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The author explores some fundamental aspects of international cooperation, its functional incentives & structural limitations, by describing the discussion between two most influential approaches in international relations theory: neorealism & neoliberalism, or to be more precise, between defensive neorealism & neoliberal institutionalism. During the discussion on possibilities & limitations of international co-operation neorealism & neoliberalism showed their differences, but also similarities of views that resulted in their approach, which is called the neo-neo synthesis in international relations theory. The discussion, that has been going on for three decades in USA also reflects on the practical foreign policy decision-making in this country. The discussion contains the ideas that can serve as means to explain some foreign policy approaches in our country as well. References. Adapted from the source document.

The author reflects on Dag Strpic's book Karl Marx and the Political Economy of Modernity, in particular on the part in which Strpic laid out the scientific results of his research into the applicability of Marx's critique of political economy from the viewpoint of commodity production on the theoretical level of "capital in general". Furthermore, she draws attention to Strpic's discussion of the causes of appearance of various forms of globalizing modern totalitarianisms (political and corporate), which can also be recognized in the contemporary neo-liberal order. This is so in spite of the fact that the latter is legitimized theoretically and ideologically as liberal, and that, in principle, it has retained its form of modern development. Adapted from the source document.

The paper looks into the justifiability of cirticisms levelled at the role of the World Bank. The meaning & guidelines of two major legal & economic reforms in Croatia are outlined: the changes in labour laws & the implementation of pension reform. The first part of the text deals with the role of deregulation policy, which has probably improved labour market flexibility, but also significantly increased job insecurity. The second part is devoted to the pension reform as an example of privatizing public service sector. The paper investigates the goals of the World Bank as well as the local reform participants. The final part of the paper offers brief conclusions. The main argument is that the described structural accommodations have been designed primarily with the criterion of economic efficiency in mind while the social aspects have been systematically overlooked. 2 Tables, 4 Figures, 47 References. Adapted from the source document.

In interpreting current social and political processes, one should recognize new and mutually different political and democratic forces, which should offer an alternative to trends which had generated the crisis. Since totalitarian regimes such as fascism and communism (and even neoliberalism) did not solve the crisis of capitalism in the past, writers like Habermas, Searle, Luhmann, Wolin, Vesting and others do not consider them as potential solutions for the contemporary crisis. The solutions are not being sought within the framework of universalisation of particular interests either. Even less they look for a solution within some universal virtue that would represent all other virtues. On the contrary -- the contemporary theory recognizes that humanity in its lifeworld operates within different media and that the unified lifeworld is represented in different, incommensurable media, so the new theory attempts to create a modus vivendi among various representations of the world, not one single unitary interpretation. Contemporary theories are interested in the issue of coexistence between incommensurable differences, and thus they ask: how to preserve pluralism of social life. This process remains open. On the other hand, any idea of a single solution within a single unified medium leads to renewal of totalitarianisms, or even a world war, a new Holocaust or a new Hiroshima. Adapted from the source document.

The author is deconstructing the logics and the consequences of 'structural adaptation' to the laws of the market and profit in Serbia from the 1960s until today. The paper consists of three systematic parts. The first one is a description of the period from 1965 to 1991. It is shown that the roots of capitalist restoration can be found in economical reforms undertaken within nominal socialism, which opened the way for a more free action of the market mechanisms. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the so-called 'Milosevic period' (1991 - 2001) during which, under the auspices of degenerated political capitalism and in a blocked context, the process of structural adaptation continues, in favour of the continuative nomenclature of the former collective owners, or the new class of lumpenbourgeoisie information. The third part is an analysis of the neoliberal period after the 'democratic' changes in 2001 and the character of its own comprador political capitalism, which enters the final phase of the structural adaptation and redistribution of wealth towards the higher classes. Based on the results of the analysis, the author concludes that the process of a decade of destruction of Serbian society was conditioned by an agenda, i.e. it was conditioned by class interests. Adapted from the source document.

This article analyses the phenomena of spectacularisation, tabloidisation and celebrity culture and their appearance in politics and political arena. It looks at models of the media construction of social reality within the concept of the society of the spectacle. The author argues that celebrity culture as a part of media spectacle is not void of ideologies, but rather the opposite: it is led by market-based ideologies, by desire of commercial sectors in media and advertising to make profit and by commercialisation of politics. Thus, the phenomena that are central to this article are the evidence of the prevailing form of hegemony, which characterises liberal democracy and neoliberal consumerism. Adapted from the source document.

Belief in market economy has shown particular strength in post-socialist countries as being accompanied by great expectations regarding economic improvements at the individual level. Twenty years after the fall of the, so-called, real existing socialism these hopes have been fawned for the great majority of the citizens of these countries. The equation offered to explain the tendential low of individual living standard despite of increasing GDP, the access to European integrations and the implementation of structural reforms in the first decade of 2000s has been that the transition towards market economy has not yet been completed and that the problems with the wider prosperity of the citizens are due to inadequate or too slow course of the reform enforcement. This article proposes the exact opposite view by arguing that the wide economic deprivation of the citizens as well as the current economic crisis in which they are caught, are the effects of the neoliberal re-structuration and concomitant "democratization", and not the result of the lack of compliance to it. This article holds that the economic prosperity for the great majority is not compatible with the project of neoliberal economy cum conservative liberal democracy and that it can not be achieved within this frame. In post-socialist countries this simple conclusion has been obscured by the eschatological discourse about "transition towards democracy". Adapted from the source document.

