Search

Political power and state institutions, primarily in the sense of interweaving and reduction of their political power, is a research topic that has been going on for thousands of years. Many have studied the intertwined corridors of these political phenomena, but they have never been able to fully explore this topic. In this paper, their causal relationship is analyzed, with a special emphasis on the tendency of political power and state institutions to become alienated, in which these “servants of the people” are transferred over time to lords, which is why this paper starts from the position that political power wants to subordinate state institutions. The scientific importance is primarily contained in the effort to further enrich the scientific fund in the field of political theory and the state. The aim of the research is much more ambitious and is contained primarily in the intention to point out all the positive and negative repercussions that arise from the complex relations between the political power and state institutions, with the intention of pointing out these social anomalies and to increase the degree of democratization, but also functionality of society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political power and state institutions, primarily in the sense of inter weaving and reduction of their political power, is a research topic that has been going on for thousands of years. Many have studied the intertwined corridors of these political phenomena, but they have never been able to fully explore this topic. In this paper, their causal relationship is analyzed, with a special emphasis on the tendency of political power and state institutions to become alienated, in which these "servants of the people" are transferred over time to lords, which is why this paper starts from the position that political power wants to subordinate state institutions. The scientific importance is primarily contained in the effort to further enrich the scientific fund in the field of political theory and the state. The aim of the research is much more ambitious and is contained primarily in the intention to point out all the positive and negative repercussions that arise from the complex relations between the political power and state institutions, with the intention of pointing out these social anomalies and to increase the degree of democratization, but also functionality of society as a whole

The process of restitution, in its basic concept, has to set equally two objectives: a) elimination of the injustices, i.e. restitution of property to former owners who were stripped from the property during state intervention; b) creating conditions for - oriented economic subjects and conditions for achieving greater economical stability. Without that, restitution will have limited reach. Serbian on Property Restitution and Compensation was passed only just in 2011, when the process of transformation of ownership was in the act for more than two decades. If relations of property are affected during the change of fundamental principles in organizing the society, the principle of fairness must require that all subjects, if it's possible, be in the same legal position. However, when it comes to restitution, adoption and implementation of regulations make indirect . This paper deals only with current restitution that refer to the violation of basic legal principles: The differences in the legal status of persons who were deprived of their property; The differences in the possibilities of exercising the of persons whose deprived property is returned on the basis of the general and the on property restitution to churches and religious communities; Different degree of legal certainty for the persons whose property is returned in kind and for persons that are given cash and securities for reimbursement. Problems in the implementation of the which, under the applicable legislation, practically and theoretically, cannot be resolved, were presented in the paper in order to point out the serious shortcomings and contradictions in the text of the and to point out the need for amendments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author presents the results of the research of the everyday life of the Serbs in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica in the conditions of the altered socio-political context after the war on Kosovo and Metohija in 1999. The main attention is paid to the status and the functioning of institutions. The aim of the paper is to offer a contribution based on the conceptualization of the ethnographic field work material in order to give the account of the everyday experience of Serbs in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica in the conditions of the undefined institutional relations caused by the withdrawal of Serbian authorities from Kosovo and Metohija, the introduction of an international protectorate and the unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence. The results presented in this paper were obtained from the field research conducted several times from 2011 to 2015 in a total duration of over eight months. The change of social-political context after the war in 1999 led to major structural disruptions in Kosovo and Metohija. These disruptions were felt especially in the institutional sphere, where they reflected in almost all aspects of the everyday life of Serbs in this area. The undefined status of institutions, in this regard, has shown to be one of the key issues in the context of the everyday life of the Serb population in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica. The survival of the Serbian institutions for the Serbs in this town represented a confirmation of the presence of the Republic of Serbia in the North of Kosovo and Metohija, which was an important symbol of identification of the local Serbs with the state they considered their own. These institutions, on the other hand, have been under intense international and Albanian pressure since the war in 1999, i. e. under the constant threat of abolition, which caused a continuous feeling of insecurity among the Serbs in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica and the concerns regarding their own survival. In the conditions of contested legitimacy the Serbs did not accept the imposed instances of international and Kosovo administration, while the international regulatory bodies and Kosovo institutions did not recognize institutions of the Republic of Serbia, considering them "parallel", i. e. illegal. In Northern Kosovska Mitrovica this led to a social situation characterized by the absence of clearly defined authorities, especially in the domain of executive structures, in which the Serbs in this town led their everyday life in a gap between their needs for carrying out various daily practices on the one hand, and on the other the reality interwoven with intricate institutional relations. The Serbs in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica were forced to adapt to living in "parallel" realities, deprived of the "normalcy" of everyday life inherent in organized societies. Yet, even though they learned how to adapt to those circumstances and even how to take advantage of them, such a reality created a number of everyday problems which, in the conditions of general uncertainty, made their situation even more unfavorable.

