Screening and confinement in U(1)^(N-1) Abelian effective theories

We discuss the effect of dynamical charged particles in U(1)^{N-1} Abelian effective theories of QCD. Screening and confinement at zero temperature are explained qualitatively. The effect of dynamically charged particle is expressed in terms of an effective action of integer electric currents. When a screening is expected, the static potential shows a flattening in the long-range region and a linear behavior in the intermediate region. We show why the screening is better observed in the Polyakov-loop correlators than in the Wilson loops. The breaking of the adjoint string is explained without the Z(N) picture.