The Public Management of War Prisoners Within and Outside the bīt asīrī

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-219
Author(s):  
Annunziata Rositani

This paper presents some reflections on the management of war prisoners in South Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. In particular, it analyses data from texts in which “the house of prisoners of war,” the bīt asīrī, is mentioned. The majority of these texts date back to the reign of Rīm-Anum, who held power in Uruk for about two years during the rebellion of South Mesopotamia against Samsu-iluna of Babylon (1742‒1740 BC). This archive provides unparalleled evidence for the study of war prisoner management during the Old Babylonian period, which seems to have been exclusively administrated by the State. A specific study will be carried out on the usage of war prisoners as forced workers: in fact, many texts indicate that they were given to individuals or houses as a temporary labor force under a designated person’s authority. Nevertheless, the prisoners remained under the superior authority of the bīt asīrī, where they returned after they had finished working, without being included in the slave trade. The paper also analyses the way in which the prisoners’ geographic provenance affected the treatment they received and, finally, the release of prisoners upon payment of a ransom or following a royal action.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-67
Author(s):  
Annunziata Rositani

Abstract This article presents some reflections on slavery in the Ancient Near East during the Old Babylonian period. Particular attention is paid to an analysis of the sources for prisoners of war originating from Uruk in which the bīt asīrī, “the house of prisoners of war” is mentioned. These texts from the bīt asīrī date to the short reign of Rīm-Anum, who held power in Uruk for about eighteen months, between 1742 and 1740 BC. The use of war prisoners as labor force and slaves is examined in detail. It is suggested that the bīt asīrī was an institutional entity, managed by the state, and moreover that it was connected with the production of flour. This investigation also makes comparisons with other references to prisons in the Ancient Near East and especially in the Bible. Lastly, the ways in which war captives could be freed are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Niccolo Milanese

The right of audience, in common law, is the right of a lawyer to represent a client in a court. Royalty, the Pope and some Presidents grant audiences. What does the power to grant an audience consist in? And what does it mean to demand an audience (with)? Through a reading of the way in which the vocabulary of theatre, acting and audience is involved in the generation of a theory of state by Hobbes and Rousseau, this paper looks to reopen these questions as a political resource for us to re-imagine and refigure our ways of being together. Through readings of Hobbes and Rousseau, it looks at the ways in which the performance of politics creates the public, the representative and the sovereign and the ways these figures interact. It proposes an alternative role for theatre as places of affective learning and a civic ethics of playfulness, in which the auto-institution of the state as an imagined collectivity is fully assumed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-355
Author(s):  
Pieter Bleyen ◽  
Stijn Lombaert ◽  
Geert Bouckaert

In search for efficiency, effectiveness and fiscal sustainability, governments gather more performance information than ever before. As many of them have sought to incorporate and use this kind of information in budgeting and planning documents, the main goal of this article is to discover how local government performance budgeting practices can be mapped by a survey in a way that enables international comparison. Three previous mapping endeavors served as preliminary guidelines to develop a refined index based on the dimensions measurement, incorporation and use of performance information which form a generally accepted logical sequence in the public management literature. Results for the case of 304 Flemish local governments show a huge variation in the way performance budgeting is practiced, as index scores vary from nearly zero to more than 76 percent. Although it seems that available performance information is incorporated fairly well, measurement and use are lacking. It can be concluded that measuring performance budgeting offers interesting insights in the way this kind of budgeting is practiced in local governments. Although, from an analytical point of view, it is not sufficient to fully grasp performance budgeting and this for several reasons discussed in the article.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 358-393
Author(s):  
Bruno Irion Coletto ◽  
Pedro Da Silva Moreira

The right to healthcare in Brazil is seriously protected by the courts. Judicialization of everyday implementation of this public policy is a fact. One explanation may be provided by the way judges understand the effectiveness of this right. People hold subjective right to individualized healthcare benefits, and so they hold standing to sue the state in order to achieve it, regardless any consideration of public policies. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence on this issue, this paper aims to provide a critical understanding not just about what is actually happening in Brazilian courts regarding healthcare, but also to criticize it. The conclusion is that a “strong” conception of constitutionalism and fundamental rights may revel itself as “weak,” from the standpoint of general equality. Judicialization ends up empting the public debate, leading the task of solving the distribution of scarce resources to a “gowned aristocracy.” 


