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Of all the freedoms for which the Cold War was fought, free enterprise was deemed sufficient for acquisition of all other freedoms. The task of political science should now be to expose the loose & insecure moorings of economic ideology & to develop an approach more appropriate to the realities of our time. Our new millennium is a corporate millennium that has been interpreted in the hegemonic model to mean private & free (that is, unregulated) markets. However, any theory capable of incorporating the corporation has to be one of political economy. The first section of this article identifies six state-provided assumptions homo economicus has to be able to make prior to making or entering a market, without which homo economicus stays home. The second section puts the issue in a global context by identifying three developmental tracks -- macro, meso, & micro. Their existence denies the possibility of a pure economic theory of globalization. The third section describes the distinctive politics of each of the three tracks, demonstrating still more conclusively that political economy is the only approach competent to deal with the new corporate millennium. In conclusion, the author argues that political economy is & should be the new political science that this new era requires. 30 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into Buchanan's contribution to the contemporary political economy. His starting point is that Buchanan's concept of economy as exchange links political science & economics, showing that this is feasible, since Buchanan has rejected the theory of allocation, a standard in economics, & promoted the market theory based on exchange. The theory of allocation is dubious for Buchanan since it reduces the subject of economics to a set of problems & not to a characteristic form of human activity. That is why he uses the concept of the symbiotic, meaning the attitude based on the study of links among various actors that are beneficial for all. Buchanan's basic concept evolved & was shaped in the 1980s in the form of the constitutional political economy, which is an attempt to explain the possibilities of different legal-constitutional rules that determine the basic framework for selecting economic & political actors. The author claims that for political science, particularly important is the fact that Buchanan defines this type of political economy as a redux of the political in economics. In this way, on the one hand, it became questionable in economics as a discipline, & on the other, more acceptable for political science. However, the fact that Buchanan's work transcends the rigid boundaries of social disciplines does not mean that he unreservedly paves the way for political science. On the contrary, Buchanan is pursuing such a fundamental revision of the rigid boundaries among disciplines in social sciences that it may challenge the present status of political science. 31 References. Adapted from the source document.

Zdravko Petak's Javna dobra i politicko odlucivanje ([The Public Good and Political Decision Making] Zagreb: Biblioteka Politicka misao, 2001) is discussed. Petak's criticism of the Keynesian thesis that state intervention into free market economy is both necessary & effective to ensure the public well-being of the citizens is examined. Petak applies the theory of public choice to debunk this view & argues that the state is (1) unable to act on economically efficacious precepts & (2) not a higher-rank, external, & objective actor capable of regulating economic processes outside the basic human instincts & behaviors that underlie the functioning of private markets. The origin & evolution of the public choice theory are outlined, & the universal postulates of egoism (self-interest), rationality, & maximization governing human behavior are described. It is concluded that Petak's rebuttal of the arguments advanced by proponents of state intervention into the national economy is convincing, however, he fails to formulate a viable alternative. Also, he does not address several related issues seen to provide subject matter for a future book. Z. Dubiel

The origins, evolution, & present state of political economy as a field of scientific inquiry & academic course of study are discussed. The beginnings of political economy in the 17th century are outlined, & the discipline's development & branching during the next two centuries are noted. At the turn of the 20th century, political economy established itself as an autonomous economic science, but became marginalized in the research & teaching of economics for most of the century when it was appropriated by Stalinist ideology. Today, political economy is viewed as (1) one of the constitutive theories of political science; (2) a complex theory of development & change enabling the design of strategic scenarios of initiating, regulating, & implementing particular trends; (3) an economic analysis of politics & political institutions & processes; (4) a political analysis of economic institutions & processes; (5) a complex analysis of public policy as pertaining to economic activities; (6) an analysis of the relationships between the state & the economic sector; (7) an analysis of political-economic history; (8) a political-economic analysis of society; & (9) a political-economic analysis of the world economy (the political economy of globalization). The curriculum of a study course in political economy offered at the U of Ottawa & U of Zagreb is outlined. 124 References. Adapted from the source document.

