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The paper represents the continuation of the research that the author had begun earlier on this topic. The subject of research is the terminology of Roman law which served as an excuse for Roman imperial ambitions and goals. The terminology that the Romans used has been found in laws and documents. They were in the service of imperial political manipulation in the frame of the Roman imperial understanding of freedom. Friendship (familiaritas), fairness (iustitia), and the wealth of the province (utilitas provinciae). These terms help eliminate the ideas of nationalities of the conquered people. It can be noted that in none of these examples, the interest of Rome has been stated. We can assume that it was in priority. After all, all roads lead to Rome. These notions allow the creation of one unique identity, the identity of the Roman Commonwealth. Parallel to the research of these terminologies there will be a comparison to modern-day terminology in the use of Great Powers. Besides these there will also be used historical method, dogmatic method, and political method.

The economic annihilation caused by the wars, sanctions and hyperinflation has elevated the issue of restoring previous income and welfare levels to the very top of political and social agenda. Consequently, all efforts during the past two decades were focused on reviving economic growth. Initially the main source of growth was consumer demand financed by external grants and privatization proceeds, followed by industrial revival and new jobs financed by external borrowing and strong FDI flows. In recent years it is becoming increasingly clear that higher sustainable rates of growth needed for income convergence with Europe and improved standards of living can only be achieved with production, organizational and process innovations. This paper reviews the elaborate structure of the present national innovation system in Serbia and concludes that more than 120 academic and almost 80 R&D institutions are competing for very limited resources of around 0.9% of GDP, produce declining innovation output and do not collaborate with the enterprise sector to increase productivity and growth. To have a better impact on productivity, long-run growth and well-being of all citizens, innovation funding must be doubled, innovation priorities must be identified based on empirical evidence and R&D and innovation performance must be evaluated based on results.

The paper reviews new standard policy response to global COVID-19 pandemic led by the IMF. It identifies new innovative approaches in the design of expansionary fiscal support measures and accommodating monetary policy. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of labor markets, job-retention measures, and worker-reallocation efforts deployed at appropriate stages of continued pandemic, initial post-COVID-19 economic recovery and longer-run investment for sustainable future growth. The paper detects inherent policy limitations in the treatment of local, national and global public goods, excessive globalization, and unregulated financial markets and capital mobility, as well as weak integration between prevailing economic policy paradigm and other social sciences. It seeks a solution in expanding economic policy framework beyond neoliberalism, by harnessing democracy and human wellbeing consistent with sustainable development goals through balanced conduct of economic policy, efficient and adequately regulated markets (as needed), and responsible and transparent state actions.

The paper argues that Serbia must address a complex set of challenges as it prepares for the EU accession and seeks convergence to the European quality of life within a reasonable timeframe. To successfully close institutional, infrastructure and income gaps with core EU countries, while, at the same time, responding to likely pressures from the Fourth Industrial Revolution requiring profound social, industrial and organizational changes, the country will have to first address the institutional legacy of the past which now stands in the way of introducing modern, efficient and transparent governance systems into the state, public and private sector. The only institutional and policy scenario that supports this growth path may be more demanding, but it offers relatively fast convergence based on a smart industrial policy and deep structural changes of economic organization, education and social systems. New social consensus may not be easy to reach, but it will be well worth the effort if it offers a base to fend off future governance risks and ensure prosperity in the challenging new digital world.