In this paper I argue that social epistemic inequalities, exemplified by expert structures and their introduction into various social and political processes, may be a collective epistemic virtue only if they are discovered under the conditions of free possibility of redundant disagreement. In the first part of the paper, following Snježana Prijić Samaržija’s work in Democracy and Truth, I explicate the epistemic value of social epistemic inequalities, and address the epistemic defectiveness of both the complete social disregard for any expertize (flat epistemology) and the rule of experts. In the second part of the paper, I argue that social epistemic inequalities governing a large and complex population of epistemically suboptimal agents may be a collective epistemic virtue, reflective of discovery of epistemically reliable processes, if they can be contested and, in principle, withstand redundant disagreement.

The subject of the paper is to consider the evolution of theoretical approaches to economic rationality as a key principle of economic choice in economic science. Thanks to various theoretical approaches, the category of economic rationality has got a completely different meaning and a much broader meaning than its neoclassical interpretation. The two basic (typical) theoretical models of economic behavior of man are explained and explained: full rationality and limited rationality, which can be irrational (irrational or spontaneous) behavior and institutional (so-called post-rational) behavior. In doing so, a special emphasis is placed on the fragmentation of institutional rationality, which implies institutional pluralism as the most dominant principle of economic and social development. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the importance of institutions in general and for economic development in particular, which is undeniable in contemporary economic literature, as well as the dominance of institutional (post-rational) approach to economic behavior. In addition, the aim of the paper is to briefly explain the underlying reasons for the front, as well as the consequences of non-compliance, respectively the acceptance of monistic institutional improvisations (alternatives of alternative institutions) in place of institutional pluralism. Using the methods of abstraction, induction, deduction, descriptive analysis, and comparisons, the paper attempts to prove the hypothesis that institutional pluralism is the dominant and the only possible modern development principle recommended by non-institutional economic theories (NET), and proves the practice of all economically developed countries in which there is no room for any monistic improvisations (such as neoliberalism, dirigisism, etc.). The plenary emphasizes the beginning of institutional pluralism for social and economic development.

The Western Balkan region continues to face significant challenges in establishing the rule of law. This paper examines the socio-legal factors contributing to the weakness of the rule of law in the Western Balkans. It identifies three key factors: inefficient and unaccountable state institutions, the rule of informal institutions and corruption networks, and impotent formalistic judiciary. These are traced back to underlying historical, sociological, and legal prerequisites in the region. The analysis finds that state institutions in the Western Balkans are often extractive and controlled by political elites, undermining checks and balances. Additionally, informal institutions like clan networks continue to thrive, promoting corruption and impunity. Finally, the judiciary retains vestiges of socialist legal formalism, hampering impartial adjudication. Recommendations focus on the need for substantive domestic ownership of reforms by local actors. Sustainable rule of law requires capable and accountable state institutions along with strong civic engagement. The EU and international donors must re-examine their technocratic approach and insist on tangible improvements.

Copyright of Acta Economica is the property of University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes the importance of modern agricultural production in market international order and in the national system of economic development. Agricultural policy in the world needs to respect environmental standards in order to protect the environment and human health. Modern agricultural policy seeks to achieve national food security and safety. The question that the work we're trying to answer is: is it and how in the world feasible in the modern market economy based on the prevailing 'neo-classical' model of development. This paper examines the interdependent and complex relationship of economic growth, demographic trends and agricultural production in terms of climate change and other environmental problems and possibilities of development of modern agriculture, which directly affects the sustainable and equitable development in the 'polycentric' international order that is in the changes.

This paper deals with the problem of political clientelism in Serbia broadly defined as the selective distribution of benefits (money, jobs, information, a variety of privileges) to individuals or clearly defined groups in exchange for political support. The main objective is to explain why political clientelism is widespread in Serbia and which key factors determine its shape and intensity. The explanation is based on the analysis of historical factors of development of clientelism in Serbia, as well as on analysis of data from a recent research on informal relations between political and economic elites in Serbia and Kosovo. The paper concludes that clientelism and informality have represented one of the structuring principles of socioeconomic and political development of Serbian society under the conditions of weak formal institutions and socio-historical heritage of late modernization. On the other hand, since 2000 economic and political sphere in Serbia became more open and competitive which influenced change in the character of clientelism in Serbia - the increased rivalry among different clientelistic (sub)networks heightened the chance of opportunistic defection even at the top level, which made political power of patrons more tradable and the relation inside the power network less asymmetric.

