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The author analyzes the interpretations by Jean-Marie Guehenno & Helmut Willke of the end of the national state in the context of contemporary debates on globalization. The author thinks that both authors have come up with similar insights, particularly those regarding assessment of the functional role that may be analytically attributed to the national state in the present & the future. Although their observations coincide with the debates on globalization going on in political economy & political science, their conclusions are not in line with the special structure of political activity. Unlike their state/theoretical "Hegelianism" (Guehenno) & system theory functional definition of government activity (Willke), the author looks into the contemporary operation of the state from the legal/philosophical perspective. Adapted from the source document.

In this article, the author shows the (un)ethical side of democracy determined as a median point of politics. That which is ethical in politics, is also ethical in democracy, which is a vehicle of political accomplishment. The ethics lie in the way & means of accomplishment, & not in the purpose & goals of political activity. Adapted from the source document.

According to Carl Schmitt, liberal parliamentarism & democracy are founded on conflicting principles: the former on the principle of rational deliberation, ie, on the idea that political will in a modern country is formed through rational discussion; & the latter on the use of power as an instrument of political activity, which homogenizes the national majority & eliminates divergent minorities. Schmitt considers that the principle of power is taking over deliberation in modern countries, & thus abandoning the conditions for liberal parliamentarism. On another level, Schmitt argues that the contrast of deliberation & power is repeated in liberal-democratic institutions as the division of powers between the multiparty parliament, which fosters rational discussion, & executive power, which is the instrument of political activity & must be legitimized in parliament. The weakness of liberal democracies is the empowering of those political forces (fascism, communism) that reject political dialogue as a process of competition between various platforms in front of the electorate, & instead see it as a means of imposing a single, self-serving truth. The author concludes that Schmitt has missed the key dimension of liberal democracy, because his critique is based on an outdated, neo-Kantian methodological position. As the analog to Rickert's nomothetic science, Schmitt in his political theory opposes rational generalizations & irrational content. However, the main point is that liberal political science as a constituent part of the political process operates between two political media, speech & action, without destroying the plurality of political positions. Adapted from the source document.

For the political principle defining the political will of fascism, survival of a national state (regardless of whether it already exists or is to be formed; in the latter case, this gives legitimacy to antagonism) is sufficient reason for the unconditional imperative of political activity. The concept of the state underlying the political activity of fascism is solely an empirical notion or a sensory concept of community. Another more paramount reason is transcendental, unfeasible, as it were. According to the same nation-building principle, another nation, within & without a particular state, is a priori suspicious, since it must be striving to create its own state by encroaching on another nation's state. Thus, this fascist political principle, which wants to turn this nationalist maxim into a constitutive principle, cannot ensure either internal (ie, a state) or external peace & perishes in a civil or world war. For antifascist activity, however, it is not central whether it takes place in this or that state. The basis of antifascism is the concept of the state that, in its most positive & purest form, came to the fore in bourgeois political thought. In it, the central concept of the state, considering the rationale for the existence of a state, is clean-cut & thus, general, although a possible historical existence of a state is empirical & particular. The fundamental motive of antifascism is not national & patriotic but primarily moral & political, & possibly (derivatively) patriotic. Which state deserves to exist is determined by external social conditions for the realization of the concept of freedom. This makes room for the formation of broader multinational unions, even federal states. The world federation is a bourgeois political ideal, whose realization represents the ultimate purpose of world history. Adapted from the source document.

The formulation of the new political parties' programs & statutes in Croatia is considered to be a less important normative aspect of political activity. Yet a comparative analysis of the content of the statutes articulated by the political parties in Croatia at the time when they were formed reveals the prevailing tendencies of political practice in that period as well as the level concomitant of experience in political organizing. Some of the findings point to significant differences among the emerging political parties in matters such as the treatment of members' rights & duties, attitudes toward internal party discipline, the procedure related to affiliation, the authority pertaining to the parties' presidents, the inclusion of youth in making party policy, models of decision making, & attitudes toward earlier parties in Croatian political history. The author stresses that his analysis does not refer to the time of writing but to the situation at the very beginning of the institutionalization of party pluralism. He believes that his results may offer important insights for some future classification of the Croatian party system. Adapted from the source document.

The author shows that Rawls's conception of the overlapping consensus does not apply to value pluralism in general but only to the so-called reasonable pluralism. The author first gives an account of the criticisms directed at Rawls's neutralization of the political by Gray & Mouffe, & tries to demonstrate that neither of these critiques is entirely valid. A Weberian critique, however, would not display these shortcomings. Weber's liberalism is based on value pluralism, & its key assumption is that there is no hierarchy of values. Besides, no political concept may escape the fundamental features of political activity -- the spoils system or the system of the distribution of political gains & the ethical irrationality. The fundamentals of Weber's liberalism can be found in his maxim "Become what you are made for!" as well as in the "political characters" that belong to the world of classical liberalism. A political leader is a creator of institutions & liberal communities with which Weber eschews the traditional liberal foundationalism based on natural rights & utilitarianism. Hence, his liberalism is the least doctrinaire one because moral issues remain a part of the political conflict. 9 References. Adapted from the source document.

