Odd, Idle, and Vicious: Plato’s Use of Public Opinion in His Characterization of the Philosopher in Republic VI

Plato’s characterization of the philosopher often emerges as a way to respond to popular conceptions and representations of the intellectual in Athenian society. In book 6 of the Republic in particular, he articulates his greatest defense of the philosopher against two major charges – that of being vicious and useless. Voicing what appears to be a commonly held view among Athenians, this representation of the philosopher is raised by Adeimantus as an objection to Socrates’ proposal of a philosopher-king. Surprisingly, rather than dismissing the allegations as false, Socrates admits ‘that what they say is true’ (Resp. 6.487d10) and incorporates these criticisms into his argument. This paper proposes that the popular depiction of the philosopher as odd, vicious and idle plays a significant role in Plato’s own characterization of the philosopher, illustrating how Plato diagnoses the philosopher’s alienation from public affairs in a manner that defines and legitimates his own ideas of philosophy.

The Educational Quality of the Doctoral Programs in Public Affairs

Public affairs scholars have been concerned about the quality of education in their field for some decades. To assess the program quality, the authors analyzed the National Research Council's most recent data. In the comparative analyses between the public affairs programs and the programs in other social science disciplines, they found that public affairs doctoral programs were behind their peer fields on most of the input-based metrics (students fully funded in their first year of education, median quantitative GRE scores, and percentage of international students in programs) but ahead of them in student-faculty ratios. The results of the outcome-based metrics were mixed. Public affairs students graduated earlier on average, but smaller percentages of them had plans for employment in academic positions. Also, the faculty productivity was lower in public affairs programs compared to the other social science disciplines. Among the subfields of public affairs, public management and public policy had more favorable input- and outcome-based results compared to public administration.

Expenditures of Rural Societies and Volost Boards in the 1880s – 1890s (Based on the Materials of the Middle Volga Region)

Introduction. The comparative analysis of the expenditure part of rural and township budgets of the Middle Volga provinces in the 1880s – 1890s is presented. Materials and Methods. The study is based on the comparative method. Quantitative, problem-chronological, system analysis and structural methods were of auxiliary importance. Results. The comparison of data on the Middle Volga provinces shows that in the 1880s – early 1890s, the mundane expenses of rural societies were twice as high as the costs of the volost boards. A significant part of the worldly fees went to pay employees of volost boards; much more modest funds were allocated to representatives of peasant self-government bodies, and, in their totality, these funds were steadily declining at the end of the XIX century. Discussion. In many areas of the Middle Volga region in the 1890s, rural electors did not receive any payment at all. The item of expenditure of local self-government bodies designated as “other expenses for the management and conduct of all kinds of public affairs”, which included the costs of renting apartments for officials, paying for the travel of officials and elected officials, delivering taxes to the treasury, the costs of conducting court cases, hiring servants and accounting officials was quite noticeable for rural societies at the very beginning of the 1890s, but gradually decreased. The amounts spent under this article by rural societies significantly exceeded the volost ones. During the period under review, the protection of public safety and fire-fighting measures were financed mainly from the fees of rural societies. An important component of the “mundane budgets” were the so-called “agricultural expenditures”, which included a wide range of operations aimed at organizing agriculture and animal husbandry. Conclusion. The reform of taxation and the system of local self-government in Russia in the 60–70s of the XIX century provided rural societies with wider opportunities for spending funds to meet urgent needs. A certain independence in the approval of expenditure items can be traced in the specifics of the costs of individual volosts and rural societies of the Middle Volga provinces. Allocating a significant part of worldly fees for payments to employees of volost boards, the peasantry preferred to minimize their own expenses on self-government bodies. The costs of “managing and conducting all kinds of public affairs” were quite palpable for the villagers at the very beginning of the 1890s, but also gradually decreased.

Measuring citizens’ engagement during emergencies: Psychometric validation of the Public Health Engagement Scale for Emergency Settings (PHEs-E)

