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Jim, First let me quote from one of the 'good' economists, Joze Mencinger. "One should not neglect, however, the impact that academic economists had on the Slovenian transition model, both indirectly, by participating in public and academic debates and oftern stubbornly rejecting foreign advice, and also through their direct involvement in the creation of the macroeconomic framework for the new country. The reasons for the stubborn rejection of "Western" advice differed. Unlike other socialist countries, SFR Yugoslavia had been an open country; many economists had studied abroad, acquiring a solid understanding of mainstream Western economics, and were therefore not easily awed by foreign advisers. Most had participated in rathe free debates on economic reform in the 1980s; thus they were not surprised by the breakup of socialism, and most shared a lack of ideology with the former political and economic elite of the country." ("Transition to a National and a Market Economy", Slovenina: From Yugoslavia to the European Union. p. 76) Having said this, however, the Economics faculty at the U of Ljubljana is as rigid, ideological and neoclassical as the worst of American departments (with some exceptions). Most of the 'good' economists are associated with other faculties like Social Science or Law (Mencinger was in the law faculty). Further, as Slovenia got closer to and then entered the EU, economists seemed to increasing endorse the neoliberal micro position. Policy is also shifting right though a strong labour movement and supporting left parties seem to, so far, have prevented any major rightward shift, though this is in part because the right parties have proven to be relatively administratively incompetent. Time will tell. Paul Jim Devine wrote: On 3/17/06, paul phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:I interviewed a senior executive in Slovenian banking a number of years ago and asked him how he explained the success of Slovenia's macroeconomic policies in the latter half of the 1990s. He replied, "We didn't take any of the advice of western economists." |
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