Suchergebnisse

U članku se razrađuje identitet grada koji je poistovjećen sa sudbinom samoga autora u tijeku najtežega dana napada na grad u Domovinskome ratu. Poistovjećujući se s gradom, on se istodobno pretvara i u središnji lik romana. Riječ je o posve drukčijemu i dosad nepoznatome ratnom pismu u Hrvatskoj jer je djelo posvema okrenuto transcendenciji. U romanu je rat tek sila zla, a ne politički proizvod. Tragičnost rata u Hrvatskoj kao književna tema prikazana je na sveopćoj civilizacijskoj razini kao iskonsko prokletstvo čovječanstva. Grad Zadar, smješten na obalama Sredozemlja, svojom povijesti i baštinom koja se razara preuzima na se ulogu Čovjekova glasnogovornika. Kada se ruši grad kao sveti prostor, čovjek gubi svoj vlastiti identitet. Povratak identiteta moguć je samo na simboličkoj i metafizičkoj razini pa roman obiluje simboličkim i arhetipskim slojevima i motivima. ; The article elaborates an identity of the city which is identified with the author's destiny during the hardest day of attacking the city in the Croatian War of Independence. Identifying himself with the city, at the same time he turns himself in the main novel protagonist. That is a completely different and so far unknown war letter in Croatia, because the work is completely turned to transcendence. In the novel the war is the evil force and not political product. Tragicalness of the war in Croatia as the literary topic is shown at the general civilization level as a true human damnation. City of Zadar, located at the Mediterranean coasts, with his history and destroying heritage takes over the role of human spokesperson. When a city as the holy area is destroyed, a human loses his/her own identity. Return of identity is possible only at the symbolic and metaphysic level, therefore the novel is full of symbolic and archetype motives.

The text begins with Richard Rorty's assessment that Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions, along with Rawls's A Theory of Justice, is the most important philosophical book written in the English language in the twentieth century. The author endorses this assessment, for it is impossible to think of a work in the fields of philosophy or scientific history which had such a dramatic agitating & inspiring impact on the public for which it was originally not intended. Namely, although Kuhn addressed in his work primarily philosophers & scientists engaged with natural sciences, the work was a source of major & fruitful discussion which involved, or could not be overseen by, anthropologists, sociologists, culturologists, political scientists, philosophers of morality, linguists, legal experts & many others. The author puts forward some of Kuhn's epistemological ideas which were creatively elaborated, reworked & recontextualized by non-epistemologists. The text is divided in two parts. In the first part, the author briefly sketches Kuhn's key concepts expounded in Structure... (paradigm, normal science, revolution). In the second part, he sets forth Richard Bernstein's interpretation of Kuhn's epistemology. The author opts for this interpretation because Bernstein, in his judgment, demonstrated better than any other philosopher that precisely the concept of incommensurability is to be given credit for Kuhn's enormous influence even beyond the boundaries of philosophy & scientific history. Together with Bernstein, the author concludes that incommensurability becomes a first-rate category of political thought due to the fact that it stresses in a conceptually adequate & analytically rigorous fashion the phenomenon of mutual understanding which overrides the imperative of choosing some unique superior scientific theory. Adapted from the source document.

The author describes the stages of creation of fragments of which the text on constitution is composed, & points to the historical events which directly influenced Hegel's work on the text. He further clarifies the criteria of selection of fragments for the Croatian translation & the manner in which they have been connected, i.e., in which the text has been organized. Finally, the author sets forth the characteristics of the Croatian translation. 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.

