Don’t Look For Miracles

The series of interviews about our economic reality and possible ways into the future Vreme weekly was initiated when the government’s head announced the New Year’s promise to the people that 1997 will be a year of serious reforms. This time, our guest is the coordinator of the team Group 17 (the second one is M. Dinkic), Ph.D. Veselin Vukotic, professor at the School of Economics in Podgorica.

What are the main postulates of the radical reforms program offered by the Group?

Veselin Vukotic: We developed the program with the wish and intention to give a comprehensive survey of the way out of the economic crisis and to achieve a consensus, i.e. the answer within the competency of our profession. The program includes the works of many economists besides the seventeen of us, as well as of some institutes. In my opinion, the crucial novelties of the program compared to everything we had so far is that it assumes a new political environment, or in other words, the democratization of society that is required for the realization of the program. Second, it is so comprehensive because it encompasses all segments of the economy, that is, its starting point is the assumption that there is no reform without the full reform of the system; that is why it is called radical. Third, the program is based on the idea of enterpreneurship, the idea of economic liberty, liberalization and deregulation, and especially on the idea of a minimal but strong state that would be concentrated more on the conduct of agreed rules and behave less as and arbiter in all economic processes. The starting point of the Group is the fact that the ideal of state of prosperity is in crisis in the West, both in theory and in practice, and that it is being abandoned to the greatest part.

There were comments that the letter to the public offers nothing new...

As for the criticism of the program so far, I think that the economists have essentially supported it. There are also colleagues that are upset about not being on the team, but that is really just a question of technique, because a team that big can not work in any way but as an operative group. Making the program operational will include much greater number of economists.

The bottom line of the criticism as I have heard so far is that the program has not offered anything new. I find the explanation in the fact that the belief in miracles is inherent to our mentality. Therefore they seek miracle workers or praise people that speak about myths, about the past and they like people who promise Swedish standard and the like. And that is just escaping from reality which is not romantic at all. Those are facts. Our people prefer to believe in dreams than in reality.

The program proposes the decision on entering into the process, but you did not develop the technique for conducting it. There are no final solutions...

The program has no final solutions because it starts from certain principles. We offer certain principles - freedom, liberalization, deregulation, human rights. This program is based exactly on the creation of the principles, opening of the processes and the people's will, motivated by their personal interests and searching for the best solutions at given time.

Milo Djukanovic has noted that the political factor is very important for the realization of economic ideas. In the last issue of the Vreme he has stated that Milosevic is an obsolete politician...

The President of the Montenegrin Government is in power, so his assertion weights more because his government has connections with the government he is talking about, and you can’t even imagine to what extent everything is rotten in this system of power when one man from the system notices it needs radical changes.

True, he said that Milosevic is an obsolete politician; however, I am more interested to find the explanation as to when was it that he was not obsolete. We have all known for a long time that he is obsolete.

Have their been any reactions from abroad about the program?

I must stress that the program was not written as a report for scientific gatherings, but is made up of a set of ideas and mechanisms that must be proven to be conducted in practice. However, it was written in a language easily understandable by the people of the same profession, especially abroad. We can communicate with those abroad through our program, and I must say that the reactions are positive. It is important that they understand what we have written.