PUBLIC POLICY IN THE HISTORY OF THE JOURNAL POLITI？KA MISAO (1964-2013): HOW DO WE LOOK IN THE MIRROR OF THE SUBDISCIPLINE?

Sa？etak The article presents the history of public policy, understood as one of political science subfields, as it has manifested itself in the journal Politi？ka misao, in the period from 1964 to 2013. On the basis of analyzed texts on the subject of public policy, the author constructs three periods of the history of the subdiscipline in the journal. The first period can be labeled the prehistory of the subdiscipline, when public policies were relatively rarely researched and without distinctive metavocabulary which later defined that area of research. The constitution of the subdiscipline and (post)war calm, which can partially be attributed to “natural” domination of other research interests in transitional restructuring of political order, are placed in the second period of the development of the discipline (2000-2013). The last period (2000-2013) is characterized by further development of the subdiscipline, proliferation of research themes, theoretical approaches and researched policy areas. However, the author contends that it is also marked by the lack of consolidation. Besides discussing various methodological caveats that come as necessary in the task of writing a “Whig” history of the subdiscipline, the article also tackles its future: in concluding normative projections, it surges out of the text into the social and political context of policy studies and analysis in Croatia