the constitutions. The notification should contain the full secular and religious name, the place and date of the solemn profession, the full names of the father and mother of the religious, and at least the approximate date of the baptism. Complete and accurate data for the notification can be obtained from the baptismal certificate, if this is in the files of the house where solemn profession was made. --25-- Our general motherhouse is in France. Our constitutions underwent a general revision. Is an ~mprlm~t~tr re~iuired in France for the printing of the constitutions in French? Is another imprimatur necessary for the English translation of these constitutions from the French? The answer to both questions is yes. Prudence demands that any translation of the constitutions, also and especially of the original approved text, be submitted to the examination of a priest conversant with the canonical terms on religious. If this is not done, awkwardness, inaccuracy, and errors of translation are very likely. Canon law com-mands previous censorship by a local ordinary for determined works but only if they are published (c. 1384). Publication means that the work is made available to the general public. Therefore, works that are destined solely for the members of a religious institute are not published; 241 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious and there is no obhgation of submitting them to the previous censorship of a local ordinary. However, it is the common practice of lay institutes to submit the constitutions to this censorship of the local ordinary. According to this practice, there should be an imprimatur for the constitutions in French and another for the English translation, because canon 1392, § 1, requires another censorshilJ for a translation. The granting of an imprimatur appertains to the proper local ordinary of the author, the ordinary of the place of publication, or the ordinary of the place of printing (c. 1385, § 2). A compiler or translator is included under the term of author. Strictly speaking, the author or legislator of constitutions of lay institutes is the Holy See or the local ordinaries; the official compiler is the general chapter. Constitutions are translated and distributed (published) under the authority and direction of a higher superior. Therefore, the imprimatur for these constitutions may be requested from the ordinary of the place of the general chapter, of the residence of the higher superior, or of the place of printing. In fact it is practically always given by the ordinary of the residence of the higher superior. m26-- Brother X, professed of solemn vows, was a lay brother in our order. He became an apostate from religion. Both his local and immediate higher superior were earnestly striving to persuade him to return to the order. We learned later that he had met a woman, a Catholic and previously unmarried, two weeks after he left his religious house. A week later he got a priest to marry himself and this woman. He concealed the fact of his solemn vows. The constitutions of our order explicitly state that a professed of solemn vows who is legiti-mately dismissed is by that very fact freed of his solemn vows. Was the marriage of Brother X and this woman valid? If Brother X had been a religious cleric in sacred orders (sub-diaconate, diaconate, priesthood) or if a legitimate dismissal, in virtue of the law of the constitutions, did not free him from his solemn vows, his marriage would have been certainly and evidently invalid by reason of the diriment impediment of sacred orders (c. 1072), or solemn religions profession (c. 1073), or both. Therefore, the case of a solemnly professed described above is possible also with regard to a nun or a religious man destined for the priesthood but not yet in sacred orders. The automatic dismissal of canon 646 is a legitimate dismissal, since this canon explicitly states it to be such and it is effected according to law and by law. This dismissal therefore produces the effects of a legitimate dismissal. The code itself (c. 669, § 1) does not free a dismissed religious of perpetual vows, whether solemn or simple, from the vows 242 July, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS of religious profession by the very fact of the dismissal; but such a liberation, as in the present case, may be effected by the constitutions. We presuppose that the only possible source of invalidity in this case is the solemn religious profession. If, prior to the Catholic celebration of marriage, this religious had publicly apostatized from the Catholic faith, or had run away with a woman, or had attempted marriage outside the Church, he would have been immediately and automatically dismissed in virtue of canon 646. His own constitutions would have freed him in the same instant from all his solemn vows. Since the diriment impediment to marriage is attached to his solemn vow of chastity, which would have ceased to exist, his former solemn profession would in no way have interfered with the validity of a later Catholic celebration of marriage nor would the impediment in question have had to be dispensed. It