Theodor Lowi 1969 marked the end of a "Big Government" era in American politics & theory. In 2001, he announced the end of fundamentalist laissez-faire approaches in recent politics & theory, especially in the field of globalization & the world corporate system. He argues that political science with political economy provides a better understanding of these processes & phenomena than economics without political economy. Here, Strpic accepts "Lowi's challenge" & formulates with him an "agenda for a new global politics" & an "agenda for a new global political economy." He refers to a few recent articles & a book of his own, where he already has done it, & also reminds us of his immediate & accurate politico-economic forecasting of the actual change in American politics after the terrorist attack on the US, & the absence of a great economic crisis, which leading American economists realized only a few weeks later. 26 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into the methodological features of public choice theory. Drawing on James Buchanan's contribution, he demonstrates the differences between that kind of approach (often dubbed political economy) vs welfare economics & mainstream economics. Unlike welfare economics, which tries to work out the optimal state of allocation & distribution of economic resources by using certain logical rules based on Pareto principles, or mainstream economics, which tries to identify the improvements in observable economic categories (such as national income or investment consumption), political economy encompasses the process of collective decision making, ie, politics. In this, the efficacy criterion is the extent of consent (consensus) in collective decision making. The author concludes that Buchanan & G. Tullock's joint contribution in The Calculus of Consent paved the way for introducing a legitimate categorical mechanism for investigating the costs of political decision making in political science. 3 Figures, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.

Using the analytical model & categories of the American radical political economy as the starting point, the author analyzes the dynamics of economic changes in Croatia in the 1990s. Particularly significant for understanding the dynamics is a dimension that the author, in line with classical political economy, calls the "moral economy of transition." The basic institutional & social structure of accumulation in the Croatian economy of the 1990s was marked by state populism, clientelism, & cronyism -- the result of the HDZ's model of "national capitalism," ie, a specific collusion of economic policy & privatization. That model failed to address the major problems of development or to secure a satisfactory rate of economic growth. That is why the political-economic balance of Croatia's first transitional decade is negative. The author concludes that the second decade will require a new political-economic model, one that will overcome the challenges facing the Croatian society: economic development, increased productivity, smaller government, reconciling the imperative of accumulation & democratic legitimacy, & restoration of moral economy & trust. 4 Tables, 83 References. Adapted from the source document.

The publication of a Croatian translation of Friedrich August von Hayek's "Individualism: Genuine and Fake" (1946) occasions this biographic note introducing the Austrian economist to Croatian readers. Hayek is characterized as a liberal politologist & political economist who opposed John Maynard Keynes's doctrine of state intervention in the national economy; Hayek's most representative publications & those in which he carried out his polemics with Keynesian ideas of the government influencing the market, although not eliminating it, are mentioned. Methodologically, Hayek is placed as a continuator of the empiricism & "methodological individualism" of Karl Menger's Austrian School of Economics & an elaborator of L. Mises's statistical-dynamic equilibrium approach. It is pointed out that Hayek opposed all forms of government intervention into the free market: the planned economy of the Soviet era, German national socialism, Italian & Spanish fascism, & the modern welfare state. A selected bibliography of Hayek's works is compiled. 52 References. Z. Dubiel

The theory of public choice is a major link between political science & economic science. It includes economic research into the issue of non-market decision making, ie, the application of economic analysis to political decision making. The champions of the theory of public choice have the most confidence in the market & market institutions. They try to explain political decision making by means of the standards operating in the market. The public choice theory approach is based on the concept of methodological individualism & homo oeconomicus, since individuals try to promote their own interests both in the market & in politics. Theoreticians of public choice investigate voters' behavior, the roles of politicians, political parties, & interest groups in complex democratic societies. Central for their research is the political process in which voters behave as buyers, & politicians as entrepreneurs, while bureaucrats are prone to self-aggrandizement; their ambition is to boost the significance of their office. The theory of public choice emphasizes the category of exchange (political exchange) & the catalectic approach to economy. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author discusses the basic structure of Mancur Olson's political economy. He highlights three concepts on which it is based: public goods, interest groups, & selective incentives. The last concept represents Olson's innovation in contemporary political science. The author's central methodical assumption is based on the insight that Olson's key theory is linked with the so-called public goods paradox. Unlike private goods, public goods are noncompetitive & nonexclusive, which means that it is not possible to bar those who do not share the costs of their production from using them. On the basis of this, Olson has developed the original theory of interest groups. By looking into the costs of organizing along interest lines as a collective activity whose result is a public good, he distinguishes between large, heterogeneous, & small, homogeneous groups. Besides, he has shown that, regarding public goods, individuals tend to behave as free riders, defaulters who try to avoid the costs of securing these goods. The author shows that Olson has, notwithstanding certain flimsiness of his reductionist methodology, significantly revamped political science. Adapted from the source document.

