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Plessner's study "The Belated Nation" is very topical for Croatian readers since it (via comparing the constitution of the French and the German national community) shows how different types of polities within which national communities are formed (the state and the Reich) are central for the constitution of national awareness. German history proves how international community, primarily of Europe, immediately upon its constitution as a system of national states, forced the "belated" nations to give up on the concept of empire and constitute themselves as national states. Plessner's book is also topical in the post-communist regimes because it superbly proves the significance of both the process of modernisation and bourgeoisie as the social class in building national states. (SOI : PM: S. 20)

The German sociologist and anthropologist Helmuth Plessner has tried to explain the ascent of national-socialism in Germany with the belated formation of the German nation. Not only was it formed later than other West European nations, it was formed in a different manner. While West European nations were formed by countering monarchy with the novel concept of the state as a republic, the German nation was founded on the culture within the Reich which was "a great power devoid of the idea of the state". The author has tried to prove the limited analytical value of Plessner's distinction between the belated and the timely nations by pointing out that culture and tradition are an essential medium for the formation of nations. (SOI : PM: S. 206)

Nationalism is a particular type of awareness of community devoid of social and political values. It is a specific belief of a certain group of people that they are one, though it would be difficult to enumerate objective characteristics which make them an efficient entity. The immanent alternative to nationalism, as a form of awareness, is the rule of law or a dictatorship. + The collapse of the communist regime in Yugoslavia - established in the course of the antifascist freedom fight in World War II - triggered off the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a state. We have witnessed the emergence of national states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Hence one of the central theoretical and political problems has been that of the relationship between nationalism and fascism and the interpretation of the meaning of fascism. + Fascism as ideology is a movement and a regime aimed at facilitating dictatorship. The purpose of antifascism is not only warring against the fascist state which started the war. It does not mean crossing swords with fascism due to a rationally inexplicable hatred for other peoples (though it is a major as p ect of antifascism). True antifascism means partisanship of political humanism, the rule of law and democracy. + Antifascism is political and moral attitude of the citizens of the nation in which fascist tendencies raises its ugly head, both for the purpose of protecting their own freedom and security and because fascism destroys their nation economicly, politically and culturally. (SOI : PM: S. 74)