The process of restitution, in its basic concept, has to set equally two objectives: a) elimination of the injustices, i.e. restitution of property to former owners who were stripped from the property during state intervention; b) creating conditions for market-oriented economic subjects and conditions for achieving greater economical stability. Without that, restitution will have limited reach. Serbian Law on Property Restitution and Compensation was passed only just in 2011, when the process of transformation of ownership was in the act for more than two decades. If relations of property are affected during the change of fundamental principles in organizing the society, the principle of fairness must require that all subjects, if it's possible, be in the same legal position. However, when it comes to restitution, adoption and implementation of regulations make indirect discrimination. This paper deals only with current restitution issues that refer to the violation of basic legal principles: The differences in the legal status of persons who were deprived of their property; The differences in the possibilities of exercising the rights of persons whose deprived property is returned on the basis of the general law and the law on property restitution to churches and religious communities; Different degree of legal certainty for the persons whose property is returned in kind and for persons that are given cash and securities for reimbursement. Problems in the implementation of the law which, under the applicable legislation, practically and theoretically, cannot be resolved, were presented in the paper in order to point out the serious shortcomings and contradictions in the text of the Law and to point out the need for amendments.

This paper discusses the relationship between moral philosophy and political philosophy. It holds that political philosophy in some way is part of moral philosophy as the former deals with the content of moral standards governing the relations between individuals and institutions. That would be the purpose of the „morality of institutions“, while the so-called "individual morality" would inform the standards applicable to individuals. On the basis of a conception of individual morality as it relates to contractualism and a discussion of the morality of institutions that closely follows John Rawls’ theory of justice, the paper addresses the question of the foundations of the obligation to comply with institution-defined standards that are directed towards individuals. At the end, it focuses in particular on the difficulty of rationalizing that obligation in the case of unjust institutions.

The paper provides an insight into the dominant trends of contemporary evolutionary economics and outlines the important issues related to the articulation of this approach in thinking about the economy. The paper also affirms a proposition on institutions as carrier structures of socio-economic evolution, whose numerous effects at the societal level are decoded through the coordination function. In addition to the market, the process of coordination also employs other non-market institutional structures, whose profile and operational principles are the product of the trajectories of cultural and historical evolution, different among social orders. Projects aimed at the transformation of the economic system are to be sensitized to an objectively conditioned diversity of the institutional structures of the world economy, and in this sense, should be very careful in the installation of „universal” reform solutions.

Five years ago FIAT car company acquired Zastava Automobili manufacturing plant, by the agreement with the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and established FAS company (FIAT Automobiles Serbia). FIAT-Zastava Automobili acquisition has been the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Serbian industrial sector. This acquisition is a part of FIAT's going global strategy. In FIAT's global strategy FAS was initially planned to produce C class models for European market. Demand for automobiles in EU reduced dramatically due to debt crisis deepening, so FIAT is seeking alternative markets for FAS vehicles. Penetration into Russian market is considered an alternative, and the possible expansion of the goods list covered by the Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and Russia to automobiles would facilitate its achievement. This paper deals with Russian car market growth trends and how multinational companies (MNC) operate in markets with quiet inefficient institutions. Potential competitive advantages, as well as risks involved in FIAT's expansion into Russian market will be analyzed in this paper. The risks mean that currently FIAT takes a negligible share of Russian market so a deeper penetration would imply additional financial investments and development of the lacking intangible resources essential for doing business in emerging markets with inefficient institutions.

This paper presents a survey of LGBT attitudes towards the security sector in Serbia. During the five focus groups with LGBT persons, we determined the basic characteristics of police attitudes towards sexual minorities. By examining the relationship between the police and the sexual minorities, the author attempts to determine the institutional practice towards homosexuality. The study also notes the differences between respondents based on their status and the size of their place of residence. This paper looks at events such as the Pride Parade, which lead to the appearance of anti-gay factions and political conflicts.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has generated new challenges in the work of social welfare institutions, particularly in the area of providing support in alternative forms of care, such as foster care. The need for support during the pandemic was very significant and necessary because foster families fall into the category of vulnerable groups, especially because they provide care for children displaced from their primary (biological) family. In addition to insufficient institutional support during the pandemic, communication with primary families was aggravated, which has had a negative impact on foster children and their needs. The Faculty of Law in Osijek is a partner institution in the Project "Zajedno do doma" (Foster Home for Children), funded by the EU and organized by the World Youth Federation Croatia. For the project purposes, a survey on institutional support to foster families was conducted from August to October 2021. The collected data will be presented and analyzed in this paper, in order to identify the needs of foster families, the relevant forms of institutional support, and the difficulties that foster families experience in case of insufficient support. This pilot research on the attitudes of experts and foster careers is a quantitative basis for further qualitative research on foster care in direct contact with foster carers. Based on this research, the authors have developed foster care guidelines, with special emphasis on the challenges of providing support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In all areas of society, it is necessary to actively and continuously act on unique (constitutive) rules that apply equally to all and perform non-selective and unprivileged regulation, coordination, organization and limitation of human behavior. These are institutions that can best present their functions. Economics has clearly shown how the real (and even virtual) economic reality works in principle and determined that the role of institutions in society and economy is not only necessary and unavoidable, but also a priority, as a metabasis and meta-mechanism. This paper presents a study of the impact of constitutional (political) rules, economic rules and contracts on the construction of socio-cultural capital. The aim of the research is to prove that all development models that have ignored institutions have proved unsustainable. The constitution has the role of preventing arbitrariness, ie “rule without rules”.

