scholarly journals Basic income in the Swedish legislative debate: The forbidden topic

2021 ◽  
pp. 138826272110187
Author(s):  
Mauro Zamboni

When it comes to welfare in general, Sweden’s legislation is certainly one of the most comprehensive in the world. Living up to the ideal of supporting its citizens and residents from the cradle to the grave, this Scandinavian country has expanded its laws exponentially in the last century to cover all aspects of individuals’ and families’ lives. Thus, it comes, then, as a particular surprise to discover that the notion of basic income has been - and still is - almost completely absent from the Swedish political debate (and has consequently remained off the agenda of the Swedish legislative bodies), while being one of the hottest topics around the European continent. The purpose of this article is to investigate the possible reasons why the idea of basic income is missing from Swedish legislative agenda and to draw some brief general conclusions that may be valid for all legislative actors operating in advanced capitalistic societies.

Author(s):  
Gerald Gaus

This book lays out a vision for how we should theorize about justice in a diverse society. It shows how free and equal people, faced with intractable struggles and irreconcilable conflicts, might share a common moral life shaped by a just framework. The book argues that if we are to take diversity seriously and if moral inquiry is sincere about shaping the world, then the pursuit of idealized and perfect theories of justice—essentially, the entire production of theories of justice that has dominated political philosophy for the past forty years—needs to change. Drawing on recent work in social science and philosophy, the book points to an important paradox: only those in a heterogeneous society—with its various religious, moral, and political perspectives—have a reasonable hope of understanding what an ideally just society would be like. However, due to its very nature, this world could never be collectively devoted to any single ideal. The book defends the moral constitution of this pluralistic, open society, where the very clash and disagreement of ideals spurs all to better understand what their personal ideals of justice happen to be. Presenting an original framework for how we should think about morality, this book rigorously analyzes a theory of ideal justice more suitable for contemporary times.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-153
Author(s):  
Toufan Aldian Syah

Banking industry has a very important role in economic development in a country. Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world, certainly has the prospect of the development of Sharia Banking Industry is very good in the future. However, the development of Sharia Bank has been slowing down in recent years and the profitability of sharia comercial banking is still below the ideal value. This study aims to determine the internal factors and external factors that affect the profitability of Sharia Bank in the year of January 2012 until August 2017. The variables used in this study are ROA, Inflation, NPF, and BOPO. The data used is aggregate data of all Sharia Commercial Banks recorded at Bank Indonesia. Measurement of Statistic Description, F-Test, T-Test, Correlation Coefficient, Coefficient of Determination and Multiple Linear Regression using IBM SPSS 21 software. The results showed that significant negative effect of BI rate, NPF and BOPO was found, while Inflation variable showed negative but not significant. Overall, the above variables affect the ROA of 87.7%, while 12.3% is likely to be influenced by other factors.


Author(s):  
Hallie M. Franks

In the Greek Classical period, the symposium—the social gathering at which male citizens gathered to drink wine and engage in conversation—was held in a room called the andron. From couches set up around the perimeter of the andron, symposiasts looked inward to the room’s center, which often was decorated with a pebble mosaic floor. These mosaics provided visual treats for the guests, presenting them with images of mythological scenes, exotic flora, dangerous beasts, hunting parties, or the specter of Dionysos, the god of wine, riding in his chariot or on the back of a panther. This book takes as its subject these mosaics and the context of their viewing. Relying on discourses in the sociology and anthropology of space, it argues that the andron’s mosaic imagery actively contributed to a complex, metaphorical experience of the symposium. In combination with the ritualized circling of the wine cup from couch to couch around the room and the physiological reaction to wine, the images of mosaic floors called to mind other images, spaces, or experiences, and, in doing so, prompted drinkers to reimagine the symposium as another kind of event—a nautical voyage, a journey to a foreign land, the circling heavens or a choral dance, or the luxury of an abundant past. Such spatial metaphors helped to forge the intimate bonds of friendship that are the ideal result of the symposium and that make up the political and social fabric of the Greek polis.


Author(s):  
Giovanni Gabutti ◽  
Erica d’Anchera ◽  
Francesco De Motoli ◽  
Marta Savio ◽  
Armando Stefanati

Starting from December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has forcefully entered our lives and profoundly changed all the habits of the world population. The COVID-19 pandemic has violently impacted the European continent, first involving only some European countries, Italy in particular, and then spreading to all member states, albeit in different ways and times. The ways SARS-CoV-2 spreads are still partly unknown; to quantify and adequately respond to the pandemic, various parameters and reporting systems have been introduced at national and European levels to promptly recognize the most alarming epidemiological situations and therefore limit the impact of the virus on the health of the population. The relevant key points to implement adequate measures to face the epidemic include identifying the population groups most involved in terms of morbidity and mortality, identifying the events mostly related to the spreading of the virus and recognizing the various viral mutations. The main objective of this work is to summarize the epidemiological situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and Italy almost a year after the first reported case in our continent. The secondary objectives include the definition of the epidemiological parameters used to monitor the epidemic, the explanation of superspreading events and the description of how the epidemic has impacted on health and social structures, with a particular focus on Italy.