The cleavages at the EU level can be defined by means of two dimensions: the first dimension is the left-right conflict & the second is the national-supranational conflict. Between the left & the supranational dimension there are political actors who advocate the policy of regulated capitalism while along the right-national dimension there are the partisans of the neoliberal approach. While the first think that the strengthening of the EU institutions is justified (the supranational level) & they champion the legislation that emphasizes the social-democratic dimension, the neoliberals promote the deregulation of economic activities at the EU level & the strengthening of the roles of national governments. Ideologically, the sympathizers of the regulated capitalism are represented by social-democratic & socialist parties, while the neoliberal model enjoyers the support of a wide array of populist, Christian-democrat, liberal & conservative political parties. Since the 1988 reform, the EU regional policy has been increasingly seen as a vehicle of the supporters of the regulated capitalism. At the same time, the regional policy facilitates a number of interactions based on the cooperation of the supranational, national & regional bodies. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

The implementation of the "Washington consensus" model in less developed & transitional countries, together with the neoliberal economic development, has also implied the transition from the "bad" to the "good" governance. The concept of the "good" governance centres around the governance ideology of effectiveness & the high-quality public service delivery. The increased effectiveness & capability, however, does not necessarily ensure qualifying governance for a long-term shaping of a state's future. The governance model in transition largely determines the transitional success or failure. The "bad" governance in Croatia is a consequence of low efficacy & rampant corruption as well as of a lack of strategic & creative governance. 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

Autorica u tekstu polazi od premise da je politički subjekt neoliberalizma, vladajuće političke racionalnosti, individua koja se može okarakterizirati kao isključivi i nepodijeljeni posjednik samog sebe. Preispitivanjem tropa ne/ovisnosti razlažu se pretpostavke koje su uključene u pojam individue, a potom se, analizom konteksta njegove upotrebe u 19. stoljeću, pokazuje da je on bremenit genealogijama koje ograničavaju njegovu političku upotrebljivost u 21. stoljeću. Misliti protiv neoliberalizma zahtijeva napuštanje ideje individue kao suverenog vlasnika koji vlada sobom. Promišljanje alternativnog političkog horizonta, traganje za homo politicus-om koji se uistinu razlikuje od homo oeconomicus-a, iziskuje napuštanje političkog mišljenja koje polazi od pojedinca. ; The text is based on two premises. The first is that we live in the times of neoliberalism, and the second is that the political subject of neoliberalism is the individual, the "one" qualified as indivisible, independent, sole owner of one's self. To define what an individual is, I will revisit several 19th-century claims which at the same time posit individual as an empty universal – anyone qualifies for entitlement of an individual – and reveal it as profoundly exclusionary – as the holder of entitlements. I will claim that the indivisibility of an individual is also the basis for its understanding as sovereign and self-actualized. Liberal politicization of a sovereign possessor of interests introduces not only homo oeconomicus, but it also integrates economic mode of governmentality into the sphere of the political, it becoming a space of incessant play of exclusions and inclusions. If another kind of political imaginary is to be developed, I argue we need to distance ourselves from the figure of the individual, bearing in mind that homo oeconomicus triumphs today as the exhaustive figure of the human, amidst the patently unequal distribution not only of precarity but also of vulnerability. Critical engagement with neoliberalism assumes engaging with the political centrality of a figure of an agentic individual.

Republicanism and liberalism, as foundations of Modernity, are presented in terms of how they are interconnected and condition one another, as expressed in the conception of Jurgen Habermas' deliberative democracy. Firstly, both concepts are concisely defined; republicanism stresses the principle of virtue and community, while liberalism reveals the freedom of the individual and of particular provinces as the basic point in the development of a free order. Secondly, the author shows how Habermas links the two in the concept of deliberative democracy as inseparable parts of the modern political order. After that, the way is discussed in which Habermas uses the concept in his analysis of the European Union, i.e. of the possibility of deliberative democracy in the space of Europeization and globalization. The author concludes that, viewed from the perspective of Europeization and globalization, the effective potency of republicanism has become significantly reduced, while the potency of neoliberal tendencies has grown, with decidedly fatal consequences. Adapted from the source document.

In this article, the author presents the content and principal ideas of Strpic's book on Karl Marx and the political economy of modernity, Karl Marx i politicka ekonomija Moderne. The author analyzes the book, its ideas and its significance within the context of an evaluation of the status and trends in political and economic thought in Croatia during a time of so-called transition, i.e. the process of restoration of crony capitalism. He criticizes the neoliberal school and its Economics, which has pushed aside and replaced Political Economy in the instruction at many university social science departments. The author considers Strpic's book a major contribution to the reaffirmation of Political Economy to its theoretical and scholarly status. He faults Strpic for not including in his analysis the results of scholarly research conducted by Croatian economists whose views complement his own. The current crisis of the neoliberal school, its Economics and the economic crisis in Croatia may serve as a means to reaffirm Political Economy, or rather to turn back from Economics in favor of Political Economy in scholarship and in the education of political scientists, legal scholars and economists. The author puts forth the thesis on the need to separate Political Economy from ideocracy. In this context, he advocates the reaffirmation of Political Economy as both a scientific discipline and as a skill in the management of national economies. Adapted from the source document.