Original scientific paper
To Be Worth and to Cost: Social-Cultural Prerequisites of Transition ih the Recent Works of the Croatian Economists
Vjeran KATUNARIĆ
Abstract
Three different approaches to social-cultural prerequisites of
transition within a body of economic literature in Croatia are
analysed: reductionist/neo-liberal, contextual/neo-institutional,
and relativist/"third way". The first approach either ignores social-
-cultural facts or re-interprets them narrowly in the terms of homo
economicus of the rational choice model. The second approach
includes a variety of interpretations of social-cultural values (from
a modified rational choice version to social constructionist
approach). The third approach (where "relativism" epitomises an
extreme version of neo-institutional concept of "path
dependency", and the "third way" means an idea of socialist
market economy) has no broader support in mainstream
economics. Concurrently, the sociological approaches to
transition are articulated more evenly in terms of neo-
-institutionalism and in terms of the "third way", whereas virtually
no work exists in support to the economic reductionism
approach; and the political science approach articulates its own
variety of neo-institutional approaches, with an aim at explaining
the adaptation of institutions of liberal democracy to the cleavage of traditional and modern values in the Croatian society. The
author concludes that this constellation of the approaches of the
three disciplines reflects not merely their theoretical and topical
differences, but also the fact that economic models are highly
applicable mainly due to their economic reductionism manner.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
16106
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2004.
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