Domestic administration and political power: the family in classical
antiquity
The etymon of the word economy refers to the term oikonomia which,
in classic antiquity, corresponded with'government of the home', or the
careful management of the family's human resources and materials. From
the beginning of our civilisation, the family was considered to be, and
was organised as if it were, a government, with a'good administration'
carried out through a certain exercise of power by the head of the family,
tending to guarantee the well-being of its members. However, although in
one sense, the term economy refers to the domestic dimension (oikos) of
this exercise of power (nomia), in another sense it enables us to recognise
the similarities between the aims of this form of government and the
tendency of politic
