The Stoics and the State: Theory – Practice – Context

How did the Stoics conceive of a polis and statehood? What happens when these ideas meet different biographies and changing historical environments? To answer these questions, 'The Stoics and the State' combines close philological reading of original source texts and fine-grained conceptual analysis with wide-ranging contextualisation, which is both thematic and diachronic. A systematic account elucidates extant definitions, aspects of statehood (territory, institutions, population and state objectives) and the constitutive function of the common law. The book’s diachronic part investigates how Stoics from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius used their theory of the state to assess particular states, explain the origin of political communities and shape their own political practice. A glimpse at modern adaptations from Justus Lipsius to Martha C. Nussbaum explains the peculiarities of Stoic notions and their basis in a conception of human nature as not only political but essentially sociable and beneficent

Care of the Self and Social Bonding in Seneca: Recruiting Readers for a Global Network of Progressor Friends

This paper interprets the demonstrative retreat from public life and the promotion of self-improvement in Seneca’s later works as a political undertaking. Developing arguments by THOMAS HABINEK, MATTHEW ROLLER and HARRY HINE, it suggests that Seneca promoted the political vision of a cosmic community of progressors toward virtue constituted by a special form of progressor friendship, a theoretical innovation made in the Epistulae morales. This network of like-minded individuals spanning time and space is open to anyone who shares the other members’ commitment to the improvement of one’s own self and that of others. By advertising such self-care and courting his readers as prospective friends, the author of the Epistulae morales aims to recruit new members for that community, in particular in the first nine letters

Mucius Scaevola and the Essence of Manly Patientia

Patientia, the virtue of enduring physiological pain, poses a problem for Roman elite masculinities. The male body is supposed to be unpenetrated, but when pain is inflicted the body is often cut and pierced. This paper looks at literary and philosophical representations of the moral exemplar Mucius Scaevola to see how Roman writers and philosophers deal with this dilemma

Male Youths as Objects of Desire in Latin Literature: Some Antinomies in the Priapic Model of Roman Sexuality

Drawing on a range of sources such as Roman oratory, love elegy, Carmina Priapea and Petronius, the paper claims that the Priapic model of Roman Sexuality entails a particularly vulnerable form of male sexuality which can best be observed in descriptions of young men in the transitional period to manhood, such as, e.g., Achilles in Statius' Achilleis

REGIONAL ECONOMIC VOTING IN ROMANIA

In the paper we examine the economic voting theory for the Romanian local elections in June, 2008. Econometrically, we demonstrate that in the regional structures the main economic variables (dynamics of the gross domestic product per capita, rate of unemployment, dynamics of the average net nominal monthly earnings, etc.) do not significantly influence the voting behaviour, so that a model based on the esponsibility hypothesis is not adequate for explaining the creation of voting preferences in the Romanian regional structures in the June 2008 elections. We also demonstrate that for the June 2008 local elections the hypothesis of partisan voting cannot be econometrically supported. As a consequence, we have conceived a political impact model. Therefore, we have tested the hypothesis of faithful voters between two consecutive electoral moments, the engine role played by the well-known leaders, and the impact of the ethnic behaviour on the electoral space of the political party.Political Business Cycles, Vote Popularity Function, Partisan and/or Opportunistic Behaviour, Residuals in Regional Econometric Models

Productivity and the Regional Employment in Services. Econometric Estimations for Romania

Between 1989 and 2006, in Romania the labour force decreased by about 2.6 mill. persons (with regional differences), but, according to the same general tendency, the labour force in services increased by about 0.5 mill. persons. This occurred in a time when the prices in services increased more rapidly as compared to the ones in the national economy. In the paper, we found that the growth in total income leads to growth of the demand for services, so that the increase rate of services outmarch the amplification of productivity, the end-result being a growth of the employment in that sector. Also, even if in Romanian regions the demand for services is inelastic regarding the total income of the households and the dynamics of productivity in services was lower than the average of the national economy, the positive growth rate of employment in services exceeded the productivity gap between the national economy and the services sector.labour productivity, regional employment, price elasticity and income elasticity of demand for services

Analysis of Municipal Election Outcomes in Romania

In Romania, the 2008 local elections were held based on a new electoral law. The main changes concerned the election of chairpersons of county councils by uninominal voting, shifting of the general and presidential elections and the introduction of a uninominal voting system for parliamentary elections, with a correction of the total number of seats according to the total number of votes obtained by each party on national level. Voting behavior in local elections on 1st June 2008 was primarily determined by political reasons (loyal voters) and was influenced by the effect of the local leaders and the noise produced by ethnic vote. For all parties, prominent leaders drew votes. Inertia in voting behavior (electorate’s fidelity) influenced all parties’ results and the ethnic behavior had a strong effect on nationalist parties. At regional level, the electoral impact of economic variables was marginal.

Economic Impact of Political Cycles – The Relevance of European experinces for Romania

The research was dedicated to the analysis of the interactions between political processes and economic activities. Explicitly, the research focussed on the theoretical and empirical study concerning the economic impact of political cycles and, especially, to evaluate the relevance of European experiences for Romania. The analysis was focused to the following subjects: to overview the existent literature on the interactions between political processes and economic activities – political implications of the economic status (the so-called vote – popularity function), and economic impact of the political behaviours – the political business cycles (section 1); to analyse specific features of the vote – popularity functions and the political business cycles in the developed economies and, especially, in the European Union Countries, by over viewing relevant empirical studies (section 2); to survey the literature concerning models and empirical evidences of the interactions between political processes and economic activity for the developing countries (section 3) and for the East European Candidate Countries (section 4); to analyse the interactions between the political processes and the economic dynamics in Romania – macroeconomic signals of the political business cycles, and estimation of regional vote-popularity function (section 5); to discuss the consequences of political business cycles for the processes of transition and the European integration (section 6).

Senecan Progressor Friendship and the Characterization of Nero in Tacitus' Annals

Argues that Tacitus’ shaped his account of Seneca and the characterization of Nero within his social environment according to features characteristic of Seneca’s conception of friendship. Surprisingly, Tacitus assigns to Nero an active power: The emperor drives a ubiquitous inversion of the social values promoted by his mentor. Patterns of Seneca’s social thought are adduced to characterize not only the portrayed emperor but also the political institution itself