Suchergebnisse

The Ministry of Science of the Republic of Croatia decided on a new Rule Book of Definition of Scientific Areas. According to the book, Politology is a scientific field in the area of social science. It is divided into 3 branches: (1) Politology, (2) Theory and History of Politics, & (3) Political Philosophy. By using documents, the author of this article shows how political science is differently structured by IPSA & APSA. The author describes 120 years of dominantly American development of political science & of professions of political scientists, which brought out a recent new world standard with around 100 subdisciplines & areas of expertise that are structured in 8 fundamental disciplines: (1) Political Institutions, (2) Political Behavior, (3) Comparative Politics, (4) International Relations, (5) Political Theory, (6) Public Policy & Public Administration/Management, (7) Political Economy, & (8) Political Methodology. The author points out that a voluntaristic intervention in the definition of scientific areas could mean an attack on the development of science, research organization, renewal of teaching staff at the university, & academic education of political scientists, as well as internationally comparable competence of Croatian experts & Croatian democratic political thought & political culture in general. 133 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article brings up the basic issues of comparative public policy, a separate research orientation in contemporary political science. First, the principal works that have defined this research discipline are looked into. The contributions of two subdisciplines of contemporary political science -- public policy & political economy -- are highlighted. The second part of the article investigates the fundamental methodological issues, synthesized into two basic dilemmas: what should be understood under the term government activity, & how it is possible to measure this performance. The author is of the opinion that most works from the field of comparative public policy are largely devoted to the comparison of governments' financial activities, which are the easiest to measure due to a broad accessibility of the data on public expenditure, public sector growth, unemployment, etc. Referring to the Canadian author Louis Imbeau, the author stresses the need for a broader understanding of comparative public policy that would include those comparisons that do not exclusively rely on governments' financial activities. 2 Tables, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article points to the importance of research into the dimensions of public policy creation beyond the central government & other levels of government. The author shows that public policy researchers were made open for those dimensions of policy creation by the governance literature, but also that opening the debate on the role of horizontal policy actors can not be reduced to simply taking the issue over from the governance literature. Instead, the article shows that the research into the new dimensions was facilitated by the changed logic of policy creation that today can no longer be described as "command & monitor" but rather as "negotiate & cooperate." For understanding the latter logic of policy creation the research of public policy inspired by organization theory are very important. The author also shows the importance of connecting the research problems of policy science & governance, backing his claim with an example of research into the role of public policy coordination. In the last part of the article the author points to the possible framework of research into the problem of coordination in the Croatian context. References. Adapted from the source document.

The paper is reviewing basic features of contemporary economic crisis, from the standpoint of political economy and public policy. The argument developed in the paper is, on the one hand, based on the political economy of the public sector and its crucial empirical findings. Secondly, the contributions of public policy theory related to basic problems of public governance systems are systematically reviewed, by emphasising the potential of these systems for formulating development policy. The paper is also discussing the importance of the non-economic sources of economic crises. Adapted from the source document.

The author's starting point is the assumption that the public is essentially political & also indispensable for democratic polity. After a brief analysis of the notions related to the concept of the public in different traditions, the author offers three essential elements for its formation: the liberal freedoms as a prerequisite of public life, the unseverable link between the public & democracy, & the legitimation & the control of power by means of the public. The public has a decisive role in all the functions of the state by ensuring three things: the legislature aspires to the public good, the public controls the parliament & government, & the court decisions are overt. In contemporary society the public sphere is safeguarded by parties, associations, trade unions, electronic media & the press in the sense that they prevent the parties in power to lead arcane politics. In the end, the author champions the idea of a proper distinction between the private & the public sphere, since the total public would mean the death of freedom-loving democracy. 6 References. Adapted from the source document.

The perceptions of science by the Croatian public & the political elite are a combination of scientific-technological optimism, the exemption of science from social responsibility, the skepticism regarding the speed of changes that science brings into people's lives, & a mixture of cognitive realism & optimism, & the reservations towards the cognitive possibilities of science. Also, the perceptions of science by the public & by the elite differ significantly. The public perceptions link modernism & traditionalism, confidence & a lack of it in the socially responsible role of science (& technology). Politicians nurture three different views of science. The first view implies both the beneficial & the neutral social role of science. The second view implies the reservations of the elite regarding the humanistic social role of science & its cognitive power, while the third way links the cognitive limitations of science & the skepticism regarding the way in which it changes the traditional way of life. The perception of science by the public depends on the social composition, while the politicians' views are significantly influenced by their political worldview & orientations & party allegiance. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

