The convergent cycles of the prevalence of interventionist or laissez-faire concepts have alternated in economics, politics, & political & economic theory. Hayek's theory of Western rationality & liberal & democratic order is based on two communicational arguments: the price-earnings ratio enables maximum mobilization of resources & the optimal use of information. The author's opinion is that the current cycle will bring about the integration of the liberal communicational argument with the new concepts of regulation, & not the universalization of the liberal order. 42 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 author demonstrates the non-existence of a consistent theory of market and of the modern capitalist system. Only a conceptual analysis is possible which is more revealing of the methodologies of various theoretical trajectories and a comparative analysis of different viewpoints and theoretical contradictions in relation to historical reality. The fundamental theoretical accomplishment of Strpic's analysis is that it offers a fertile core of clarification of market society and capitalism. The search for modern political economy opens up three aspects of the crisis of capitalism and of its economic theory. The political strategy of laissez faire in the beginning of the 20th century brought about the Great Depression (1929-1933), and the theoretical and political turn to Keynesianism (1936). In the 1970s the great stagflation (1971-1980) cleared the path for the neo-liberal theoretical counterrevolution (1972). In the period of the Great Recession (2007-2012) the necessity is imposed on us of a new theoretical turn in the direction of anti-neo-liberalism. Market economy and its invisible hand cannot be simply suppressed into closed out theoretical systems; the economists overlooked precisely this simplification and abstraction from real relations. Strpic's theoretical project of the Modern Normal and matrix-capitalism makes it possible to read in a new way the incommensurability of theoretical paradigms, not as a unified theory but as a developmental project which is prerequisite for explaining the character of the present crisis and the dynamic development of the modern transformation of capitalism. Adapted from the source document.
In this article, the author relates the role of money & finances with the basic structuring of social relations. Money is the only universal form of social wealth, its measure & its meaning. Up to the present, however, the economic theory has been underestimating & overlooking money's politico-economic role. This is revealed most radically in periods of major financial & economic crises. Consequently, the author points out that today's economy of depression often depresses the economists themselves & their science. Bidet's theory of modernity, along with Habermas's, is the last large-scale attempt at theoretical explanation of the social totality, but his theoretical reconstruction of society by means of underlying "metastructures" is based on non-financial & non-monetary forms of social mediation. In contrast, the author of this article seeks to prove that precisely money & finances belong to the central metastructure of market society. What is important here is not only the subversive role of money as the monopoly-holding & political good in the exchange, but also its financial form of debt, resulting from the particular social role of debt accumulation. Society is connected with debt accumulation, & the economic sovereignty of money is its political legitimacy as debt. Therein lies its sociality, the foundation of underlying communication & of cooperation as metastructure of market society development. The present-day crisis has propelled the debt accumulation problem to absurd levels. It has brought to light that the greatest contradictions of today's market society are based on the economic & social globalization of finances. Contemporary capitalism is a genuine financial capitalism, which is why there can be no solution without a politico-economic & cultural reconstruction of the monetary regime & of financial economy. Accordingly, the author shows that the solution to the current economic crisis points precisely to the "metastructure" of market society. Adapted from the source document.
Of all the freedoms for which the Cold War was fought, free enterprise was deemed sufficient for acquisition of all other freedoms. The task of political science should now be to expose the loose & insecure moorings of economic ideology & to develop an approach more appropriate to the realities of our time. Our new millennium is a corporate millennium that has been interpreted in the hegemonic model to mean private & free (that is, unregulated) markets. However, any theory capable of incorporating the corporation has to be one of political economy. The first section of this article identifies six state-provided assumptions homo economicus has to be able to make prior to making or entering a market, without which homo economicus stays home. The second section puts the issue in a global context by identifying three developmental tracks -- macro, meso, & micro. Their existence denies the possibility of a pure economic theory of globalization. The third section describes the distinctive politics of each of the three tracks, demonstrating still more conclusively that political economy is the only approach competent to deal with the new corporate millennium. In conclusion, the author argues that political economy is & should be the new political science that this new era requires. 30 References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper examines the influence of neoclassical economics on the sociological approach to individual & collective behavior. The first part discusses the limitations of the Beckerian "hardcore" rationality model (homo economicus), leading to a dead-end street crowded with blinded economists & misled sociologists, as well as the virtues of the Simonesque "softcore" (or "contextual") rationality model, embracing the necessary sociocultural extensions. The second part of the paper confronts the "contextual," rational choice model with the "homo socioeconomicus" model of "embedded" rationality. Rejecting the "exogenous" (cynical) treatment of various effects of social interaction, displayed through the notion of refraction of rationality, the latter approach offers a more complex view of human motives partially molded by evolutionary (institutional) imperatives. 79 References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper examines the influence of neoclassical economics on the sociological approach to individual & collective behavior. The first part discusses the limitations of the Beckerian "hardcore" rationality model (homo economicus), leading to a dead-end street crowded with blinded economists & misled sociologists, as well as the virtues of the Simonesque "softcore" (or "contextual") rationality model, embracing the necessary sociocultural extensions. The second part of the paper confronts the "contextual," rational choice model with the "homo socioeconomicus" model of "embedded" rationality. Rejecting the "exogenous" (cynical) treatment of various effects of social interaction, displayed through the notion of refraction of rationality, the latter approach offers a more complex view of human motives partially molded by evolutionary (institutional) imperatives. 79 References. Adapted from the source document.