Rad se bavi istraživanjem učinaka personalizacije izbornog sustava prije svega na političke stranke i kandidate za zastupnike. Pod personalizacijom izbornog sustava smatra se uvođenje mehanizama u izborni sustav koji osiguravaju veću ulogu birača u izboru njihovih parlamentarnih zastupnika. U radu su predstavljene četiri gusto opisane studije slučaja koje su služile kao temelj za testiranje temeljne i pomoćnih hipoteza. Rad sadrži fokusiranu poredbenu analizu dometa personalizacije izbornog sustava u odnosu na tri ključna slučaja (Austrija, Nizozemska i Finska), kao i u odnosu na kontrolni slučaj Kosovo. U radu je dokazano da snažni personalizirani izborni sustavi, koji imaju najveće vrijednosti personalizacije, odnosno izmjerene vrijednosti utjecaja dva institucionalna potičuća mehanizma koji su predstavljali nezavisne varijable ovog istraživanja (a. preferencijsko glasovanje unutar razmjernog sustava stranačkih lista i b. procedura selekcije kandidata), dovode do personalizacije političkih stranaka na razini zastupnika. Kroz dokazivanje pomoćnih hipoteza ispraćeni su učinci personalizacije izbornog sustava na političke stranke, kandidate/zastupnike, birače odnosno stranački/politički sustav. U radu predstavljeni nalazi fokusirane poredbene analize potvrđuju da snažna personalizacija izbornog sustava vodi personalizaciji izborne kampanje te smanjenoj ulozi političkih stranaka u političkom životu. Smanjena uloga stranaka u kampanjama otvara prostor jačanju uloge konkretnih donatora. Poslanici postaju nezavisniji u odnosu na stranku, ali s druge strane otvoreni za utjecaje donatora svojih kampanja. Nemogućnost opoziva, odnosno tekovina da je zastupnik, a ne stranka vlasnik mandata, dodatno ojačava poziciju zastupnika, a slabi poziciju stranke. Pozicija zastupnika jača, kao i birača koji imaju u snažno personaliziranim izbornim sustavima mogućnost presudnog utjecanja na to tko će ih zastupati u parlamentu, odnosno na koga će privremeno prenijeti suverenitet kao njegovi nositelji. Finski primjer najbolje pokazuje utjecaj snažne personalizacije izbornog sustava na političke stranke, kandidate i birače u konsolidiranoj demokraciji. Slučaj Kosova kao kontrolni slučaj govori da ukoliko izostane prevlast osobnog u odnosu na stranačko u unutarstranačkim procesima, učinci snažnog preferencijskog sustava bit će umanjeni. Izostanak vladavine prava utječe na ravnopravnost kandidata u predizbornim kampanjama, ali snažno preferencijsko glasovanje umanjuje negativne efekte izostanka demokratskih procedura unutar stranke te potiče daljnju demokratsku konsolidaciju u nekonsolidiranim demokracijama. ; The doctoral dissertation deals with research into the effects of personalization of the electoral system primarily on political parties and candidates for deputies. The personalization of the electoral system means the introduction of mechanisms in the electoral system that ensure a greater role for voters in the election of their parliamentary representatives. I define the electoral system as a "set of laws and party rules governing electoral competition between and within the parties" (Cox 1997: 38). This wider definition of the electoral system gives us space to build a more complete picture of the electoral system's impact on political parties, candidates and voters as main actors in the electoral process. The focus of the research is the relationship between personal and party representation. In order to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of the effects of personalization on political parties, the research framework is narrowed down to list proportional electoral systems with preferential voting. Contemporary liberal democracy is characterized by a highly personalized politics. Governments are more recognizable by their leaders than by the parties that are the basis of their constitution. This personalization trend is not characteristic exclusively of presidential systems, but has become a feature of parliamentary political systems. In addition to personalization of the party at the leader level, there is also the personalization of politics at the level of members of parliament (MPs). In this paper, we only use the term 'personalization of a party' in reference to personalization at the level of the MP. We will not deal with the question of the presidentialization of political parties. Under the personalization of a political party at the level of MPs, we mean strengthening the position of deputies in the intra-party decision-making process. Thanks to the introduction of preferential voting in list proportional list systems, the group of electoral systems in which voters play an important role in the selection of their representatives has significantly expanded. Historically speaking, the representative position has been strengthened by the accepted attitude that the MP, not the party, is the 'owner of the mandate'; preferential voting supports this. This paper deals with the personalization of politics at the level of the representative—the political party. That is to say, it explores the question of to what degree personalization of the electoral system affects the political party, its intra- and its inter-party dimension. Moreover, the paper deals with personal and party representation, an area that is a new field of interest for political scientists. Through this relationship, I explore the effect of electoral systems on political parties, candidates and voters. in developing this work, I was guided by the results achieved by Katz (1980, 1986) and Marsh 9 (1985) who first dealt with this issue. In his book A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems (1980), Katz took his first steps in the research of preferential systems. Five years later, Marsh (1985) was dealing with differences between the preferential systems in Europe. In their works, Katz and Marsh set forth the first hypotheses about the effects of preferential voting. Although there has been a growing interest in research in this area over the last decade, no significant progress has yet been made. Karvonen (2004) made a significant step in systematizing the hypotheses of Katz and Marsh, and he added some more points. In his last paper on this subject (2011), Karvonen was working within the same group of hypotheses, which were open to further research. They are the basis of this research, with additional contributions. A major impetus for this work was one of the most influential articles in this field, 'Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas' by Carey and Shugart (1995), which examines the question of the influence of electoral systems on the candidate's electoral strategies—that is, how electoral systems influence the pre-election roles of parties and their candidates. The authors developed three variables: (1) lack of party leadership control over access to and rank in ballots; (2) degree to which candidates are elected on individual votes independent of copartisans; and (3) whether voters cast a single intra-party vote instead of multiple votes or a party-level vote. By combining these three variables, there are up to thirteen combinations. This approach set me up to explore the impact that personalization creates when it comes to the relationship between the MP candidate and the party, or the MP and the party. Most authors agree that the introduction of personalization of the electoral system significantly affects interparty relations, which are sometimes reflected in a high degree of autonomy in campaigning and even in the collection and spending of funds for funding of their personal campaign. The bidding of candidates from the same party exercises a strong influence on intra-party relations, and it often happens that rival relations within the parties remain in the shadow of rival relations between the parties.

