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The paper presents an analysis of the main characteristics of growth mechanism in three transitional economies – Hungary, Russia and Serbia. The author searches for an answer to the question what fundamental factors, internal and international, determined the long-term growth of the national economies in these countries from the early 1960s to the present global crisis. Wherever it was possible, he made comparisons between the pre-transition and transition periods. Applying the models of mathematical economics, the author carried out an econometric investigation to prove his hypothesis on the system effect of market reforms. He pointed out that market reforms, which were implemented consequently and combined with a growth-oriented economic policy, could substantially contribute to the attainment of better performance.

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The analysis of the cases concerning international territorial administration involves the results of research of taking over administration over the strategically and internationally important areas in the periods after World War I and II, respectively. All analysed cases among which are the mandates of the League of Nations, non-selfgoverning, strategic and trust territories or generally speaking, “internationalised territories” in the system of United Nations indicate that international administration of territory is established by the division of power by two or more states in an area or by the transfer of administrative authorities to an international body or the international organisation. As a rule, they are established because the political and social conditions are not fully created as well as because of the unequal power of international legal subjects. The transformation of international territorial administration in the contemporary period results from the transformation of the United Nations collective security system. In critical situations it can serve to achieve political legitimacy and legal and economic subjectivity of the territory.

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Applying as a criterion the area of achievement the author divides the right of peoples to self-determination to external and internal, while it is divided to political, economic and cultural when applying the sphere of social life as a criterion. While the right to self-determination undoubtedly belongs to peoples the recognition of this right to other groups, such as indigenous peoples and minorities requires a deeper analysis. The author defines the concept of holders of the right to self-determination that necessarily includes a territorial element. By all this, she analyses two concepts that are related to this right – uti possidetis principle and safeguard clause.

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This paper deals with the problem of adoption of new knowledge as the core factor of development and international competitiveness. Differences between countries in the level of GDP are largely caused by differences in the levels of technological development and the degree of productivity. R&D sectors and innovative activity are emerging as the key determinants of productivity growth and thus the international competitiveness of nations. The international diffusion of knowledge is an important contributor to the innovation in the national country. Different channels of knowledge diffusion have a different developmental potentials for the host country. FDI and TNCs investment are considered to be a large potential source of new technology and knowledge for host countries. The more technologies brought in the host country, the larger is the scope for technology and knowledge spillovers. Such effects may be significant, but they depend to a large extent on host countries’ ability to accept and adopt available technologies and knowledge. If the technology gap between countries is too large, then the spillovers may not materialize.

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The author analyzes the influence of heterogeneity of religious-ethnic structure on economic growth. Most studies show that extraordinary national-religious diversification has a negative impact on economic performance of countries. However, the institutional arrangements that involve a significant degree of decentralization may be a factor of relaxation of ethnic and religious, i.e. political animosity. Positive economic experiences of some institutional and ethnically complex countries show that the single economic policy is possible and that strong the national heterogeneity is not necessarily a negative factor for economic development if there are viable democratic institutions.

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The author analyses how big business interests groups influence the both EU legislative and policy making process, and by doing so how they distort pluralistic concept of public policy networking at the supranational level of governance. The enormous financial resources available to multinational corporations provide them the use of “front group” strategy or the “third party” strategy, manipulative public relations tactics, and an insider position in the European Commission’s consultative fora, which all lead to exclusion of grassroot groups. The author concludes that big business influence on the EU decision-makers will have negative effects on democratic legitimacy of the EU institutions, and he thinks that an efficient institutional control over lobbying activities in Brussels is needed.