The author analyzes fundamental concepts of the school of rational expectation (RATEX, an offspring of the Chicago school of economics). Theoretical foundations of the neoclassical macroeconomy are set out: the hypothesis of rational expectations in the circumstances of perfect competition & the principle of strategic interdependence. Central to these are the hypotheses of variants, misallocation of resources, & neutrality of economic policy. Outlined are rent-seeking & direct unproductive profit-seeking as well as alternative models in the new theoretical economy: economic constitutionalism, deficitarians, the theory of political business cycles, & supply-side economics. 22 References. Adapted from the source document.
The author demonstrates the importance of public finances as a source of the theory of public choice. He identifies the contributions of the continental theorists of public choice from the late 19th & early 20th centuries, particularly that of the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell. The author considers his concept of the method of fair taxation the central source of the theory of public choice by James Buchanan & other representatives of the Virginian school. In the author's opinion, Wicksell's approach is basically normative, but the author's detailed analysis of Wicksell's key work on the theory of fair taxation points to a series of salient points that are redolent of the positive theory of public choice as it was mapped out in the mid-20th century. 18 References. Adapted from the source document.
One of the rules of international economic relations is that small countries are more dependent on intense international economic cooperation than are large states. This cooperation is not, in principle, completely liberalized, but depends on a number of multilateral & bilateral agreements. Aspiring to put in order its own economic position internationally, Croatia was first directed to regulate its relations with the European community. In these efforts, Croatia was faced with unequal treatment compared to Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, & Slovenia. The author shows that this unfavorable attitude toward Croatia is partially the result of political demands & the interests of the European community. Adapted from the source document.
In: Razvoj - development, international: journal of problems of socio-economic development, developing countries and international relations, Band 7, Heft 1, S. 5-19
The theory of public choice is a major link between political science & economic science. It includes economic research into the issue of non-market decision making, ie, the application of economic analysis to political decision making. The champions of the theory of public choice have the most confidence in the market & market institutions. They try to explain political decision making by means of the standards operating in the market. The public choice theory approach is based on the concept of methodological individualism & homo oeconomicus, since individuals try to promote their own interests both in the market & in politics. Theoreticians of public choice investigate voters' behavior, the roles of politicians, political parties, & interest groups in complex democratic societies. Central for their research is the political process in which voters behave as buyers, & politicians as entrepreneurs, while bureaucrats are prone to self-aggrandizement; their ambition is to boost the significance of their office. The theory of public choice emphasizes the category of exchange (political exchange) & the catalectic approach to economy. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.
The author looks into Buchanan's contribution to the contemporary political economy. His starting point is that Buchanan's concept of economy as exchange links political science & economics, showing that this is feasible, since Buchanan has rejected the theory of allocation, a standard in economics, & promoted the market theory based on exchange. The theory of allocation is dubious for Buchanan since it reduces the subject of economics to a set of problems & not to a characteristic form of human activity. That is why he uses the concept of the symbiotic, meaning the attitude based on the study of links among various actors that are beneficial for all. Buchanan's basic concept evolved & was shaped in the 1980s in the form of the constitutional political economy, which is an attempt to explain the possibilities of different legal-constitutional rules that determine the basic framework for selecting economic & political actors. The author claims that for political science, particularly important is the fact that Buchanan defines this type of political economy as a redux of the political in economics. In this way, on the one hand, it became questionable in economics as a discipline, & on the other, more acceptable for political science. However, the fact that Buchanan's work transcends the rigid boundaries of social disciplines does not mean that he unreservedly paves the way for political science. On the contrary, Buchanan is pursuing such a fundamental revision of the rigid boundaries among disciplines in social sciences that it may challenge the present status of political science. 31 References. Adapted from the source document.
Theodor Lowi 1969 marked the end of a "Big Government" era in American politics & theory. In 2001, he announced the end of fundamentalist laissez-faire approaches in recent politics & theory, especially in the field of globalization & the world corporate system. He argues that political science with political economy provides a better understanding of these processes & phenomena than economics without political economy. Here, Strpic accepts "Lowi's challenge" & formulates with him an "agenda for a new global politics" & an "agenda for a new global political economy." He refers to a few recent articles & a book of his own, where he already has done it, & also reminds us of his immediate & accurate politico-economic forecasting of the actual change in American politics after the terrorist attack on the US, & the absence of a great economic crisis, which leading American economists realized only a few weeks later. 26 References. Adapted from the source document.
In classical political & politicoeconomic theory, the opposition of the traditional & the modern is set in the very conception of political & social bodies in motion, & in their change power -- vs the antique & medieval conception. In contemporary science, as it is surveyed in this study, the political "duration" & "change" are the key mediation point of all development & change. They are often treated as a modernization rather than a transformation of a genuine polity. This is a significant difficulty in political action & its complex strategy. Strategy of change & development of a polity must include "choice" in evaluations of its proper state & the state of its referring environment, of their predictable internal & external changes, of various options, & of their alternative potential development scenarios in crossing. It is a combination of a prospective history of the complex societal change & development, & of an implementation of its own meaning of action. This combination must be founded in focused specialist analysis of comparative politicoeconomic processes whose foundation is in theories of national & world systems, & in general political & politicoeconomic theory. In a Schumpeterian equilibrium & disequilibrium relation of development of the politicoeconomic system, a permanent unexpected penetration of 'practical action' intensifies the 'Hume's fork' of analytical models without a general theory, especially the theory of the state. Almond & Pye's theory of political development dissociated itself from the development & analysis of an individual political system. Inside political system boundaries it isolated itself from major sources of real political change & development -- instead developing a politological approach to problems of the polity. Convergent general & special theories in social sciences, with a differentiation in disciplinary scientific approaches -- are the necessity of the new political economy as much as theory of complex development & change. Adapted from the source document.