Fiscal consolidation in Serbia was based on a comprehensive, multiyear program built on broad-based expenditure cuts, better revenue performance, and related structural reforms and pro-growth policies. During the first two year of implementation the actual fiscal performance substantially exceeded the original and revised deficit targets set in the IMF supported three-year precautionary program. In 2015, the actual deficit (3.7 percent of GDP) exceeded program target by 2.2 percentage points. In 2016 the implementation performance further improved as the actual deficit (1.36 percent of GDP) was 2.6 percentage points better than the plan. The result implies a 4.4 percentage point structural deficit adjustment which exceeds the program target one year ahead of schedule. In this, revenues contribute 3.5 percentage points, public wages 1.0, pensions 0.6 and reversals of structural expenditure savings take away -0.7. The program had a beneficial impact on economic growth. The economy bottomed-out in the third quarter and started recovering in late 2014-early 2015 leading to a positive 0.8 percent growth for the entire year. The growth further recovered in 2016 (+2.8 percent) and is expected to reach 3 percent in 2017 and stabilize at 3.5 percent annually thereafter. With this performance Serbia may become a case of 'expansionary austerity' which demonstrates that fiscal consolidation programs designed in line with sound principles and synchronized with key structural reforms and pro-growth policies can generate growth. Carefully selected expenditure cuts combined with pro-growth revenue collection efforts can have expansionary effect on growth even under most difficult circumstances The political economy issues of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms gain increasing importance in the last year of the program, two months ahead of presidential elections. Fresh thinking is needed to demonstrate that the completion of difficult reforms is a win-win for all, and most everybody loses if reforms are stalled or abandoned.

Fiscal consolidation in Serbia was built on broad-based expenditure cuts, better revenue performance, and related structural reforms and pro-growth policies. In 2015 the actual fiscal performance exceeded the original and revised deficit targets set in the IMF program. The final outcome was a deficit of 3.7 percent of GDP, a huge 2.9 percent improvement over 2014. The result contains a 2.5 percentage points of structural fiscal adjustment with 1.5 percentage points in permanent expenditure cuts and 1.0 percentage point in structural revenue improvements. This increases front loading and allows more fiscal space for the implementation of pending structural reforms. The program had a beneficial impact on economic growth which turned out positive at 0.8 percent, 1.3 percentage points above IMF and IFI projections. With this performance Serbia may become a case of 'expansionary austerity', which demonstrates that fiscal consolidation programs designed in line with sound principles and synchronized with key structural reforms and pro-growth policies can generate growth. Carefully selected expenditure cuts combined with pro-growth revenue collection efforts can have expansionary effect on growth even under the most difficult circumstances. The political economy issues of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms gain increasing importance in the second year of the program, two months before the early parliamentary elections. Fresh thinking is needed to demonstrate that the completion of difficult reforms is a win-win for all, and almost everybody loses if reforms are stalled or abandoned.