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This book reveals the Hebrew Bible to be a sophisticated work of political philosophy, and the birthplace of egalitarian thought. Focusing on the Pentateuch, this book lays bare the manner in which the Bible appropriated and reconstituted ancient norms and institutions to create a new blueprint for society. Theology, politics, and economics were marshaled anew to weaken traditional seats of power, and to create a homogeneous class of empowered common citizens. Much of this anticipates developments in the history of political thought that would recur only during the Enlightenment and in the thought of the American Founding Fathers. Ancient religion granted sacral legitimation to the ruling classes and saw the masses as mere servants. The Pentateuch, by contrast, elevates the common citizenry in the eyes of God by invoking the political institution of the vassal treaty, and casting Israel as a subordinate king to the Almighty through the theology of covenant. Through the prism of the political philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Montesquieu, the book demonstrates the Pentateuch to be history's first proposal for the distribution of political power. Utilizing the anthropology of pre‐modern economies, ancient norms are explored concerning land tenure, taxation, and loans are reworked so that the common citizenry remains economically secure. Invoking the transformational role of the printing press in the spread of the Reformation and the birth of the Enlightenment, the book identifies far‐reaching consequences in the Bible's approach to what was then the new technology of communication: the alphabetic text.

The ten chapters in this book are concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-Communist Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989. The contributors come from different disciplines, ranging from history, economics, and political science to social psychology and sociology, and they show, above all, that the Soviet ‘bloc’ was in fact a rich spectrum of different countries with diverse histories, cultures, and traditions, and–not surprisingly–with different expectations for the future. Like other social concepts, trust never makes sense in isolation but only within the network of other concepts–in this case, social capital, faith, belief, solidarity, reciprocity, and security. ‘Trust’ is a highly polysemic term. Differences between meanings of trust in countries with democratic traditions and in post-totalitarian countries raise questions about the ways in which history, culture, and social psychology shape the nature and development of political phenomena. These questions include: antinomies such as trust versus risk, and trust versus fear; the co-existence of rural and urban systems; legitimacy of different political regimes; and the arbitrariness of decisions and the abuse of common sense in totalitarianism. The transition period in many post-Communist countries has now been completed and in others it is likely to be completed in the near future. Yet the chapters show that while political and economic changes can have rapid effects, cultural and psychological changes may linger and influence the quality of political trust and representations of democracy.

The relationship between individuals and communities — all manner of communities, but especially the state — is a central preoccupation of property theory. Across a broad range of property thought — from utilitarian to Lockean to Hegelian — scholars have expended enormous effort explaining what owners can do with their property and the extent to which the community or the state can participate in those decisions. Discussions of property rights, from whatever perspective, necessarily reflect ideas about the proper domain and limits of individual and community power. Property stands so squarely at the intersection between the individual and community because systems of property are always the creation of some community. Moreover, systems of property have as their subject matter the allocation among community members of rights and duties with respect to resources that human beings need in order to survive and flourish. These allocative decisions are crucially important both to individuals, owners and non-owners alike, and to the community as a whole. In other words, whenever we discuss property, we are unavoidably discussing the architecture of community and of the individual's place within it. Even though the relationship between individuals and community stands at the conceptual center of property theory, the normative theories of community underlying discussions of property are frequently left implicit. This book aims to remedy this deficiency. With essays by property theorists from five different countries, it addresses various facets of the intersection between property and community.

‘Transparency’ is widely canvassed as a key to better governance, increasing trust in public-office holders. But it is more often preached than practised, more often referred to than defined, and more often advocated than critically analysed. This book exposes this doctrine to critical scrutiny from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including political science, philosophy, and economics. It traces the history of transparency as a doctrine of good governance and social organization, and identifies its different forms; assesses the benefits and drawbacks of measures to enhance various forms of transparency; and examines how institutions respond to measures intended to increase transparency, and with what consequences. Transparency is shown not to be a new doctrine. It can come into conflict with other doctrines of good governance, and there are some important exceptions to Jeremy Bentham's famous dictum that ‘the more closely we are watched, the better we behave’. Instead of heralding a new culture of openness in government, measures to improve transparency tend to lead to tighter and more centralized management of information.

John Hicks's writing on monetary economics spans over fifty years. This book draws together the common threads of his work in a single succinct statement of the basics of monetary theory. It also outlines a theory of competitive markets that can be linked to the monetary sector; neither standard classical or neo-classical value theory can, on its own, fill the gap between monetary and non-monetary economics. In reviewing his own work, Hicks explains the way in which economic theory has been adjusted to reflect developments in the real economy. He sees these changes, sometimes quite major, as the discovery of truths which have become more appropriate, rather than the discovery of completely new truths.

