Demographic, Cultural and Wealth Conditions for Corruption in Latin America

Demographic, Cultural and Wealth Conditions for Corruption in Latin America Adrian Toma   Abstract. Unrefined control mechanisms developed by civil society, compared with the long exerted dominance of economically and racial selected ruling class, could be one reason for strong apprehension toward corruptive behavior in Latin America. Historically, the ”have ones” shaped the law enforcement […]

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The Evolution and the Profitability of the Banking System in Romania

The Evolution and the Profitability of the Banking System in Romania Teodora-Cezara PORUMBACEAN   Abstract. This paper aims to carry out an analysis of the evolution and profitability of the Romanian financial banking sector. In order to analyse the performance and the evolution of the best performing banks, a set of relevant financial ratios are […]

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Economic and Legal Assessment of Illicit Activities during the Occupation of Karabakh and its Adjacent Districts

Economic and Legal Assessment of Illicit Activities during the Occupation of Karabakh and its Adjacent Districts Adalat MURADOV Nargiz HAJIYEVA   Abstract. This study investigates the illegal exploitation of natural resources, the export, and import of goods and products carried out by Armenia during the occupation of Karabakh and the surrounding areas. The current legal […]

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From the European Idea to the European Union. Integration and Federalization

From the European Idea to the European Union. Integration and Federalization Vendelin Francisc GLAZER   Abstract. The process of integration and federalisation in a Europe beaten by wars and a long queue of theoretical debates regarding the path to follow known generically as the “European Idea” represented the only solution to exit the crisis generated […]

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The Democratic Legitimacy of the United Nations Security Council: Problems and Solutions

The Democratic Legitimacy of the United Nations Security Council: Problems and Solutions Nicoleta LAŞAN   Abstract. The United Nations Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Most of the debates and analysis regarding the UN Security Council make specific references to the need to reform this organ considered […]

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Rethinking Mechanical Automata in Early Modern Europe

Rethinking Mechanical Automata in Early Modern Europe Stefano GULIZIA This collection of essays addresses the questions of whether, and how, automata and artificial instruments were able to articulate key issues of their period, particularly ideas about social hierarchy, economics, and philosophy of technology. The purpose of this short introduction is not to exhaust the relevance […]

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Reformation England and the Performance of Wonder: Automata Technology and the Transfer of Power from Church to State

Reformation England and the Performance of Wonder: Automata Technology and the Transfer of Power from Church to State Lily FILSON Abstract. When Henry VIII split England from the Church of Rome, a dramatic aspect of the broad campaign of reform and iconoclasm was the exposure of fraudulent religious imagery, revealing to the public that the […]

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Living Machines in the Early Stuart Court

Living Machines in the Early Stuart Court Vera KELLER* Abstract. This short paper is in response to Lily Filson‟s essay in this collection. It engages with the insertion of automata into a higher environmental sphere, with a distinct view on their embodiment and „macrocosmic‟ features. Such an approach emphasizes the relation between pneumatic technology and […]

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Christiaan Huygens’s Cosmotheoros: Anthropological Theology and the Mechanization of Nature

Christiaan Huygens’s Cosmotheoros: Anthropological Theology and the Mechanization of Nature Miguel PALOMO   Abstract. While it is known that a mechanized universe was adopted among scientists and philosophers during the seventeenth century and that it provided a new understanding of nature, we can see that for many scientists the universe was not entirely empirical. Rather, […]

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Talismans as Automata. Hebrew Philology and the Mechanisation of Nature in Jacques Gaffarel’s Curiositez

Talismans as Automata. Hebrew Philology and the Mechanisation of Nature in Jacques Gaffarel’s Curiositez Vittoria FEOLA   Abstract. This essay aims to contribute to our reflections about automata in the early modern worlds by demonstrating that, first, a debate took place in seventeenth-century France about the nature of talismans, as to whether they should be […]

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