The basic premise of international organizations, such as the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and their academic supporters is that there exists one single, universally valid and applicable economic, social, legal and political model, to which all of the countries in the world should aspire. If the third and second world countries should resemble the most developed and advanced countries of the first world, they have to adopt their economic and social model.
The theory of convergence tend to forget, however that even among the most developed countries in the world substantial institutional and social differences exist. There are countries and societies with the stronger emphasis on achieving higher level of social cohesion. There are countries that emphasize stronger participation of employees in managing the commercial companies and there are models that facilitate significantly larger inclusion of the citizens in carrying out the productive, creative, technological, educational and social welfare activities. The area of economic democracy and the enhanced constitutional democracy of the 21st century are not sufficiently understood and exploited opportunities; they will present a central theme of the course.
Methodologically the course shall be carried out with the help of active participation of the students, on the basis of the common analysis and on the basis of the collective search for possible alternative models that are potentially more suitable for the diverse countries and societies in the 21st century, both in the European and the global context. If the humanity is to evolve in the more balanced, more sustainable direction that we witness at the present, the development in different directions should become feasible.