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of citizens’ behaviors in the containment of the virus. Individuals might change their intention to adhere to public health prescriptions depending on various personal characteristics, including their own emotional status, which has been recognized to be a crucial psychological factor in orienting people’s adherence to public health recommendation during emergency settings. In particular, it is crucial to support citizens’ alliance with authorities and feeling of trust: public engagement is a concept that refers to the general involvement of citizens into public affairs which is generally considered an effective approach to enhance citizens’ understanding of their crucial role in public affairs. However, so far there is no agreement on the metrics and indexes that should be used to measures public engagement during a health crisis. The aim of this paper is to validate a psychometric scale (PHEs-E), which intends to measure the readiness of individuals to adhere to the prescribed behavioral change to contain the emergency. Data were collected throughout the pandemic in Italy: in particular, five independent samples were recruited starting from March 2020 to March 2021. Results showed that the proposed measure has good psychometric characteristics. A general linear model was computed to assess the differences of public engagement across the different data points and among citizens with different sociodemographic characteristics. Correlations with other psychological constructs (i.e. Anxiety, Depression and Self-Efficacy) were also tested, showing that more engaged citizens have a lower level of anxiety and depression, and a higher self-efficacy. This study’s findings indicate that individuals’ characteristics may differentiate citizens’ motivation to engage in public health behavioral recommendation to prevent the COVID-19 contagion. However the scale could be useful to perform a psychological monitoring of psychological readiness to engage in public health strategies to face critical events and settings.

Electronic initiatives as a tool for e-democracy: the experience of Ukraine and Latvia

The article is devoted to a comparative legal analysis of the experience of Ukraine and Latvia in the implementation of the institution of electronic initiative as an important tool of direct e-democracy. The practical question of why in some countries e-initiatives are a real leverage, while in others it is more likely just a marker that signals certain problems of concern to society, prompts a thorough study of legal regulation and information technology support of e-initiatives. For a comparative analysis of the regulation of the procedure for submitting and considering an electronic initiative, the experience of Latvia as a state that has demonstrated real successful results of the work of the online platform ManaBalss.lv as a tool for presenting, registering, discussing, considering an electronic initiative and solving issues in it was selected. In addition, the experience of this country shows that an increase in the level of participation of citizens in the management of public affairs is possible provided they are provided with an effective and convenient mechanism of influence. The article focuses on the shortcomings of the legal regulation of the institution of electronic petitions in Ukraine as the main factor in the ineffectiveness of this tool of e-democracy, including the absence of a special legislative act on electronic petitions, a legislative guarantee for resolving the issue that is raised in the petition, failure to take into account public opinion, expressed in a petition that received fewer votes than is required by law, etc. The necessity of introducing a mechanism for preliminary verification of the content of electronic petitions for constructiveness, reliability and reality is indicated. It is noted that for the proper implementation of the goal of direct e-democracy, levers of influence on the government must be created, which will make it listen to the problems of public concern.

Formation of people’s control in the USSR, forms and methods of its implementation (The case study of the Saratov Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection of the first half of the 1920s)

Introduction. The study of the Soviet experience in the formation of the legal foundations of the welfare state, the involvement of workers in the management of public affairs, ensuring equality of rights, freedoms and opportunities for their implementation, is becoming increasingly relevant. The study of the experience of the organization and functioning of the institution of people’s control in the RSFSR and the early years of the USSR is of particular interest, since this institution was inextricably linked with the ideology of building a new type of the state, implemented in the system of socialist governance and was an example of the practical implementation of the principle of direct and permanent exercise of power by workers. Theoretical analysis. In the conditions of the developing Soviet state apparatus, there was a need to create a special system of bodies that would systematically monitor the activities of enterprises, organizations and institutions, monitor the execution of decrees and resolutions of the Soviet government. The ideas of combining state and public control were embodied in the creation of the legal basis for the activities of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, which became a single body of socialist control. The RKIs were assigned duties of various legal nature: political, legal, administrative and economic control. Empirical analysis. The study of archival documents allowed us to consider the application of the mechanisms of formation and activity of the RKI bodies in the Saratov province in the early 1920s. The main problem of the creation and activity of RKI assistance groups during this period was the lack of understanding of the goals of their creation by workers and, as a result, the unwillingness of workers and especially peasants to take part in their work. RKI controllers usually had no experience in auditing activities, so their reports, as a rule, did not analyze the causes of the identified shortcomings, did not mention the measures taken. Most often the controllers recorded cases of mismanagement or abuse, without giving them any assessment. In the mid-1920s, the activities of the provincial and district RKIs acquired a planned character, the directions of control and audit activities were determined by the governing party bodies. Control measures in the period of 1924–1928 began to be carried out more consistently and professionally. Results. In the early 1920s, socialist control was of a syncretic state-public nature, and there was a search for forms and methods of its implementation. The Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, by its political and legal nature, was an institutionalized result of the empirical development of the concept of socialist democracy, which outwardly reflected Lenin’s ideas of popular control in the system of governance of the Soviet state. This body fully met the needs of the new political system, which assumed a radical revision of the forms and methods of governance, including the pre-revolutionary methodology of control and supervision. The participation of the population in the processes of public administration was considered an integral element of state-building, which was to radically change the established system of power relations.