would simply have ceased to exist. No such previous crime occurred in the present case. Brother X did not even, know the woman until two weeks after he had left the religious house. Canon 646 automatically dismisses any religious who attempts or contracts marriage. It is therefore certain that Brother X was automatically dismissed by canon 646 and freed of his solemn vows, and consequently of the diriment impediment, by the constitutions at the moment that he and the woman gave the marriage consent. There-fore, the precise question is: does a simultaneous freedom from a diriment impediment suffice or is a freedom previous in time necessary for the validity of marriage? I believe that a simultaneous freedom suffices and that the marriage was valid. Canon law does not solve this individual case nor does it explicitly state any general principle on the matter. The case should therefore be decided from analogy (c. 20). There are at least two analo-gous cases in the code, and it can also be maintained that these cases implicitly affirm the general principle of the sufficiency of si~nultaneous freedom. Canon 1126 states that the bond of a former marriage con-tracted in infidelity is dissolved by the Pauline Privilege only when the conv.erted party actually contracts a new and valid marriage. Therefore, in the Pauline Privilege the simultaneous freedom from the diriment impediment of a valid and still existing marriage suffices for the valid contracting of marriage. By the prescription of ecclesiastical law, a marriage is invalid if one of the parties is free and believes the other party to be free when in fact the latter is a slave in the strict sense of this term (c. 1083, § 2, 2°). The common interpretation of this canon is that the marriage is valid if the slave obtains freedom by marriage. Therefore, we again have a case in which simultaneous freedom from an invalidating cause suffices for the validity of marriage. It cannot be objected that this solution offends against the principle that no one should profit by his crime. This principle cannot be main- 243 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious tained against an expressed declaration of law. The code itself (c. 648) frees from his vows a religious of temporary vows who commits any of the crimes listed in canon 646, and canon 669, § 1, and positively and explicitly permits the particular constitutions to grant the same freedom to a professed of perpetual vows, whether solemn or simple. --27-- I read the constitutions of a lay congregation that has recently been made pontifical. Their definition of an ordinary and extraordinary general chapter differs from our own, which I enclose. Which of these definitions is correct? In older constitutions, an ordinary general chapter is one convoked regularly at the intervals determined in the constitutions for general elections. This interval is usually every six years, because in the modern practice of the Sacred Congregation of Religious th~ term of office of the superior general is six years. An extraordinary chapter in the same constitutions is one convoked outside of such regular intervals. The first reason for such a chapter is the vacancy of the office of superior general by reason of death, resignation, or deposition. The second is a serious matter affecting the entire institute. The latter is therefore only a chapter of affairs and only for determined matters, such as approval of a revision of the constitutions. This latter chapter in pontifical lay congregations demands a serious reason, the deliberative vote of the general council, and the permission of the Holy See. (Bastien, Directoire Canonique, n. 240, 2; Battandier, Guide Canonique, nn. 341, 346; Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 452.) In very recent years, the Sacred Cong~'egation has changed this definition in the constitutions of lay congregations that are being made pontifical but not in revisions of constitutions of congregations that were already pontifical. The change consists in the fact that any chapter for the election of a superior general is termed ordinary, any other is extraordinary. The following article typifies this change. "A general chapter is called ordinary whenever it convenes for the election of a superior general, whether a~ the expiration of the ordinary term or when the office becomes vacant for any reason at another time. Any other chapter is said to be extraordinary and may not be convoked without special authorization of the Holy See, upon request by the superior general with the consent of his council." Both definitions are therefore correct, that is, all institutes retain the definition given in their own constitutions. 