TheMarketForIdeas

Dissolved Magazine

The Market for Ideas recommends Dissolved Magazine, a platform devoted to the production and promotion of visual and literary arts and cultural events, featuring consecrated artists and creative young people. This exquisite Romanian magazine, created by Melissa Antonescu and Romina Banu, delivers content that defies linguistic barriers, as it originates from a community able to speak fluently the language of image and imagination. Savour it, in responsible excess, at: www.dissolvedmagazine.com. More

Of Sand and Time – Life, Dignity and Age in a World of the Self

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

For the first 18 years of life, people are dependent on others. Their productive years are perhaps from 18 to 60, or more, if they are lucky. Then, they become reliant on others again. After having gotten used to independence, they revert to a childlike status. In the West, especially the US, they might move in to assisted living facility and have their belongings, including their home (including through specialized products such as reverse mortgages), sold so that they can afford a good care facility in their old age. And then, just like that… damnatio memoriae! They are one step closer to being forgotten, along with obsolete models of lifestyle, mores, and economic thinking. Almost as if fearing the reminder of impending old age and eventual death, contemporary society is quick to hide elders away, to put them in a place where we will not bother or depress anyone with the reality of their existence. More

On Normative Violence

Emil Dinga

The social contract (no matter its type: contractarian – John Rawls, of capability – Martha Nussbaum, or of resilience – Robert Nozick) was born precisely to eliminate or avoid the private violence or, at least, to guarantee protection against it, with the state as protector. The social arrangement against private violence is very sophisticated and, generally, functional enough to provide freedom and democracy – first of all, based on Constitution as the basic structure of the society. The problem is: what about public violence? Public violence can take the following three forms: a) violence between states (either economic, diplomatic or military); b) the violence of a dictatorial state against its own people; c) the violence of a democratic state against its own people. Since the first two forms are outside any problematization, I shall discuss more analytically the third one.  More

The Year 2050, the Imaginary and the Unimaginable

Octavian-Dragomir Jora, Alexandru Georgescu

Both “imaginariums” and “histories”, while differing on essential ingredients, visions and vestiges respectively, share an essential imperfection – incomplete information and/or bounded rationality. We compose mosaics (using also our imagination) about a past which we did not witness; and we extrapolate tendencies/trends (undoubtedly, with a historical basis) for a future which we may or may not be there to witness. Combining “path dependencies” with “disruptive revolutions”, we can generate scenarios with varying confidence.  More

Austria Shouldn't Support Weakened Patent Protections

Barbara Kolm

Austria has become a major producer and exporter of medicines. Today, Austria's pharmaceutical industry is the 12th largest in Europe. It adds an estimated €9.6 billion to our economy and supports more than 60,000 jobs. Unfortunately, a United Nations panel recently proposed several policies that would undermine Austria's drug industry, thereby harming the economy and decreasing access to medications across Europe and the developing world. The Austrian government ought to speak out against the panel's foolhardy recommendations. Its silence seems like tacit support.  More

The Romanian Academy discussing National Sovereignty with Prof. Stephen Bowers

On October 19th of 2017, the Romanian Academy, through its Institute for World Economics, hosted Prof. Dr. Stephen Bowers, who teaches Government at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA and leads the Center for Security and Science. Prof. Bowers has an extensive background in the Armed Forces and working within the intelligence community and has emerged as an authority on Eastern Europe and low intensity conflicts. More

The Future of the EU Looks Rather Bleak

Filip Clem

The last meeting of the European Council, from October 2017, indirectly pulled the plug on Turkey’s negotiations for EU accession. The EU heads of state and government have indirectly expressed their disinterest for the continuation of Ankara’s dialogue with Brussels in this particular regard. The public formula was that of redirecting EU funds for Turkey’s negotiations process to other purposes across the EU. More

Escaping the Middle-Income Trap

The Romanian Academy hosted on October 26^th, 2017, a conference held by the well-known economist, Aurelian Dochia. The event was organized by the Academy’s Institute for World Economy, as part of the activity of its internal reflection group “GLOBAL 3G - Repositioning the Economic Agents in Globalization, the Geostrategic and Geopolitics' Impact”. More

The Anathema of Secession

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

Talking about secession in the house of the modern state is, depending on the tastes and the actual situation of the speaker, either something absolutely hilarious (if not even dangerous), or something absolutely legitimate (if not even necessary). It is a historical fact that the current world, in its settlement as state-centred reality, of cohabiting territorial monopolies of legitimate use of force, was built on a foundation which, in the meantime, became a geopolitical quasi-taboo: the principle of self-determination. This self-determination, in its pure form, does not involve something that should mandatorily be seen as insidious, but a natural prolongation of human liberty and personal property – two civilizational benchmarks which, we must admit, are still treated as indigest on certain lands, in certain times. And if the state is portrayed and perceived as a social contract, then it can only be accepted as valid if closed between free men, within the limits of their legitimate patrimony, including their territorial possessions, under a strictly consented jurisdictional framework. (Or not quite so?)  More

The Transposition of the World

Dragoș Preda

In his paper, Ideology, Religion and Politics: Evolution of a Concept (Ideologia, religia și politica: evoluția unui concept), Associate Professor of Comparative Government and Politics Jeffrey Evan Key said: “Ideology, religion and politics all shape people's attitudes about the way that governments are organized and operate and the roles of rulers and citizens. Though they are related concepts, this relationship has evolved over time. Ideology, religion and politics have varied in their relative importance and sometimes become intertwined. Early in the 21st century, the ties between them are once again in a state of flux. Understanding this complex relationship is important to comprehend such issues as the recurrence of terrorist attacks in the Western world and the new political values ​​espoused during the US Presidential elections in 2016 and beyond. In this, I refer you to a recent article written by Dani Rodrik, a Harvard University professor, titled The Future of Europe remains uncertain (Viitorul Europei rămâne nesigur), published by the World Economic Forum More

Three Unions in a (Life)Boat

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

The unions of states, in their either federalist or inter-governmental setting, are portrayed in economics and political science literature, by certain scholars and pundits, as quasi-romance stories and, by others, as purely-cynical undertakings: they are, for the first, expressions of common destinies, while for the second, mere cartels of political exploitation. Though, beyond charitable or circumspect translation of state gatherings, the undeniable facts are that the state, as an organization of humans, has a maximizing logic and that this logic is exercised as the monopoly of (legitimate?) violence with the privilege of (unconsented?) expropriation, by taxation, regulation and inflationary redistribution of purchasing power. Maximization logic of the state (apparatus) – rightly de-homogenized from the rest of society – leads to a triple choice: to increase domestic exploitation, to expand abroad, or both. More