Searching for an institutional structure which enables economic success is in the midst of the practical efforts of governments all around the world, as well as the academic studies endeavoring to understand the sources of success in the most prosperous national economies. The supremacy of the German economy in the European Union, as well as worldwide - from the level of the GDP per capita to high productivity, innovativeness and export performances - is the basic motivation this study rests on. Due to the fact that, unlike a failure, an economic success is always achieved in the long run, this study is aimed at revealing the (historical) institutional roots that have paved the way for the economic success of contemporary Germany. In that context, the model of the Social market economy, i.e. the competitive order (Wettbewerbsordnung), its meaning and importance in solving the allocative equation and reaching the high levels of economic efficiency are the subject matter of analysis in this paper. The key results refer to the identification of the diverse economic and social benefits that a competitive order brings into being, as well as the determination of and pointing to the essential institutional preconditions which such an order is feasible in.

In accordance with the principle of sustainable development human population is increasingly returning to nature and its original values. Biodegradable products, products of organic origin are also known as healthy food, medicinal and aromatic plants. Wood and nonwood forest products (NWFPs) are forestry products that satisfy criteria of ecological production and as such appear on the market within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) targeted use of these products, which opens the possibility of developing small and medium entrepreneurship. The aim of this research is the knowledge acquired in a survey of documents relevant for the business of selected enterprises in the Republic of Srpska, from the establishment of enterprises by the Agency for Intermediary, IT and Financial Services to documents applied in purchase, processing and sales of wood and NWFPs. The subject of this study are documents relevant for use in the purchase, processing and placement of wood and NWFPs. The purpose of this paper is to show the business method of analyzed enterprises and present the model of the institutions, procedures and documents referring to wood and NWFPs purchase, processing and placement in the Republic of Srpska.

In the global economy, where countries compete for foreign investment, it is very important to build an institutional framework that will provide favourable environment for investment. Strengthening the rule of law contributes to a more favorable business environment as it creates a climate of stability and predictability, where business risks can be rationally assessed. Serbia made certain progress in the sphere of the rule of law, but the situation in this area can not be described as satisfactory. Improving the rule of law would contribute to the improvement of the business environment, which would ensure the comparative advantage of the domestic economy in the world market and compensate for other disadvatages in the area of attracting investment. Bearing in mind the importance of the rule of law for improving the business environment, the aim of the work is to analyze the achieved results in the area of improving the rule of law in Serbia and identify key weaknesses in this field. The analysis of the rule of law is based on the data of the World Justice Project on the quality of the rule of law, as well as other indicators that assess the ease of doing business, degree of competitiveness, quality of governance and degree of economic freedom and the degree of development of democracy, whose primary goal is not to measure the rule of law, but nevertheless contain some indicators of the rule of law. The results of the analysis should point to the achieved results in the field of the rule of law in Serbia, as a basis for identifying key weaknesses in this sphere and areas in which the deepening of the reforms would contribute to the improvement of the business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we identify the main factors of confidence in institutions in the six former Yugoslav republics. Conceptually, we introduce two theoretical approaches: social capital theory and political approach. To test our hypotheses, we rely on European Value Study 2008 data, and we use OLS regression analysis. We conclude that the six countries are quite similar in terms of identified factors of confidence in institutions. Satisfaction with democracy proves to be the most reliable predictor of confidence in institutions in each country. Additionally, we conclude that social capital theory provides a better framework for explaining confidence in institutions, rather than the political approach.

The research topic of this paper is the decision-making within the institution of local development in Serbia. The analysis of the interaction of actors, norms and regulations in the case of the General Urban Plan of Mladenovac, contributes to the understanding of the complexity of decision-making on local development, and key factors that affect effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation. The research of local development institutions and specifics of the decision-making flow was conducted on the case of transforming guidelines and rules of urban development plans into interventions.