This book proposes a new framework of political justice based upon the practice of caring. Integrating the insights of earlier care theorists with the concerns of traditional justice theorists, the author forges a new synthesis between care and justice, and further argues that the institutional and policy commitments of care theory must be recognized as central to any adequate theory of justice. The book begins by offering a practice‐based account of caring and a theory of obligation that explains why individuals should care for others. It then systematically demonstrates the implications of this account of caring for domestic politics, economics, international relations, and culture. In each of these areas, it reviews the contributions of earlier care theorists and then extends their arguments to provide a more complete description of the institutions and policies of a caring society. Care ethics is further put in dialogue with diverse cultural and religious traditions and used to address the challenges of multicultural justice, cultural relativism, and international human rights. More fully than other works on care theory, this book provides an overarching account of the institutions and policies of a caring society.

Thomas Schelling won the Nobel Prize “for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis.” This came after he had taught a game theory and rational choice course for forty-five years at an advanced level. This book presents the concepts Schelling taught as they are useful tools for understanding decisions and consequences. Mathematics often makes game theory challenging but it is presented as something very simple in this book. Along with a summary of the material Schelling presented this book looks at problems from his course and similar less challenging questions. While considerable analysis is carried out with the basic game theory tool—the two-by-two matrix—much of the book is descriptive and rational decision-making is presented through stories and explanation. Chapter supplements are added to illuminate points presented by Schelling and two chapters are case studies for detailed analysis of strategic thinking. The story of professional basketball coach Phil Jackson concerns the conflict between self-interest and group interest of star players in a multi-person form of the prisoner's dilemma. The second study illustrates the most dangerous decision-making moment in history, the Cuban missile crisis. This book is based on Thomas Schelling's course, which has provided guidance and insight to a great number of people around the world in academic and leadership positions.

Covers a standard range of topics in microeconomics theory. These include decision theory, strategic and extensive form games, the economics of information, bargaining, principal agent problems, cooperative games, and evolutionary game theory. Coverage is at the level of a graduate course in microeconomic theory.

This series features studies of the lives and works of some of Britain's foremost scholars. This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains nineteen obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the Academy. The scholars are: W S Allen, George Anderson, A C de la Mare, John Flemming, Patrick Gardiner, James Harris, John Hurst, Casimir Lewy, Donald MacDougall, Colin Matthew, Edward Miller, Michio Morishima, Brian Reddaway, Marjorie Reeves, C Martin Robertson, Conrad Russell, Arnold Taylor, Kathleen Tillotson, and Glanmor Williams.

Macroeconomics increasingly uses stochastic dynamic general equilibrium models to understand theoretical and policy issues. Unless very strong assumptions are made, understanding the properties of particular models requires solving the model using a computer. This volume brings together leading contributors in the field who explain in detail how to implement the computational techniques needed to solve dynamic economics models. It is based on lectures presented at the 7th Summer School of the European Economic Association on computational methods for the study of dynamic economies, held in 1996. A broad spread of techniques is covered, and their application to a wide range of subjects discussed. The book provides the basics of a tool kit that researchers and graduate students can use to solve and analyse their own theoretical models. It is oriented towards economists who already have the equivalent of a first year of graduate studies or to any advanced undergraduates or researchers with a solid mathematical background. No competence with writing computer codes is assumed. After an introduction by the editors, it is arranged in three parts: I Almost linear methods; II Nonlinear methods; and III Solving some dynamic economies.

Sixty years after his death, the life and thought of the economist, John Maynard Keynes, continues to be a subject of the greatest interest to scholars. Yet one of the most significant areas of Keynes's thinking has been strangely overlooked — international relations, a subject that was always of central importance to him. This book explores comprehensively, for the first time, the evolution of Keynes's thinking on international relations. It shows how this is linked to the changing of his opinions on economic matters, in a way which deepens the understanding of both. Drawing upon a wide range of significant source material in American and British archives, the book shows entirely new aspects of Keynes.

Principles in Health Economics and Policy is a concise introduction to health economics and its application to health policy. It introduces the subject of economics, explains the fundamental failures in the market for health care, and discusses the concepts of equity and fairness when applied to health and health care. The book takes a policy-oriented approach, emphasizing the application of economic analysis to universal health policy issues. It explores the key questions facing health policy-makers across the globe right now, such as: how should society intervene in the determinants that affect health? How should health care be financed? How should health care providers be paid? And, how should alternative health care programmes be evaluated when setting priorities? Exercises and suggested readings are included after each chapter.