Suchergebnisse

Recent historiography has paid a lot of attention to the rise of the cult of great men in eighteenth-century France. The focus of the debate has been on whether the cult of great men subverted or actually strengthened the monarchy. Yet, science and scientific thinking deeply affected eighteenth-century political philosophy, anthropology, and state administration. Far from being merely a celebration of ancient republican virtues, the cult of great men was influenced by the newly discovered, formulated, and popularized scientific laws of nature and by an increasingly systematic interest in the science of political economy. Acknowledging and absorbing these changes, La Beaumelle's Pensées (1752) proposed a politics based on a naturalist anthropology with eugenic overtones and on a utilitarianism and commercial liberalism that functioned within the boundaries of the reason of state doctrine.

Pensions played a key role in the Greek fiscal crisis of 2010. This paper analyses a specific failure of pension system governance: the possibility of manipulating the vague boundary between social policy and occupational pensions. The vagueness of the boundary arises from the dual nature of pensions — as instruments of social and corporate policy. Where first pillar pension provision is segmented, this boundary can be fudged, giving rise to the possibility of appropriating public subsidies for occupational pensions. Though the implications of this for equity were understood long ago, change was finally imposed by the obligation to account for pension promises under International Accounting Standards. The indirect effect of this was to force the demarcation of an upward boundary to social policy responsibility. This paper, after setting up the analytical issue, outlines its manifestation in Greece, and examines the solution given in 2005—6. This methodology has acquired wider significance by being employed by the European Commission as an instrument in the analysis of issues of state aid.