Three theses about political theology: some comments on Seyla Benhabib’s ‘return of political theology’

In this short piece, I explore Seyla Benhabib’s suggestion that hijab controversies can be interpreted as a return of political theology. I first clarify what political theology is; I then ask what it means to talk about a ‘return’ to it in relation to hijab controversies; and I finally ponder how much of the return of political theology is a genuine challenge to secular political theory.     

The Time Path of Legislative Party Switching and the Dynamics of Political Competition: The Italian Case (1996–2011)

Political competition is more realistically described as a dynamic process rather than as a series of static stages in which parties compete over policy and government formation. This paper focuses on legislative party switching as the main manifestation of this endogenously evolving process, linking individual switching behaviour to policy and office incentives that are assumed to evolve throughout the life of the entire legislature. Using a new data set tracking the timing of MPs’ changes in party affiliations between 1996 and 2011 in Italy, it is found that switching is mainly motivated by policy reasons and that it is more likely during government formation periods and budget negotiations. These results are a consequence of the interplay between MPs’ ambition and the alternation of key phases in the legislative cycle.     

论商法在中国社会主义市场经济法律体系中的地位和作用

在我国社会主义市场经济法律体系中,民法是前置性法律,经济法是保障性法律,而商法则是市场运行法,特殊的功能成就其不可替代的独立地位。商法产生于市场经济并且直接服务于市场经济,两者具有深刻的依存关系,以效益为契合点,通过反映市场经济内在要求的技术性规范,保障市场主体营利自由,进而促进社会财富的增加,实践的品格使其具有高度灵活性。现代市场经济立法主要表现为商事立法,没有健全的商法制度,就没有完备的社会主义市场经济法律体系。在经济危机频繁爆发的当今世界,我国商事法律制度的建设依然任重而道远,需要理性面对法律部门功能纯化、法律移植合理化和商事习惯法律化等问题。     

Women's bread — men's capital

The family enterprises of small rural entrepreneurs in proto-industrial textile production have been little studied so far. This article focuses on the ways in which family labor assists in entrepreneurial activities and nonindustrial activities within the domestic unit contribute to the creation of proto-industrial capital. The empirical material on early modern Zurich (Switzerland) documents large household economies among entrepreneurs engaging in agriculture as well as among drapers who employ their family labor in weaving or in ancillary tasks connected with the activity of putting out dependent weavers. It also demonstrates an association between proto-industrial entrepreneurship and baking, the latter often being performed by female family labor. This finding is explained by the use of bread as a means of paying workers and by the lack of access to capital markets: baking implies the creation of a surplus value within the family economy that can be directly converted into proto-industrial capital.