U ovome radu istražujemo utjecaj makroekonomskih politika na prerađivačku industriju u Hrvatskoj. Koristeći model višestruke regresije, ispitujemo kako osobna potrošnja, investicije, kamatne stope, realni efektivni tečaj, državna potrošnja, fiskalni deficit te inozemna potražnja utječu na proizvodnju 22 prerađivačka sektora. Analiza je provedena na tromjesečnim podacima za razdoblje od prvoga tromjesečja 1998. do trećega tromjesečja 2008. godine. Rezultati pokazuju da su prerađivački sektori s niskim razinama tehnologije pod snažnijim utjecajem promjena fiskalne politike, realnog efektivnog tečaja i osobne potrošnje. Proizvodnja prerađivačkih sektora s visokom razinom tehnologije u pravilu je elastična na promjene investicija, inozemne potražnje i fiskalne politike. Čini se da je fiskalna politika posebno važna za prerađivačku industriju, kako zbog veličine fiskalnih elastičnosti, tako i zbog kratkih vremenskih pomaka djelovanja. U slučaju deprecijacije kune u prosjeku raste proizvodnja sektora s niskom razinom tehnologije, dok se kod sektora s visokom i srednje visokom razinom tehnologije ona smanjuje. ; In this paper, we analyse the impact of macroeconomic policies on manufacturing production in Croatia. We use multiple regressions in order to assess how personal consumption, investments, interest rates, the real effective exchange rate, government consumption, fiscal deficit and foreign demand affect the output of 22 manufacturing sectors. The analysis is conducted on quarterly data from 1998:1q to 2008:3q. The results suggest that changes in fiscal conditions, the real effective exchange rate and personal consumption mostly affect low technological intensity industries. Production in high technological intensity industries is, in general, elastic to changes in investments, foreign demand and fiscal policy. Fiscal policy seems particularly important for manufacturing output, both in terms of the magnitude of fiscal elasticities and shorter time lags. Production in low technological intensity industries on average increases with the exchange rate depreciation, while in high and medium-high technological intensity industries it contracts as a result of depreciation.

In this article the author argues the thesis on the necessity of scientific cooperation, interaction and holistic approach for appropriate explanation of the contemporary crisis. It is of great importance to define conceptual frameworks of the crisis, together with main spots in the analysis of the crisis amalgam. The key thesis is the necessity of transformation in the structure of political-economic and social organisation of contemporary states/societies. It includes transformation of completeness of interactions between structures and actions which constitute societal community through reformistic confidence in public policy. With the help of Parsons and Luhmann, the author indicates the structure of contemporary imbalance which he perceives as spillovers of the economic in all other societal subsystems. He displays the thesis of de-democratization of democracy. Finally, he demonstrates the structural character and the means of functioning of the contemporary crisis on the example of Higher education. Adapted from the source document.

It is with good reason that decisionism stresses the crucial importance of decisions in the political process. But it is necessary to evaluate critically its dramatic pretension (from Schmitt to Agamben), according to which the normality of life is juxtaposed with the pathos of the state of exception & crisis. This erases not only every distinction between normality & the state of exception, but even between democracy & dictatorship. The proper framework from which an explanation of decisionism & its dramatizing forms can be derived is the modern age as a whole. The birth of decisionism from the crisis of tradition & commonality can be observed already in the beginning of modernity: with Machiavelli & Hobbes. We find the peak of dramatisation in Schmitt's decisionism, in the use of political theology for the dramatization of politics as drama of the subject which obtains his self-willed freedom through a secularist disempowerment of God. The other strand of political philosophy advocates the political priority of discussion & discourse, as opposed to the priority of decision. The author is interested in forms of discourse which revolve in a Habermasian or Rawlsian way around the concept of deliberative democracy. The theories of deliberative democracy are mostly characterized by the following postulates: demand for equality & inclusion, for non-coercion & communicativeness, oriented towards mutual understanding. The author points out that these demands reflect too great expectations, which cannot be fulfilled by discourse & discussion (expectations of consensus & rationality, underestimating of pre-discursive assumptions). In the final section, the author concludes that both decisionism & theory of discourse resulted from the modern-age loss of tradition & commonality. Decision & discussion could be perceived as feuding brothers, although they are doing their best to negate their kinship. A mediation of opposition is possible insofar as the feuding brothers recognize the fact that they are related. Unification at least protects them from the danger of irrationalism & excessive expectation of rationalism. 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.