The author discusses the concept of state neutrality through the debate led by political theorists over the last 30 years. The notion of neutrality is presented as crucial for legitimacy & the scope of liberal-democratic government & also as an institutional solution of the rising cultural, religious, & moral plurality of contemporary Western societies. Starting with Rawls's theory of justice, the article continues with Nozick's libertarian criticism, MacIntyre's criticism of liberalism, & the arguments of Sandel, Taylor, & Raz (respectively) about the incompatibility of the concepts of the common good & state neutrality. The author discusses relations between neutrality & the welfare state, plurality of values, public policy, & the common good. In conclusion, the author distinguishes neutrality of principle & neutrality of public policy, advocating for the former understanding of the notion of neutrality. 22 References. Adapted from the source document.

The processes of Europeanization have invaded the public policy sphere & introduced into it, among other things, the altered views of the roles of policy players & their relationships in the processes of the formation & the implementation of public policy. As soon as these new developments had been detected, numerous political science debates understandably ensued about the changed roles & competences of the actors who operate at different political levels in the European Union. The paper begins with the definition of the policy actor in the research of the EU policy process. The usability of the traditional & the contemporary understanding of the policy actor in the EU policy system is looked into by means of the indicators of (non)statehood & the existing view of the role of the state, thereby articulating the dilemmas & the prospects for the potential new taxonomies of policy actors that might emerge as a consequence of the policy activity at the EU level, since the newly identified features breed suspicion in the unequivocal adequacy of the existing taxonomy of the actors. Also, the appropriateness of the categorization of the players according to their political level or to the structural-functional character of their activities is discussed. References. Adapted from the source document.

The author regards his book Karl Marx and the Political Economy of Modernity, as a summarized polemical autobiography. For him, above all, Marx is an extremely successful key for a new understanding of the classical political and political-economic theory and for its applicability in future analysis and projections of ways out from the actual world crisis. Even though in his book he documented and elaborated ways of completing Marx's critique of political economy in accordance with Marx's plan from Das Kapital, and demonstrated also the possibility of founding a critical political theory on the basis of the critique of political economy. For Dag Strpic, a critical political theory, contradictory to Marx's planning, would be required already in building a concretized theory of markets and prices in the "competition of a multitude of capitals" on the "surface of civil society" -- based on Marx's methodology. Somewhat aside from that, in this article Strpic is focused on an extended clarification of the Modern Normal's meaning. The Modern Normal (MN) in his book was constructed in an analysis based on a combination of classical modern and contemporary political and political-economic theory. But also on analytical use of results of all social sciences and humanities in principle, and science as a whole -- especially by necessity of problem-solving public policy. With a fundamental and implementational focus on an integral political science. In this, Strpic holds on to the basic scheme of the Modern Normal, Fl, from his book. Strpic's Modern Normal in this basic form is designed as a cross-section view of a corridor of cyclical movements of changing orders and fluctuating processes in mutually structurized elements of modern nation-states and their world-system. Those orders and elements developed various foundations on classical modern political and political-economic principles. With various centers of gravity or normals and different formating dominants in a structure of sequential political/political-economic counterpoints of development in series of historically different variants of the Modern Normal. Strpic observes the conjunctures and crises of development of those processes and orders, and also the actual worldwide economic, political, social and cultural crisis, through cycles of the Modern Normal as a whole. This is most evident in semi-centennial and (multi)centennial cycles, and most striking in great crises and pics of conjunctures. Adapted from the source document.

The perceptions of science by the Croatian public & the political elite are a combination of scientific-technological optimism, the exemption of science from social responsibility, the skepticism regarding the speed of changes that science brings into people's lives, & a mixture of cognitive realism & optimism, & the reservations towards the cognitive possibilities of science. Also, the perceptions of science by the public & by the elite differ significantly. The public perceptions link modernism & traditionalism, confidence & a lack of it in the socially responsible role of science (& technology). Politicians nurture three different views of science. The first view implies both the beneficial & the neutral social role of science. The second view implies the reservations of the elite regarding the humanistic social role of science & its cognitive power, while the third way links the cognitive limitations of science & the skepticism regarding the way in which it changes the traditional way of life. The perception of science by the public depends on the social composition, while the politicians' views are significantly influenced by their political worldview & orientations & party allegiance. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.