Author(s):  
Luciana Bellatalla

From its first appearance in western culture, philosophy has been considered able to build up reality, to educate people, and to disclose truth. Plato proposed philosophers as governors in life-long pursuit of philosophical learning. Socrates was the ideal paradigm of an educating philosopher: he tried to wake up human minds so that they could be aware of themselves and of the world, criticizing tradition and prejudices in a logically consistent perspective. A critical and dialogic approach—not by mere chance defined as "Socratic"—to problems has been considered until now the most profitable method of teaching. Socrates is a pioneer in discussing the question of a philosophical (paideia), as he defined his method "maieutic." He was not an authoritarian teacher, but a sparring partner in the process of self-education. Moreover, he considered himself as the most learned and, at the same time, the wisest in Greece, just because he was conscious of his ignorance. Therefore, he understood for the first time in our cultural tradition that knowledge is an endless process rather than a product, within marked bounds.


2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-335
Author(s):  
Howard Lesnick

God has made man with the instinctive love of justice in him,which gradually gets developed in the world …. I do not pretendto understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eyereaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and completethe figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.Theodore Parker (1853)A strange mystery it is that Nature, omnipotent but blind, in therevolutions of her … hurryings through the abysses of space, hasbrought forth at last a child, subject still to her power, but giftedwith sight, with knowledge of good and evil, with the capacity ofjudging all the works of his unthinking mother. [Gradually, asmorality grows bolder, the claim of the ideal world begins to befelt, [giving rise to the claim] that, in some hidden manner, theworld of fact is really harmonious with the world of ideals. Thusman creates God, all-powerful and all-good, the mystic unity ofwhat is and what should be.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (H16) ◽  
pp. 656-656
Author(s):  
M. Reid

As cities around the world grow more and more diverse, we must take this diversity into account in developing outreach activities and materials. The International Year of Astronomy in 2009 brought a lot of attention to the needs of underserved communities and developing countries, emphasizing the ideal of widespread access to astronomy outreach. Increasingly, however, we find that some of the same challenges facing underserved communities and developing countries are also present in modern metropolises. Conveniently, the linguistic and cultural diversity of our cities is more and more accurately reflected among the astronomy community. The diversity of the astronomical community itself creates opportunities for effective multicultural, multilingual outreach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Svetlana Neretina

The article rejects the reading of Thomas More's Utopia as, first, a statement of More's own views on the ideal state and, accordingly, his definition not only as a humanist, but as a communist, and, secondly, an attempt is made to present the humanistic foundations of his ideas and ways of expressing them. These ways of expression are connected with the tropological way of his thinking, expressed through satire and irony, with an eye to ancient examples, which was characteristic of the philosophy, poetics and politics of humanism, one of the tasks of which was to try to build a new society (especially relevant in the period of geographical discoveries), architecture, an unprecedented ratio of natural objects (archimboldeski). The models for "Utopia" were the works of Plato, Lucian, and Cicero. It is written in the spirit of the times, with criticism of state structures, private property, the distinction between the private and the public, and openness to all ideas. Intellectual disorientation of readers is a specific creative task of More writer, his test of their ability to quickly change the optics, to consider history as an alternative world, radically different from our own, but connected with it. Thanks to an extremely pronounced intellectual tension, it goes beyond the limits of time, like the works of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Marx... Utopia can be represented as a dystopia, if we take into account the performative nature of the latter, which contributes to the instantaneous translation of words into action, realizing the world of utopia. Dystopia is the answer to utopia with a change of sign: about the same thing, changing the optics, you can say "yes" and "no". This means that in the modern world, indeed, and for a long time, virtual consciousness becomes little different from the real one, and imagination replaces the theoretical position, acquiring its form, turning theory into fiction. A hypothesis is put forward about the presence of many utopian countries in" Utopia": Achorians, Polylerites, Macarians, Anemolians.


1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olufemi Taiwo

These are the best of times for the Rule of Law. In all parts of the world, states, governments, and individuals, have found in the rule of law, at various times, a rallying cry, a principle of social ordering that promises the dawn of a just society that its supporters in Euro-American democracies claim to be its crowning glory, or a set of practices that is a sine qua non of a good society. The pursuit of the ideal is nothing new: after all, even those states where it was observed more often in its breach always paid lip service to it. And the defunct socialist countries of Eastern Europe, while they existed, could not escape its lure even as they sought to give it a different nomenclature—socialist legality. The movement towards the rule of law has accelerated after the collapse of Soviet communism and its foster progeny in different parts of the world. Given the present momentum towards the rule of law and the widespread enthusiasm with which it is being embraced and pursued at the global level, some would consider it somewhat churlish for anyone to inject any note of doubt or caution. This is more so when such a note emanates from Marxist quarters. But that is precisely what I wish to do in this essay. Although I do not intend to rain on the rule of law’s entire parade, I surely propose to rain on a segment of it: the Marxist float. I propose to look at the issue within the context of the Marxist politico-philosophical tradition.


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