ZAGREB, Dec 19 (Hina) - Croatian economist and politician Branko Horvat died early Friday morning at the age of 76, the Zagreb School of Economics said in a statement.
ZAGREB, Dec 19 (Hina) - Croatian economist and politician Branko Horvat
died early Friday morning at the age of 76, the Zagreb School of
Economics said in a statement.#L#
Professor Horvat was born in Petrinja in 1928. At the age of 16 he
joined the Tito-led Partisan Movement during the Second World War.
He graduated in economics in 1952 and earned his first doctoral degree
in economics in 1955 with a thesis called "Economics of the Yugoslav
Oil Industry". Four years later he acquired a doctorate from the
University of Manchester with the thesis "Towards a Theory of a
Planned Economy".
Horvat, who educated generations of economists most of whom are now
respected professors in Croatia and abroad, started his career as an
assistant at the Oil Institute and the Economic Institute in Zagreb.
He worked at the Federal Institute for Planning in Belgrade, which
thanks to him developed into the Yugoslav Institute for Economic
Research.
Horvat became a full-time economics professor at the University of
Zagreb in 1975, teaching at the School of Foreign Trade, which later
became the School of Economics, until 1992.
Horvat won renown for his scientific contribution to Marxism known as
Horvatism, which was introduced into economic theory by Benjamin Ward.
As a guest lecturer he taught at over 80 universities and scientific
institutions round the world.
Horvat's works include more than 650 titles, leaving a deep mark in
economics, political sciences, sociology and philosophy.
As a committed educator, he championed the idea of self-management and
all forms of democracy, and was also a controversial political
activist.
During his long career, Horvat received numerous official awards, and
his book, "The Political Economy of Socialism", was proclaimed book of
the year in the United States and served as a basis for his nomination
for the Nobel Prize.
Horvat remained true to his ideas and ideals with which he began his
career -- economic and political democracy and social justice. The
fact that he did not adhere to the values of the orthodox economy
brought him more criticism than praise.
(Hina) vm sb