In this article the author analyses the innovations in the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular the ones related to the status of European citizenship, i.e. European citizens. Accordingly, he points out the fact that many authors who investigate the significance and reach of the Treaty of Lisbon as a constitutional surrogate fail to see the important innovations related to consolidation and development of the concept of European citizenship. In the first part, the author sketches out the evolution of the European citizenship concept from the first founding treaties of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Community. He concludes that the Treaty on European Union and the constituting of the EU as a supranational political community sui generis marked the beginning of practical realization of the European citizenship concept. This was carried out primarily through policy-measures and pilot-programmes, and then the discussion on the European Constitution incited the shift to a higher level of affirmation of European citizenship. The problem of European citizenship as a political project of construction of an European demos encounters many difficulties and contradictions, and the Treaty of Lisbon links the realization of European citizenship with the spreading of democracy, which has been at the roots of the European integration process from the originally projected model of representative democracy to the model of participative and immediate (direct) democracy. For this reason, the "European citizens' initiative" is an important innovation which provides a new stimulus to the realization of the European citizenship concept. It remains uncertain, however, how firmly this political idea can be established if in some of the EU member-states citizens are still treated as nationals, i.e. if they do not participate in public affairs of their nation-state as much as they should participate even at the very top of the pyramid of a multi-level governance system such as the EU. Adapted from the source document.

Emisija suvremenoga kovinskog novca, uz ispunjenje određenih uvjeta, može, osim monetarnih učinaka, imati i niz drugih, ponajprije gospodarskih i numizmatičkih učinaka. U radu autor analizira recentnu hrvatsku emisijsku djelatnost i politiku u segmenu kovinskoga novca, uočavajući pojedine faze u emisiji toga novca. Unatoč kratkoj suvremenoj emisijskoj djelatnosti, Hrvatska različitim emisijskim politikama toga novčanog oblika daje znatan doprinos razvoju te djelatnosti. Neka nova umjetnička rješenja pokazuju tu aktivnost. ; Under certain conditions, issuing contemporary coins may have other effects besides monetary, in the first place economic and numismatic. In this article the author analyses the newest Croatian coin emission and policy and notes some stages they went through. Despite the short time, Croatia is giving a significant contribution to the development of these activities through its various emission policies. Some new artistic solutions also show activities in this sphere.

This research deals with the stages of development of the political order of Florence, focusing on the changes of the republican order. Starting from Machiavelli's Florentine Histories, which set forth a criticism of the first period of republican government until the establishment of the Medici seigniory, the author also analyses the other two stages of republican government in Florence. He thus puts together a periodization of three republican models of Florence during the Renaissance, which he refers to as the First, Second & Third Republics. The period of the First Republic stretches from 1250 to 1434, until the establishment of the first Medici seigniory. The period of the Second Republic, which lasted from 1498 to 1512, is assessed here as the period of a mature republic, which also witnessed a clear-cut defining of the theory of civil republicanism, primarily through the works of Machiavelli & Guicciardini. The Second Republic ended with the Medici restauration, when the republican government was once again suspended, & the republican institutions were abolished, although the state formally retained the designation of republic. After the fall of Rome in 1527, the Medici rule in Florence also collapsed, & the period of the Third Republic began; it lasted from 1527 to 1530. This short stretch of time saw a radicalization of the Florentine republicanism, but the social antagonism within the city-state was also radicalized. For this reason, the Third Republic did not manage to withstand the internal tensions & conflicts, & thus to face a deteriorated international state of affairs. The republican government collapsed again & made way for the second Medici restauration. The author describes & analyses in the text the republican institutions & their metamorphoses from the First Republic to the Third Republic, as well as the attempts to stabilize the republican government & realize Machiavelli's theory of the mixed form of government. The Florentine political order is therefore outlined as a development from communal democracy to civil republicanism with strong democratic elements, which, as a result of historical circumstances, was superseded by oligarchic forms of government. Adapted from the source document.