Different regional development patterns and processes have emerged in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) since their accession into the European Union, in the past ten years. The reasons behind these different regional development trajectories mostly have been contributed quite rightly to the economic transformation processes where these post-socialist countries have to reorganize and to reconstruct their economies. The aim of this paper is to highlight the possible linkages between the individual countries’ particular central and territorial development institutional settings with the different regional development process trajectories: the two types of regional development systems in the Visegrad countries (centralized and decentralized) and the two main regional development processes (growing and non-growing regional disparities).

The use of wood for energy purposes is becoming a very important issue and the subject of cross-sectoral interaction in the fields of energy, environment and forestry. Woody biomass has been recognized as a significant potential to replace fossil fuels. Therefore, this situation has a large impact on all aspects of the forestry sector, making it a significant research issue, as well as operational issue in forest policy. The aim of this paper is to determine the nature and intensity of the impact of strategic, legislative and organizational framework on the use of wood for en­ergy purposes. The research used qualitative and quantitative methods in order to identify the impact of environmental institutions on the issues of biomass use for energy purposes. The results show that there is a complex organizational, strategic and legal framework related to the use of biomass for energy. On the basis of impact analysis, it can be concluded that some organizations may have a different character and the intensity of impact, while the most complex impact is exercised by the ministry responsible for the environment.

Endeavours to secure status of exact science for economics led to the exclusion of social and historical component from economic analysis. It is a long term process which started within classical political economy, gradually diverging the postulate upon which economic science is based from economic reality. Above mentioned changes are result of the long-term process during which holistic, social and historical aspects had been gradually removing from economic analysis. In this paper we will analyze the role of marginalism in the extrusion of social and historical from economic analysis.

Taking an attention to promotion as operational variable in marketing effort, author focused on so called ways of creating national images. As a case of very interesting activity paper discuss an experience of regional chamber of Croatia with activities in upgrading international recognition of national products as well as country as destination in such context.

The aim of this paper is to analyze sources of social capital, i.e. that segment of the overall capital which is embedded in social ties and relationships. This is not an easy task because in theoretical debates differences between sources, manifestations and effects of social capital are very often blurred. It is argued that different approaches in the analysis of the sources of social capital could be integrated into one conceptual model which would include two direct sources of social capital social networks and social norms. In addition, formal institutions and trust are also closely related to social capital. These determinants influence the development of social capital and are mutually related.

The paper analyses the role and importance of institutions, associations and organisations in the life of war migrants (returnees and immigrants) in the post-war period. The research involved was undertaken in a part of the western area of the Brod-Posavina County (the communes Gornji Bogićevci, Dragalić, Okučani, Stara Gradiška). The questionnaire method was applied and a total of 180 war migrants were surveyed. A group of 60 respondents was queried from each of three relevant and recognisable groupings: refugees-immigrants, retumee-Croats, returnee-Serbs. The statistical relevance of the results was tested by the χ2 test. Contacts with institutions pertained to the local level, whereas perceptions of the activities of institutions, apart from the local level, pertained also to the national and international levels. Analysis of respondents' answers showed that seeking aid from institutions was still practised by most of them. Although respondents indicated diverse reasons for visiting institutions, humanitarian aid was still their most frequent motivation. Among other reasons for visiting institutions active on the local level, seeking legal and other council, requests for various attestations and employment seeking should be noted. It is significant that very few respondents mentioned complaints (against their neighbours, the Croatian government, etc.) as a reason for visiting institutions. The frequency with which responds went to institutions varied from once a week to once a month and only a very small number of respondents never visited institutions. Of the three groupings, institutions were least visited by returnee-Croats, who were in a better existential position than the other two groupings. In evaluating the activities of Croatian authorities in aiding war migrants most respondents answered that they were neither salisfied nor dissatisfied with them: Local authorities and the Croatian government were indicated as the main culprits of ineffective aid work. A significant number of respondents (returnee-Croats, refugees-immigrants) felt that the problems facing the Croatian state were a justified reason for ineffective aid. The activities of international institutions were not sufficiently known to respondents. A large part of those that had some notion of international aid felt that it was insufficient. The research results indicated that employment and creativity has not yet reached a sufficient level in the post-war period and that most war migrants are still part of the dependent population. The activities of institutions, regardless of their shortcomings and the dissatisfaction of people needing them, are still important for war migrants, both on a practical and on a symbolic level. Renovation and reconstruction serves to bring members of this population out of a cliental status, bringing them more and more into a citizen status, equal in rights to other Croatian citizens.