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Matei Alexandru APĂVĂLOAEI
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
The political entrepreneur has been defined as the ultimate decision maker in matters concerning state affairs. But who exactly is he? This paper is going to build upon the above definition and stress the fact that some further elements have to be taken into consideration in order to provide a satisfactory answer to this question. Firstly, we will argue that political entrepreneurship is not restricted only to state-backed actions, but can be extended to all uses of the political means. Thus, we can encompass all forms of banditry and the actions of the individual acting behind the legitimately recognized monopoly over coercion on a continuum. The difference between them pertains only to the extent of resource extraction and is thus only qualitatively different in kind. At the same time, we are able to differentiate between distinct natural kinds when referring to political entrepreneurs and private suppliers of voluntary contracted protection services. Secondly, political entrepreneurship is more realistically imagined as an organized employment of the political means on the part of several individuals that cooperate among themselves. The paper will show that a theoretical approach to political entrepreneurship is limited in distinguishing between individuals that cooperate under the aegis of the same organization. In order to tackle this limit of pure theory, a thymological approach is required for a more nuanced and historically contingent understanding. Such an explanation can take into account the institutional and ideological environment and distinguish between the rank and file of political entrepreneurs and the leaders that history books remember. Finally, the paper is going to argue that the formal rules that characterize modern political organizations are a means for splitting the political profit and thus ensuring the cooperation between several political entrepreneurs.

ŒCONOMICA no. 1/2015
Keywords: Austrian economics, political entrepreneurship, political science
JEL: B53, H1, L26
A Note on the Political Entrepreneur and the Limits of Pure Theory [O notă asupra întreprinzătorului politic şi limitele teoriei pure]