Europe is a contingent product of its institutions rather than a political project. Although the announced goal was simplification & rationalization of its institutional system, the opposite occurred: the system has become even more complex. The author looks into the process dynamics & implementation results of the Lisbon Treaty (effective 1 December 2009), showing that the traditional European compromise leads to outcomes that none of the actors really wanted, & that no one is satisfied with. The European Union is an arena of institutional coercions & games, the rules of which are occasionally readjusted. This occasional readjustment accounts for the survival of the system, which is a priori unstable, for each unsatisfied partner thinks & hopes that redefinition might provide him with an opportunity to gain a better position. The process is especially visible in negotiations regarding the Lisbon Treaty, above all in the institutional innovation which is the function of the new president (of the European Council). The conclusive interpretation of the Lisbon Treaty will depend on the outcome of the bureaucratic struggle right until 2011, & prior to a new definition of the rules, undoubtedly no later than 2014. The new EU system testifies primarily to the fundamental trait of European integration, which strongly favoured from the outset a repeated rethinking of its form (its institutions) in the light of considerations regarding its goals (its policies). Adapted from the source document.

Europe is a contingent product of its institutions rather than a political project. Although the announced goal was simplification & rationalization of its institutional system, the opposite occurred: the system has become even more complex. The author looks into the process dynamics & implementation results of the Lisbon Treaty (effective 1 December 2009), showing that the traditional European compromise leads to outcomes that none of the actors really wanted, & that no one is satisfied with. The European Union is an arena of institutional coercions & games, the rules of which are occasionally readjusted. This occasional readjustment accounts for the survival of the system, which is a priori unstable, for each unsatisfied partner thinks & hopes that redefinition might provide him with an opportunity to gain a better position. The process is especially visible in negotiations regarding the Lisbon Treaty, above all in the institutional innovation which is the function of the new president (of the European Council). The conclusive interpretation of the Lisbon Treaty will depend on the outcome of the bureaucratic struggle right until 2011, & prior to a new definition of the rules, undoubtedly no later than 2014. The new EU system testifies primarily to the fundamental trait of European integration, which strongly favoured from the outset a repeated rethinking of its form (its institutions) in the light of considerations regarding its goals (its policies). Adapted from the source document.

To what extent is Marx's thought conceptually and analytically relevant for a systematic understanding of modern society -- this was the subject of the theoretical dialogue which engaged many researchers, including some of the most prominent ones. This text focuses on the theoretical critical confrontation of Dag Strpic (in the article "Market or Commodity Formation/Production of Society?", which is the third, partly reworked chapter of his book Karl Marx and the Political Economy of Modernity) with the philosophical project of reconstruction of Marx's science of history in Jacques Bidet's work What is To Be Done with "Capital"?. The discussion focused on two basic issues: the logical starting point and the character of exposition of Marx's theory of capital. Bidet advocates the thesis that commodity as Marx's starting point (Section I of Book I) is inadequate, and he demonstrates the non-dialectical ("genetic") character of the categorial exposition of the capitalist-way-of-production theory as a whole. In contrast therewith, Strpic demonstrates that the logical starting point of Marx's system is adequately apprehended as "commodity in general", if one perceives it from the viewpoint of the logic of the entire system and of the subject of his analysis as "capital in general". Bidet seeks to show that Marx, in defining the capital system logic, gradually abandoned, albeit inconsistently and only in part, the dialectical figures as epistemological obstacles. Strpic, on the other hand, shows what makes the Marxian modality of materialistic dialectics constitutive not only with regard to Marx's "critique", but also to the very reality of capitalist society and the possibility of surpassing it. Notwithstanding his agreement with Bidet and Strpic that a (truly indispensable) general theory of modernity can be constituted only through creative and interpretative relying on the great works of political thought of modernity, and his sincere commendation to both for their outstanding reading of Marx's work in this context, the author concludes in his final remarks that both are open to the following objection: their projects of a contemporary general theory of modernity, regardless of all aspects in which they differ, rely too much on further development of Marx's intention, and thereby lose from sight the fundamental "theological-political" problem, which Marx dissolves in the immanentism of the process of production/reproduction of the modern civil community. Adapted from the source document.