Plural Voting and J. S. Mill’s Account of Democratic Legitimacy

This paper clarifies some of the contested ideas put forward by John Stuart Mill by analyzing the reasons and arguments Mill used to support them and demonstrating how these ideas and arguments supporting them are connected into a coherent system. Mill’s theory is placed in wider explanatory framework of democratic legitimacy developed by Thomas Christiano, and is portrayed as a typical example of democratic instrumentalism—a monistic position that focuses on the outcomes and results of a decision-making process. Following this move, the focus is shifted on the understanding of political equality in Mill’s political thought. I claim that, contrary to some contemporary interpretations, Mill’s theory is based on a few fundamentally inegalitarian ideas. Finally, Mill’s view on the role of experts in democratic decision-making is analyzed and compared with contemporary theories advocating democratic expertism—Mill’s view is again portrayed as inegalitarian, both to the extent of setting political aims and creating methods for achieving these aims

Epistemic Liberalism

Hayek’s late work on liberal politics is characterized by the idea that free market represents the best way of not only economic, but also political coordination. Epistemic liberalism builds upon this idea, reasserting old and highlighting new arguments to demonstrate the epistemic advantages of free market over deliberative democracy. This paper discusses the theoretical roots of epistemic liberalism, presents its key arguments but also addresses some important distinctions that part epistemic liberalism from epistemic democracy

Procjena kreditnog rizika poduzeća u Hrvatskoj

Glavni cilj ovog rada jest modeliranje kreditnog rizika nefinancijskih poslovnih subjekata procjenjivanjem vjerojatnosti migracija rejtinga i prognoziranjem vjerojatnosti neurednog podmirivanja kreditnih obveza u razdoblju od jedne godine na temelju financijskih izvješća poduzeća. Naše istraživanje donosi nekoliko novih važnih spoznaja. Matrice migracija rejtinga, u svakom su promatranom razdoblju simetrične, što pokazuje da neuredno podmirivanje obveza nije konačno stanje. Otkrili smo visok stupanj stabilnosti rejtinga, uz iznimku volatilnosti uzrokovane poduzećima u sredini ljestvice rejtinga. U razdoblju sporijega ekonomskog rasta vjerojatnost prijelaza između različitih kategorija rizika manja je nego u razdoblju bržega ekonomskog rasta. Vjerojatnost neurednog podmirivanja obveza relativno je stabilna u poduzećima koja posluju u različitim gospodarskim područjima. Nakon razmatranja mnoštva potencijalnih pokazatelja neurednog podmirivanja kreditnih obveza, rezultati multivarijantne logističke regresije otkrivaju da su najvažniji omjer dioničkog kapitala prema ukupnoj imovini te omjer zarade prije odbitka kamata i oporezivanja prema ukupnim obvezama, koji negativno koreliraju s vjerojatnošću neurednog podmirivanja kreditnih obveza. Usto, veća likvidnost, profitabilnosti i prodaja, kao i povezanost sa sektorom građevine i nekretnina, smanjuju mogućnost neurednog podmirivanja obveza poduzeća u sljedećoj godini. Model ispravno klasificira relativno razuman postotak poduzeća u uzorku (74% svih poduzeća, 71% poduzeća koja neuredno podmiruju svoje kreditne obveze i 75% poduzeća koja svoje obveze uredno podmiruju) kada je intervencijska vrijednost postavljena tako da maksimizira zbroj ispravno predviđenih udjela i poduzeća koja neuredno podmiruju svoje obveze i onih koja ih uredno podmiruju

The Epistemic Value of Partisanship

This paper discusses the epistemic value of political parties and other partisan associations from the standpoint of epistemic democracy. It examines whether political parties contribute to the quality of democratic deliberation, thus increasing the epistemic value of democratic decisionmaking procedures, or represent a threat that polarizes the society and impedes and distorts the public deliberation. The paper introduces several arguments that support the epistemic value of partisanship. Partisan associations empower otherwise marginalized social groups or groups that have disproportionally small political influence by facilitating political education or by connecting citizens and experts who share the same values. Partisan associations also help us resist the epistemically damaging effects of hermeneutical (epistemic) injustice by enabling marginalized citizens to construct alternative discourses. However, though partisanship might facilitate the transmission of knowledge, this deliberative tool will only be used in a group of like-minded citizens (i.e. within a political party), thus increasing the polarization between the parties and citizens alike, and decreasing the epistemic value of such collective decision-making procedures. The paper analyses some epistemic strategies (like red-teaming or building a critical thinking culture) that can help us avoid or (at least) reduce the epistemically damaging effects of polarization. However, internal action (from within a deliberative group) might not be enough. Making the deliberation on political issues public and spreading it through different forms of citizens’ organizations will ensure that political deliberation is not closed within a single homogenous deliberating group (i.e. the party). These practices should significantly reduce the damaging effects of group polarization

Credit Risk Assessment of Corporate Sector in Croatia

The main goal of this paper is modeling credit risk of non-financial businesses entities by assessing the rating migration probabilities and predicting the probability of default over one year horizon on the basis of corporate financial accounts. Our research provides a number of new important insights. Ratings migration matrices are symmetrical in every observed period, which implies that default state is not final terminal state. We find a high degree of rating stability, with the exception of some volatility generated by firms in the middle of the ratings scale. In the period of lower economic growth probabilities of transition between different risks categories are lower than in the period of higher economic growth. Probabilities of default are relatively stable across enterprises operating in different economic activities. After considering a wide range of potential predictors of default, multivariate logistic regression results reveal that the most important are the ratio of shareholders’ equity to total assets and the ratio of EBIT to total liabilities, both negatively related to the probability of default. In addition, higher liquidity, profitability and sales as well as construction and real estate sector affiliation all decrease the companies’ probability of default in the following year. The model correctly classifies relatively reasonable percentage of companies in the sample (74% of all the companies, 71% of defaulted and 75% of non-defaulted companies) when the threshold is set in such a way to maximize the sum of correctly predicted proportions for both defaulted and nondefaulted companies

Fake News and the Capability Approach: How Disinformation Impairs Personal Health

This paper examines the detrimental effects of fake news on individual well-being and explores measures that individuals and governments can adopt to mitigate these effects. While current discussions predominantly focus on the harm fake news causes to the political community, this paper shifts its attention to studying the harm inflicted on individual citizens who are exposed to and in- fluenced by fake news. By drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s capability theory, the paper evaluates the impact of fake news on individuals’ well-being, particularly in relation to the development of personal health, which is a crucial capability for leading a fulfilling life. Having established that fake news poses a significant threat to this fundamental capability, the paper explores various approaches that individuals and governments can employ to minimize the detrimental effects of fake news on individual well-being