Oikonomia in Hellenistic political thought

Political-Theological Source of the “State of Exception”: Re-Reading Sovereignty Within the Divine Oikonomia

“…So, the art of the oikonomia, then, is the logic of establishing the settlement and ordering of the things that are governed. That is why the term oikonomia cannot be reduced to the single logic of economics, because the oikonomia does not only refer to management of things, but it also signifies a governmental logic which seeks to reveal the potentialities and mediate them within the order of the politics (Leshem 2016;Natali 1995). Oikonomia is, therefore, a logic of organizing, sorting and associating things within the scope of the political order.…”

Oikonomia in the age of empires

“…Dinarchus, an orator of the fourth century BC, did so as well, 27 as did Dionysus of Halicarnassus (Baloglou, 1998: 116), and Polybius and Strabo used the term ‘oikonomia’ in reference to Egypt (ibid.). The latter usage should not surprise us, since Ptolemaic Egypt, lacking a political sphere in which men became citizens (and not just subordinates) by partaking in government, was conceived as a giant household (Natali, 1995: 98–9). The equating of an absolute monarchy with the rule of the master/citizen over his household appears already in Aristotle (Aristotle, 1944 [ Politics 1285b], who called it a royal oikonomia ( οἰκονομικὴ βασιλεíα ).…”

“… 1. See also Natali (1995: 95) and Baloglou (2004, 2007). On the minor place, at best, that this period occupied in the historiography of economic thought, prior to the publication of Schumpeter’s book, see Baloglou (2003).…”

“… 9. Zoepffel (2006) is the most detailed review of this literature. The literature is also covered to some extent in the work of Christos Baloglou cited above and in Natali (1995). In her book Zoepffel (2006: 55–65) argues that the literature on oikonomia is less occupied with material processes and much more with the overall management of the household, specifically with the right order of people and things in it.…”

Oikonomia Redefined

“…For a review of the ancient literary genre dedicated to the art of oikonomia, see Albert Augustus Trever (1916), Natali (1995), Christos Baloglou (1998Baloglou ( , 2009, Renate Zoepffel (2006), and Nagle (2006), to some extent.…”