The essay describes the evolution of the concept of political culture, from the concepts such as Comte's 'consensus,' Durkheim's 'collective awareness,' Weber's 'significance of individual actions,' to Parson's 'action frame of reference,' & Mead's 'national character.' The development began with Comte's search for differentia specifica of social sciences in relation to other positive sciences & finished in 1963 with the introduction of the concept of political culture into political science by G. Almond & S. Verba. Our analysis has shown that many definitions of political culture point out that its essence lies in people's beliefs since political culture is a set of beliefs regarding politics. As much as it may seem a paradox, it cannot be reduced to mere individual beliefs, but represents a system of inter-subjective opinions on various political objects. This explains the possible discrepancies between the political events & the political beliefs of the people, between their behavior & political culture, & so on. Contrary to the belief of some authors, it has been shown how political culture may & should be taken as a common denominator for a variety of opinions on politics. Political attitudes, values, norms, public opinion, & political ideologies are nothing but different manifestations of political culture. Thus, the concept of political culture includes diverse facets of the subjective attitude of people towards politics. This is the asset & not the downside of this concept, as some authors would have it. It is pointed out that the manifold manifestations of political culture do not carry the same 'weight' in explaining the political activism of people & the functioning of political systems. The relationship between these manifestations is extremely complex & a challenge for research. It is this very relationship that could explain the stable & less stable (ie, stable & vacillating) reactions of people in their political activity. Adapted from the source document.

The author shows that the processes of globalization cannot diminish the role of the nation-state -- as the sole recognizable political community -- in the implementation & development of democracy, though they are undoubtedly going to alter its functioning & make it more complex. When exploring democracy & its expansion outside the borders of the nation-state, we should keep in mind that people do not act solely on a rational interest basis, but also on the basis of values; & that identities, not just interests, are the underlying determinants of their political activity. That is why the theory of cosmopolitan democracy must come to grips with the issue of the legitimation of the cosmopolitan political community as well as of the cosmopolitan democratic political system. This paper addresses these issues. The analysis has shown that these are complex & open questions without which a valid discussion about the transnational political organizations & processes of the cosmopolitan or regional integration & democratization is not possible. The question of the legitimation of the political community (unfortunately, rarely discussed) is in a way primordial in relation to the issue of the legitimation of the political system & political authorities. This issue has been neglected because it is thought that pluralism defines democracy; consequently, the imperative of a certain level of social & cultural homogeneity as a condition of its functioning has been overlooked. The concept of global citizenry requires the creation of a new political identity, while cosmopolitanism must prove that this identity can be brought about without a "democratic deficit" or a "bureaucratic-oligarchic surplus." This is not easy, if we keep in mind the fact that the law & legalism by themselves are not conducive to political commitment & loyalty to political decisions. 39 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author's starting point is the principle of contemporary phenomenology: we are able to comprehend & adequately evaluate our own & new regimes in general, only if familiar with their predecessors & their traditions in their otherness. Naturally, in this paper the otherness is neither the essential natural world nor its cosmological structuredness as a universe, but a historical & political world as well as the possibilities of its alterations & transformations. Despite the changes it has gone through in the course of history, it has retained its cultural-historical continuity & its "fundamental features" in the form of a certain, in Husserl's words, "contingent a priori," that precedes certain cultural & historical experiences, but not "the entire experience," as Waldenfels points out. In order to adequately grasp these complex problems of cultural & political world, the author refers to Aristotle who, when asked in the second volume of his Politics about the best state, uses the then known forms of the state to show "what is right & useful in them" & what is not, & also that it is possible not only to transcend the existing forms but to elaborate them & search for "something new." Contrary to the modern reduction of the concept of the state to "the organization of government," Aristotle defines the state by means of three prerequisites: the land, the people, & the government & "always by one of these three components, while the other two are somehow implied." Thus, in all its various forms, the state always includes all these three components: the land as territory, the people as identity & the sum of its citizens, & sovereign government as state authority of the people. Regarding the opportunities for political activity in the contemporary global world, the author opts for a certain practical philosophy that, despite the universal crisis of today's society shows that the practice of good life is still possible & that not everybody has given up on it. This also means that in reflecting upon & in accomplishing the good life it is possible to build upon Aristotle's practical philosophy. Besides the phenomenological & practical philosophy, the final part of the paper looks into the political philosophy of American communitarians & shows that communitarian universalism & historicism are complementary to the European phenomenological & hermeneutical philosophy & productively assist it in developing a new historical thinking as practical knowledge that is applicable to our contemporary situation & that, historically, & in a variety of spheres & at different levels enables us to act ethically/politically in today's global world. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.

Using the method of assigning attributes, the image of political parties represented in the Croatian parliament was researched. This research was conducted on a sample of Zagreb U students. The image was determined, as was its associations, & positiveness. Using factor analysis four dimensions were found, in which the first & most important is related to the image of democratic activity of the party, while the other three are indicative of political platforms -- social, traditional, & nation-building. The political parties were found to differ significantly according to their position on each dimension. 5 Tables, 3 Figures, 7 References. Adapted from the source document.