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This article challenges conventional portrayals of the status of economic liberalism within the contemporary British and American intellectual Right. Specifically, it seeks to correct two misconceptions. First, that within the intellectual Right economic liberalism is the dominant ideological component; and second, that it is a wholly confident and triumphalist ideology, with economic liberals unambiguously committed to an assertive individualist creed. In fact, many are far more pessimistic, defensive and insecure than is frequently acknowledged.

AS INTRODUCED IN JANUARY 1990, POLAND'S LIBERAL ECONOMIC REGIME EMPHASIZED FOUR PRINCIPLES: (1) MACRO-ECONOMIC STABILIZATION; (2) DEREGULATION OF PRICES AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY; (3) RAPID INTEGRATION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY BY LIBERALIZING FOREIGN TRADE REGULATION AND EXPANDING CURRENCY CONVERTIBILITY; AND (4) PRIVATIZATION. BY LATE 1991, THE POLISH EXPERIMENT WITH LIBERALISM HAD COME TO BE WIDELY REGARDED AS A FAILURE. THIS SENSE OF FAILURE HAD A STRONG POLITICAL COMPONENT, WHICH WAS EVIDENT IN THE OCTOBER 1991 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, WHEN THE PARTIES MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION LOST VOTES TO GROUPS WITH MORE POPULIST ECONOMIC PLATFORMS. THE POLISH ECONOMY DID NOT REACT TO LIBERAL ECONOMIC POLICIES AS ITS PROPONENTS HAD EXPECTED, AND LIBERALISM'S UNINTENDED SIDE-EFFECTS DID ECONOMIC DAMAGE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED. NEVERTHELESS, DURING EARLY 1992, DEVELOPMENTS DEMONSTRATED THE ABSENCE OF A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION AS A TRANSITION STRATEGY. THE OLSZEWSKI GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAD COME TO POWER WITH AN ANTI-LIBERAL, REFLATIONARY AGENDA, WAS FORCED TO ABANDON ITS PROGRAM IN FAVOR OF CONTINUING THE LIBERALIZATION POLICIES. THUS, POLAND FOUND ITSELF IN THE UNFORTUNATE POSITION OF HAVING TO PERSEVERE WITH AN ECONOMIC POLICY THAT DID NOT WORK VERY WELL. THIS IS THE ULTIMATE DILEMMA OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM AS A TRANSITION STRATEGY.

Alfred Tovias argues that the EU's efforts to promote economic liberalization in the southern Mediterranean rely on the principles and instruments of economic liberalism within the so-called "second basket" of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. This paper focuses on the contradictions between the EMP's underpinning principle of economic liberalism, upheld by the EU on a theoretical and declaratory level, and both the methods suggested to achieve this principle and the EU's conduct of the economic dimension of the EMP in practice. The author argues that the EMP's economic component cannot attain its own declared objectives, namely the stabilization and growth of Arab Mediterranean economies. This is because the EMP's economic strategies do not lead to real economic integration of southern Mediterranean states into the European economy. In the absence of reforms of the EMP's economic tools, the author is dubious of their success. The full implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean free trade agreements will be the acid test of the economic rationale of the EMP and its initiators.

In Japanese a word for economics has two syllables: "Kei" meaning governance that brings about harmony and "Zai" meaning to bring about the well-being of people. The resurgence of efforts to strengthen normative structures for the globally interdependent economic system by means of global governance raises important questions about the principles necessary for establishing the global common good. Efforts to make global regulatory structures more substantial are now being initiated because in the light of repeated financial crisis it is necessary to construct pragmatic economic policy regulations which will provide future stability for the global financial system. We also assume that the intent of a regulatory body will be to outline principles connected with reassuring that the market operates in ways which will not hurt the global public interest. Certainly the principles that inspire global financial regulatory policy must be broad enough to include diverse cultural perspectives reflected in the global community. The assembly of nations comprising a financial governance regime will be made up of diverse states not all of which subscribe to a free market economy. The ethics shaping international regulations must reconcile the various convictions on what are considered to be appropriate motivating factors for human transactions. In this respect normative structures must also prescribe a balance between competiveness, interdependence and the transnational linkages that were thought to be the most promising sources for profit and prosperity in the globalized world. Thus, to ensure that freedom and rights are not jeopardized and that the best interest of the public is assured we must remember that the effectiveness of practice is first and foremost a matter of the adequacy of principles.

Der Verfasser gibt zunächst einen Überblick über den wirtschaftlichen Transformationsprozeß in Polen seit 1989. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden spezifische Probleme der Umsetzung des Wirtschaftsliberalismus in Polen analysiert. Hierbei geht es vor allem um das Stabilisierungsprogramm und die von ihm hervorgerufene Budgetkrise, Probleme der Industriepolitik (Aufbau der institutionellen Infrastruktur, Privatisierung, Integration in die Weltwirtschaft) sowie die unzureichende finanzintermediäre Struktur. Erklärungsansätze der Entwicklung in Polen formulieren zum einen eine grundsätzliche Kritik am Wirtschaftsliberalismus als Übergangsstrategie, zum anderen beziehen sie sich auf die institutionelle Dimension postkommunistischer Übergangsprozesse. (BIOst-Wpt)