Author(s):  
Liudmyla Herasina

Problem of setting. Public government – it political practice of power which is carried out within the limits of the constitutionally political system and has a direct influence on all industries of life of socium is important. An effective public management in Ukraine must provide the state of stability, implementation of social obligations the states, deserving a condition for realization of congratulatory, financial, spiritual and social necessities of citizens; but him high-quality indexes far imperfect and characterized the plural of problems. Recent research and publications analysis. The questions of modernization and reforms of the system of state administration, constructions of the legal, social state, social and political processes are actively probed in the scientific mind of Ukraine, by the necessity of achievement of balance between the vital necessities of societies and interests of the state. Quite a bit Ukrainian scientists were engaged in researches of these questions - V. Kostytsky, І. Kostytska, O. Koban, A. Kovalenko, O. Batanov, I. Reznik, G. Chapala, M. Pukhtinskiy et al. Paper objective – ground of position, that a public management in Ukraine, which is carried out by public organs, local self-government, political parties and groups of political influence, must correlate with public resonance, to support the legitimity and answer to the innovative tendencies. Paper main body. A management in the public sphere of the state is very difficult professional activity, and foresees state and legal responsibility and account of public interests and expectations. However, disfunctions and destructions of public management can draw social and political instability, cutback of economic activity or regress, even weakening of sovereignty of the state. The criteria of political modernization matter very much for modern Ukraine: capacity of the political system for perception of innovations and mobilization of resources of power, structural and functional perfection of institutes of policy, powerful «social elevators» for equal access of people to imperious positions, effectiveness of principle of «equality all before a law». To Ukraine, as to the young state which passed by democratic transit, naturally peculiar strategy of reforms. Reformation is a not workaday situation for a country, it generates calls and problems. Among them most difficult is destructive of political power, what democratic development of country and becoming of civil institutes is braked through. Sociological researches rotined that a population considered: «The state must take more responsibility in providing of life of citizens» (68,6%). Stably negative is attitude of people toward a department judicial, which loses a «social capital» through inability to the just legal proceeding and mercenary political interests. In the end, unique reform 2014, that purchased positive social resonance is the process of decentralization the public power and strengthening of local self-government, which is mainly approved by citizens. Conclusions of the research. Problems of public management and collision of reforms are the sign of modern democracies which are modernized. The political system and public management can be effectively modernized at the maintainance of their integrity, institutional memory and, at the same time, harmonious relationships with a social environment.


Author(s):  
Ian Kumekawa

This book is an intellectual biography of the British economist A. C. Pigou (1877–1959), a founder of welfare economics and one of the twentieth century's most important and original thinkers. Though long overshadowed by his intellectual rival John Maynard Keynes, Pigou was instrumental in focusing economics on the public welfare. And his reputation is experiencing a renaissance today, in part because his idea of “externalities” or spillover costs is the basis of carbon taxes. The book tells how Pigou reshaped the way the public thinks about the economic role of government and the way economists think about the public good. Setting Pigou's ideas in their personal, political, social, and ethical context, the book follows him as he evolved from a liberal Edwardian bon vivant to a reserved but reform-minded economics professor. With World War I, Pigou entered government service, but soon became disenchanted with the state he encountered. As his ideas were challenged in the interwar period, he found himself increasingly alienated from his profession. But with the rise of the Labour Party following World War II, the elderly Pigou re-embraced a mind-set that inspired a colleague to describe him as “the first serious optimist.” The story is not just of Pigou but also of twentieth-century economics, the book explores the biographical and historical origins of some of the most important economic ideas of the past hundred years. It is a timely reminder of the ethical roots of economics and the discipline's long history as an active intermediary between the state and the market.


Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Ribeiro da Silva Rib Couto ◽  
Augusta da Conceição Santos Ferreira

New public management reflects a paradigm and orientation shift regarding the cornerstone of management in the public sector. With this new type of management, emphasis was given to accountability in order to, on the one hand, instill the need to render accounts when talking about the way decisions are taken (responsibility) and the way public resources are used (clarity) and, on the other hand, the citizens having the possibility of getting information which will allow them to make the public officials responsible. Considering the importance of accountability, this chapter was an attempt to carry out a bibliographic review, as a way of getting to know the different approaches to the concept, as well as getting to know the mechanisms that have been created in order to give explanations whether for the performance or accomplishment of a responsibility and if this is inherent to the responsibilities of the public officials.


Author(s):  
Davide de Gennaro

Public administrations have followed an important process of change over the past few years. Starting from the new public management (NPM) movement, the way of working, the way of interpreting work, the concept of performance, efficiency, and economy, the managerial style have changed. The objective of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the public sector reform processes of recent years and, consequently, to identify something “new” concerning the public sector. By analysing the bureaucratic model and its fall, the NPM and post-NPM reforms, and by comparing the different perspectives, the aim is to propose new challenges and a new approach for public sector.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-147
Author(s):  
Букалова ◽  
Svetlana Bukalova

The article is devoted to the analysis of the experience of the organization and activity of labour squads during the World War I. It can help to work out in details of state youth policy in the different historical stages of its development. The mission of those squads was to help the farmsteads, which stayed without workers because of their mobilization to the war. using the archive sources from the Orel province and data from other regions the author comes to theconclusion that labour squads were a form of mobilization of labor resources by the state. At the same time it was the way of socialization of youth and a form of state youth policy. Describing the system of labour squads management, the article says about participation of members of the royal family, provincial authorities, local self-governance, charity organizations and the public in it.


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