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The purpose of this paper is to determine how including the Greek financial crisis in teaching introductory macroeconomics benefits students.

The methodology is based on the responses of a recent survey administered to students at a university in Greece.

An eclectic approach that distinguishes various economic theories and methodologies, mainly neoclassical and Keynesian, can provide a pedagogical way of teaching introductory macroeconomics, allowing students to use their everyday personal experiences in determining the most “suitable” theory in explaining the crisis.

To the author’s knowledge, such an exercise of discovering students’ perceptions of teaching an introductory macroeconomics Substitute with course during the global financial crisis has not yet been attempted.

The purpose of this paper is to present the philosophical roots of development ethics as a field of study with its interdisciplinary character.

The conceptual and historical evolution of development ethics is unfolded through Aristotle’s philosophy.

The authors argued that Aristotle’s philosophy, incorporating the concepts of “a good life” and “a good society,” defines ethical development and influences contemporary development ethics.

Development ethics is a relatively new field of study within social sciences and determines the ethical perspective of development in a holistic and normative manner. It is important to understand the antecedents, pioneers and contemporary practitioners of development ethics and how they are related. Based on the authors’ knowledge, there has been limited research regarding the origins of the concept of a “good society” as a determinant factor of development. In this context, Aristotle’s philosophy incorporating the concepts of a “good life” and a “good society” is the founding determinant in the study of ethical development.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the contradistinctions between the neoclassical and Keynesian paradigms of economics regarding the Greek Financial Crisis.

The answers to the questions and policies regarding the Greek Financial Crisis cannot be derived by using economic analysis alone; they also depend on the perception of social reality and ethical issues. Based on the assumptions about economic behavior, the answers and policies inevitably reflect the observer's assessment of each economic and non-economic performance dimension, as well as the significance assigned to those performance dimensions. Different views on “social reality” and “what is a good society?” are associated with distinct paradigms and a particular set of social values, which have implications for economic policy formulae. These give rise to alternative answers and policies to the Greek Financial Crisis, based on different assumptions, different methods of analysis and different goals.

Overall, in contradistinction, the two paradigms recommend quite distinct policies tackling the Greek Financial Crisis, and at the end, both paradigms have different perspectives on ethics and moral fundamentals regarding debt.

Students of the global financial crisis will benefit from this unique approach in testing the two alternative paradigms, between the neoclassical and Keynesian, concerning the Greek Financial Crisis.

The purpose of the paper is to develop alternative paths to the transition process as a result of alternative models of transition.

A political economy methodology to the transition process results in alternative transition models. As a result five alternative models of transition come into being.

Transition models can be distinguished on the basis of economic analysis, speed and the political structure. Each model recommended a set of economic policies to facilitate the transition process. The adoption of gradualist processes of transition – except in the case of shock therapy – requires a sequence by which the reforms should be introduced.

The paper contributes to the transition literature by developing a set of economic policies combined with a sequence path for each transition model.

The aim of this paper is to outline and compare the land ownership, land taxes and citizens' dividend proposals by Thomas Paine and Thomas Spence.

Paine wrote “Agrarian justice” in which he argued that every proprietor of cultivated land owes to the society a ground‐rent for the land which the person holds because it is common property. This ground rent would take the form of a tax per year of 10 per cent on inheritances. It is this ground‐rent that would fund the payments made to every person based on some age restrictions. In response, Spence wrote “The rights of infants” in which he went a step further as he recommended the abolition of aristocracy. As a result, there would have been common ownership of land and revenue derived from land would be administered by the parishes and distributed to everyone equally.

In assessing the two proposals using the citizens' dividend criterion, each proposal has consistent and inconsistent elements.

It can be argued that the two proposals are primitive versions of citizens' dividend as espoused today.

The paper contributes to knowledge regarding the debate at the time. During that period, public opinion associated classical political economy with a resolute denial of the right to subsistence to the poor and vigorous opposition to the English Poor Law based on the ideas of Malthus. Students of social economics would benefit from this paper in placing on equal footnoting in the historical debate the counter‐proposals to the dominant position at the time.

To examine China's reforms and successes could have been replicated to other transition economies.

The applicability of the Chinese process as an alternative for transition economies involves an analysis of the necessary reforms regarding price liberalisation‐stabilisation; privatisation; institutions; monetary policy and the financial system; fiscal policy; international trade and foreign aid and social policy.

The transition process in China has maintained political‐ideological authoritarianism and state control of the whole economy. Therefore, it was not the “special initial conditions” of China that made the model inappropriate but, rather, the switch to a democratic political‐ideological‐economic structure in transition economies.

The paper contributes to the transition literature by demonstrating that the strategy was only rendered workable in China, as the governments of transition economies neither had the mandate nor wanted to reimpose tight state direction of the politics, ideology and economy.

The article advances the argument that there is a great need for reconsidering States’ role in regulating socio‐economic, environmental and political spheres. The period of the collapse of communist economies has seen the private market led system being seen as rational. State intervention was seen as an impediment to successful development. Banks, insurance companies and stock markets have done much in the last decade to free themselves from State rules and regulations. On the Climatic front, most of the challenges that are confronting the world today have their roots in the by‐products of the activities of private led economics. With the failure of the laissez‐faire policies in 2008, a reassessment of the role of the State is needed. Using empirical data through data review, this article gives the importance of reconsidering the role of State by revisiting the concept of the State, not as an institution where those who scorn it as an impediment to growth only realise its importance when the ills of private capital accumulation needs to be repaired through rescue packages.

The main objective of this paper is to critically examine the effects of the ongoing reform process on the overall functioning of Serbia's banking system. It is essential that this reform process bears fruit by developing a sound, efficient and reliable banking system.

The research results were obtained through exploratory field research. The interviews were aimed at capturing the attitudes of bank managers regarding the country's banking reform process and examining the context of the managers' feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Based on questionnaire results collected from Serbia bank managers in 2004, the findings suggest that the reform process, although characterized as slow and sluggish due to a lack of customer's confidence in banks, has indeed improved the overall functioning of Serbia's banking sector.

This study's weakness is the fact that it was for the most part exploratory research. Conclusions can be drawn from the research, but not at the desired level of cause‐and‐effect.

The Serbian banking reform process can offer lessons for both more and less advanced economies, as it exposes critical problems and mistakes that could be avoided and managed appropriately.

This paper contributes to the research and literature on transition, as Serbia is an area of research in the transition literature, especially regarding the banking sector, which appears to be inadequate and limited.

This chapter starts from the issue of debt in the context of a national economy by contrasting two opposed views: policy prescriptions based on the Washington Consensus prioritize low public debt and a limited role of the government in the development process whereas a more heterodox view considers debt as logical, necessary, and helpful in order to allow the government to pursue an ambitious growth and development strategy. However, things change when the economy is considered in its international context: foreign debt is different from domestic debt and while the same heterodox analysis still rejects the Washington Consensus' demand for trade and financial liberalization, its own ambitious development strategies for the domestic economy get constrained by trade deficits, the threat of capital flight, and exchange rate instability. The question arises how the government can still significantly contribute to economic development beyond the limits of a purely private sector–driven approach. This is why this chapter reviews proposals to relax or overcome the balance-of-payments constraint. Finally, it considers a reform of international payments, which can be implemented by a single country unilaterally, and which enables it to stabilize its current account, avoid foreign debt accumulation, and support domestic development strategies.