28- We have a common or public devotional renewal of vows twice a year. The renewal is made before the reception of Holy 244 July, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Communion. Do we by this renewal gain the indulgence men-tioned in the R~ccolta, n. 756? The Raccolta reads: "The religious of any order or congregation who privately renew their religious vows with at least a contrite heart, after celebrating Holy Mass or receiving Holy Communion, may gain an indulgence of three years." It can be argued that the essential condition is a devotional renewal, not necessarily a private renewal, or that an indulgence granted to a private renewal afortiori applies also to a public renewal. Therefore, the indulgence is gained by a public or private'devotional renewal of religious vows. However, the text clearly demands that the renewal be made after the reception of Holy Com-munion. Therefore, a public or priva, te renewal before Communion does not suffice. On the days of such public devotional renewals, the indul-gence may be gained by again renewing the vows privately after Com-munion. No determined formula is required; and brief formulae, such as "I renew the vows made at my profession," "I renew my vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience," would suffice. The condition that the renewal be made after Holy Communion seems strange, because in two documents, issued before the Code of Canon Law, the Sacred Congregation of Rites had prescribed that professions and public renewals were to be made before Holy Com-munion by religious of congregations who took or renewed their vows during Mass (S. R. C., 3836, 3912). This rite has been retained after the code as a prescription of their own law by at least most of the same religious institutes, and the natural tendency of a religious is to renew his vows privately at the same time during Mass that professions and public devotional renewals are made in his institute. 29 Our constitutions demand an absolute majority for the ejection of the superior general on any of the first three ballots. If such a majority has not been obtained, on the fourth and last ballot only the two religious who had the highest number of votes on the third ballot may be voted for. Of these two, the one who receives the greater number of votes on this fourth ballot is elected. In our last chapter, there was no doubt about the one elected. The constitutions also are clear on the matter; and the president of the chapter gave a brief, simple, and clear exposition of the article. However, on the fourth ballot a vote was cast for a religious who was not one of the two highest on the third ballot. We simply did not know what to do about this vote. This one vote was invalid, because it was in' favor of one who lacked passive voice absolutely, that is, one who simply could not be 245 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review [or Religious elected. The constitutions clearly restrict eligibility on the fourth ballot to the two who had the highest number of votes on the third ballot. There was also no question whatever of postulation. The constitutions of our congregation demand merely thirty years of age and ten years of profession for a regional superior. Is this correct? Is it sufficient? Any part of an institute that fulfills the canonical requisites for a province is in fact and in law a province, no matter by what name it may be designated in the particular constitutions. The essential canoni-cal requisite for a province is that. of being a distinct moral person, distinct as such from the institute and the houses. A provincial superior is necessarily a canonical higher superior. We presuppose that your regions are not in fact canonical provinces, as is at least practically always the case. The authority of a regional superior may be delegated by a superior general or provincial. If so, he is not a higher superior. The regional superior may possess ordinary authority, that is, authority given by the law of the constitutions. If so, he is a higher superior (c. 488, 8°). In the former case, your constitutions are correct. Canon law does not legislate on the matter~ and the thirty years of age and ten years of profession are prescribed entirely by your own constitutions. If, however, the regional superior is a higher superior, canon 504 must be observed, that is, for the validity of his appointment or election he must be Of legitimate birth, have been professed for at least ten years in the institute computed from his first prQfession (August 15, 1955 -- August 16, 1965), and have completed his thirtieth year (January 1, 1930 -- January 2, 1960). 31 Our pontifical congregation is very large. For many serious reasons, we hesitate to make an immediate division into provinces. We believe it would be more prudent to begin instituting several regions. Do we need the permission of the Holy See to do this? No. Obviously your regions will not be pro~vinces. Therefore, the canonical norms (c. 494) on the erection of provinces do not apply. The establishment, delimitation, change, and suppression of regions may be made by the general chapter or the superior general. Since the matter is so important, the latter ~hould at least consult and preferably have the consent of his council. The latter is practically always de-. manded for these acts when the constitutions make provision for regions. Cf. Larraona, Commentarium Pro Religiosis, 5 (1924), 263-64; Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 325; Toso, Commentaria Minora, II, 246 July, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS De Religiosis, 17; Vromant, De Personis, n. 375; Vermeersch-Creusen, Epitome Iuris Canonici, I, n. 603; Coronata, Institutiones Iuris Canonici, I, n. 519. Our constitutions state only that a professed religious who commits any of the crimes listed in canon 646 is by that very fact legitimately dismissed. It seems to me that it would be only sensible for the constitutions to tell us what these crimes are. I think also that canon 646 should be given fully in the consti-tutions. It has not been the general practice to do so in lay institutes, as it has been in clerical institutes. However, some constitutions of the former type of institute do contain the complete canon. Canon 646 was given fully and explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 16 (1957)~ 283-89. The canon reads: § 1. The following religious are considered as automatically and legitimately dismissed: 1° Public apostates from the Catholic faith; 2° A religious man who ran away with a woman or a religious woman who ran away with a man; 3° Those who attempt or contract marriage, even the so-called civil marriage. § 2. In these cases, it is sufficient that the higher superior with his chapter or council according to the norm of the constitutions make a declaration of fact; but he must take care to preserve the collected proofs of the fact in the files of the house. 247 Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, aEVIEW FO~t RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.} PORTRAIT OF A PARISH PRIEST. By Lancelot C. Sheppard. Westminster: Newman, 1958. Pp. 183. $3.50. One hundred years ago, on August 4, 1859, died St. John Vianney, Curl of Ars. A living inspiration to laymen and religious as well as to the secular clergy, he had become almost a legendary figure in his own lifetime. Today, his name calls to our mind a student so slow that only the shortage of priests and the insistence of an influential friend made it possible for him to be ordained. We think of a preacher who spent hours of agony in composing commonplace sermons, and then would forget them once he got into the pulpit only to speak with such zeal and intensity as to move his hearers to tears. Contrasting images of Ars come before us -- the out-of-the-way village of 1818, where there was a dilapidated old church, sixty houses, four taverns, and "no great love of God"; and the place of pilgrimage of 1859, with a restored church, no tavern, but one school for girls and one for boys, and crowds of the devout and the curious. Portrait of a Parish Priest treats of a man in whose life the extraordinary seems to be the ordinary thing. Living for years on two or three potatoes a day, with but two hours sleep a night, the CurLkept up a strenuous apostolic life. He could size up the most delicate cases of conscience in a moment and even knew the problems of many penitents before they entered the con-fessional. Many a distressed sinner was singled out from the crowd by the saint's voice and called in to penance ahead of a long line. Scoffers eventually prayed. Diseases were often cured. Add to this the almost nightly rappings, voices, and even the burning of the bedclothes, which the Curl was convinced was the work of the devil, the Grappin, and we have a picture of a truly remarkable man. None of these facts ar~ new, and all have been well treated in previous biographies. The unique feature of Portrait of a Parish Priest is its interpre-tation of the facts. For besides giving us a portrait of a great saint, the author paints a picture of a man. And the life of John Vianney was not a series of interludes between one extraordinary event after another. A man capable of deep discouragement and subject to great psychological tensions, he had been tempted to give up his studies for the priesthood, to desert Napoleon's army, and to flee from the responsibility of his parish. He was convinced that he was not fit for his job and feared greatly for his own salvation. It was his heroic perseverance in the face of these obstacles that was truly remarkable. In the author's opinion, the psychological tension under which the Curl worked was responsible for the "diabolical" disturbances in the saint's life. Whether or not the reader agrees with this explanation, he will find it thought-provoking and will welcome the insistence upon the fact that it was the Cur~'s heroic virtue and not the extraordinary events (whatever their expla-nation) that made him a saint. 248 BOOK REVIEWS St. John Vianney was a man filled with the horror of sin, because he was a saint filled with a love of the living God. But he was also a man who poured out condemnations of pleasures Which can be legitimate in themselves, a man who would refuse absolution to those who would not promise to give up dancing. Fie could, it is true, appreciate the humor of a situation; but on the whole he tended to see the dark side of things. Yet this should not be surprising in a man who grew up in a France in which the Church, was being persecuted and in which clouds of Jansenistic thought still darkened the moral atmos-phere. One new fact which the author brings to light