The author is critical of the introduction of the euro from the point of view of national & political economy. His criticism is based on four assumptions. The first is that the introduction of the euro gives rise to certain legal concerns. Some countries had not met the criteria for the introduction of the euro, yet it was introduced, which means that the European parliament & the national governments & their parliaments no longer respect the due process of law. The second is that the foreign debt, which amounts to 120% of GNP, is impossible to repay in those democracies that are not in the position to impose austerity measures that would include several legislatures. The third criticism is based on the fact that European countries are at different levels of development, which makes the monetary union much too vulnerable. The fourth criticism refers to the fact that common currency means common policy, &, consequently, the end of nation-states in Europe. Croatia may join the EU, but this would pose a challenge to its national sovereignty. 2 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

The SANU Memorandum of 1986 is the ultimate manifesto of the Greater Serbian idea; in the economic department, it is manifested in the form of vying for investments into Serbia, of the elimination of the "political & economic domination of Slovenia & Croatia," & of "disencumbering Serbia from contributing to the Federation fund." Its authors put the blame for the alleged lagging of Serbia exclusively on Slovenia & Croatia, & thus consequently make them responsible for all unsound economic policies in the former Yugoslavia. Particularly venomous charges are reserved for the Constitution of 1974, which makes for the independence ("secession") of Slovenia & Croatia, viewed as a precursor of a possible catastrophe. These two republics, they believe, are "morally obliged" to aid the development of the underdeveloped republics, since Serbia has sacrificed most, & the price of that has been its own thwarted development. Two issues are central to Serbian economists: the 1961-1965 five-year plan & the system of financing a faster development of the underdeveloped regions (the Federation Fund). They demand that Serbia should be completely exempted from aiding the underdeveloped &, at the same time, extra measures for a faster development of Serbia proper should be decreed. The impossibility of solving these problems in this dictated manner brought about the economic disintegration of Yugoslavia, followed by the strategy of violence, which ended in the aggression. Nevertheless, the Serbian political elite think that their political & economic standing has been enhanced & thus, in the negotiations about the succession, they flaunt the Memorandum propositions, & continue to live under the illusion that the Greater Serbia is a viable option, both economically & politically. Adapted from the source document.

In classical political & politicoeconomic theory, the opposition of the traditional & the modern is set in the very conception of political & social bodies in motion, & in their change power -- vs the antique & medieval conception. In contemporary science, as it is surveyed in this study, the political "duration" & "change" are the key mediation point of all development & change. They are often treated as a modernization rather than a transformation of a genuine polity. This is a significant difficulty in political action & its complex strategy. Strategy of change & development of a polity must include "choice" in evaluations of its proper state & the state of its referring environment, of their predictable internal & external changes, of various options, & of their alternative potential development scenarios in crossing. It is a combination of a prospective history of the complex societal change & development, & of an implementation of its own meaning of action. This combination must be founded in focused specialist analysis of comparative politicoeconomic processes whose foundation is in theories of national & world systems, & in general political & politicoeconomic theory. In a Schumpeterian equilibrium & disequilibrium relation of development of the politicoeconomic system, a permanent unexpected penetration of 'practical action' intensifies the 'Hume's fork' of analytical models without a general theory, especially the theory of the state. Almond & Pye's theory of political development dissociated itself from the development & analysis of an individual political system. Inside political system boundaries it isolated itself from major sources of real political change & development -- instead developing a politological approach to problems of the polity. Convergent general & special theories in social sciences, with a differentiation in disciplinary scientific approaches -- are the necessity of the new political economy as much as theory of complex development & change. Adapted from the source document.

Understanding Central Europe as a particular European region is based on historical & cultural heritage of the Mitteleuropa & on the revival of the Central European identity in the 1980s. Central European regional cooperation has been promoted in the late 1980s & early 1990s, particularly through the following cooperation schemes: Pentagonale/Central European Initiative (now dissolved), the Vishegrad Group, & the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). These schemes have been supported by the European Union & they fit its strategy of widening that is now based on the differentiated integration, which implies strengthening of economic & monetary union & defense union. The European Union tends to link the Central European region to the Baltic countries, rather than connect it with Southeastern Europe, which is regarded as a special case, covered by the peace restoration strategy. Central Europe is a region of uneven development & very diversified cultures & peoples. It is therefore difficult to treat it as a structured European region. EU focuses on a number of states that form "the intersection of different areas of integration," & in this respect Central Europe may be best understood as a development & transformation project that might create a new type of differentiated relationships among states & cultures within Central Europe & between Central Europe & the European Union. Focusing on Central Europe may turn the region into the central project of European development. Adapted from the source document.