At His Crossroad ― Reflections on the Work of France Bucar

This book is a translation and celebration of Slovenian politician France Bucar’s seminal work. Divided into two parts, the book first contains several studies of Bucar’s arguments. As Bucar applied his system theory to a variety of issues, so too the conglomerate of scholars and issues critically assessed is interdisciplinary, ranging from political science and economics, to law and philosophy, as well as to natural sciences. The contributors and the questions of their essays in the edited volume are as follows. Peter Verovsek (University of Sheffield) examines different branches of Critical Theory and classifies Bucar within them. Mark Hamilton (Inter-American Defense College) discusses system dynamics of Bucar’s system theory. Urška Velikonja (Georgetown University) applies Bucar’s system theory to the question of the ethics, rules, and regulations in financial economics. Finally, Matej Drev (Georgia Institute of Technology) connects Bucar to the issue of artificial intelligence and inequality.

The second part is the English translation of Bucar’s book At A New Crossroads, which addresses the role of ethics in society. Bucar normatively redefines national identity as the crux of his novel understanding of ethics. Using system theory, he addresses the problems of globalization and governance, presenting a post-modern synthesis of the logic of free flow of capital and global citizenship, with national and cultural identity. Speaking to contemporary society, he shows how society and ethical life are reproduced. Bucar provides the reader with new tools to think about national identity and global politics.

Bringing an important work on ethics, government, and identity to an entirely new readership, this book will appeal to a broad academic audience, namely students and practitioners in the fields of economics, social sciences, and humanities.

Igor Kovac is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cincinnati. His dissertation develops a new theory of persistence imbalance of power – Pervasive Hegemony. Kovac received his MAIS at Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 2012. Moreover, in 2010 he also received a MS in Sport Science from University of Ljubljana. His research projects are tied to security studies, grand strategy, power, geopolitics, political economy, intelligence, and cybersecurity.

Prof. France Bucar was born on 2 February 1923 in Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia. Being one of the six children of a local shoemaker, the local priest recognized his wit and persuaded the family to send him to Ljubljana to attend the elite Catholic classical college. When he enrolled to study law, the Second World War broke out and Bucar was first arrested by the Fascist occupiers and spend several years in concentration camp in Gonars. While on a train to another concentration camp in Germany, he escaped in 1944 and joined the partisans. After the war, he completed his law studies and became Secretary of the Republican Chamber in the Assembly of Slovenia. In 1959 he was awarded the Eisenhower fellowship and in 1963 became professor at the University of Ljubljana’s law school. He was banned from lecturing in 1976 and in 1978 dismissed from the University due to criticism of the social-political situation in Yugoslavia. He worked as a dissident, writing against Marxist and Leninist narratives, emphasizing ethics as a main feedback loop in his system. In 1988 he wrote an article where he outlined the plan for Slovenian independence and on the first free elections in Slovenia, in 1990, he became member and after also president of the Slovenian parliament. He wrote the Slovenian constitution and in 1991 declared the independence of his country. He continued to be socially active as the president of an NGO – Slovenian Paneuropean movement – until 2012. He passed away on 21 October 2015.