Suchergebnisse

Due to the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina, the study of international migration imposed itself, embracing the study of the migrations of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia and the problems of emigrants from the former easteuropean states. The existing connection between the problem of emigrants and displaced persons human rights, armed conflicts, undevelopment and immigration, are studied within a broader aspect, sufficient for conclusions. The data from various stands point to certain differences among the emigrants from Central Europe, the territory of the former Yugoslavia and Russia. (SOI : PM: S. 73)

The author analzes the types of support for political systems. His analysis shows that there are three basic types of political support (to the national identity and pride, to the legitimation and to confidence) which correspond to the three basic units of political system (political community, political government/regime, and authorities). Each form of support serves to maintain the political regime on the whole, but each is independent of the others - or the influence solely goes one way: from the lower to the higher forms of support (from confidence via legitimation and to political identity). While the higher forms of support are primarily abstract, normative and affective in their nature, the lower forms are mostly empirical, instrumental, and cognitive in their definition. In the future, citizens are going to increasingly appraise political systems on the whole according to the totality of their performances, i.e. according to their evaluation of how and how much a system meets their needs, demands, and expectations. This will broaden the meaning of legitimation; it will no longer refer to the validity of a system (its procedurality) but to its effica as well. This will make life more difficult and complex for those in the position of power. These types of confidence warrant empirical research in order to determine their level, etiology, and functionality. (SOI : PM: S. 120)

The aim of this article, through an analysis of Veljko Vujacic's text and other pamphlets and manifestos by the Serbian political elite, was to show that the Serbian elite and the Serbian society have not got rid of their nationalist bias in explaining the events which led to the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. They claim that the main culprit for this failure was the communist national policy and the failure to use adequate means (meaning Rankovic's technology of violence) in order to preserve the unity of the state. The second part of the article serves to demonstrate how Weber's view on the politics of power does not suffice to explain away the bolshevist and the communist form of the populist Serbian nationalism. The moment when the former Yugoslav political elite split into the anticommunist and anticentralist on the one hand, and the bolshevist and the centralist on the other, there was no possibility for a compromise. The third part suggests that Vujacic (and not only he) thinks that a way of overcoming the Serbian "dominant" nationalism is the catharsis of Serbian intellectuals and the Serbian society. However, as the latest events and proclamations of the Serbian elite show, his is a solitary case. (SOI : PM: S. 37)

In this text the author elaborates on two central assumptions. The first assumption (based on the comparative survey results from ten postcommunist countries) is that there is a marked positive correlation between the residue of "communist legacy" in people's minds and the electoral success of leftist parties. Since that legacy in Croatia (and Czech Republic) has been weakest, this is going to be an aggravating circumstance for SDP in their struggle for power. The second assumption is that the politics of leftist parties which could come to power is to shuttle between two extremes: the restoration of real socialism in a modified form and the social-democratic model of Sweden or at least Germany. According to the author, the key agents of such politics are "neotraditionalism" and "political capitalism" both inherited from the former system. (SOI : PM: S. 46)

The author analyses the relationship among atomism, pluralism, and democracy from the standpoint of contemporary Rawlsian and Kafkian theory of justice. The author views fairness and justice as forms of substituting democratic decision-making in multicultural communities. (SOI : S. 143)

Based on the experience of former rightist and communist dictatorships in Europe regarding different forms of opposition - both open and hidden within these regimes' structures - the author analyzes the role of the opposition in the process of the sweeping democratic change that has taken place the "new democracies" of Central and Eastern Europe in the direction of the state of law and civil society. His conclusion is, that in today's Central European countries political multi-party pluralism which includes viable parliamentary opposition was given a smooth start and has since taken root. However in the countries with only superficial democracy and an obvious "democratic deficit" - for example Croatia (and Slovakia) - parliamentary opposition plays the second fiddle. The prime movers of the change - and of the democratization as well - are still the ruling parties (not unlike during the communist single-party regimes). Changes occur only when the ruling party or its major fraction opt for them considering them the lesser of two evils, either because they are no longer satisfied with the distribution of power and goods within the existing status quo or because they are aware that it cannot be maintained in its present form. This happened in the Soviet Union , first under Nikita Khruschev and then again under Mihail Gorbachev. Changes, however, when imposed from above get out of hand and backfire against those who have set them off (remember Gorbachev); what emerges is usually a compromise between tbe vestige of the old and the emerging regime. (SOI : PM: S. 92)

The author analyses political, philosophical, ethical and legal implications o the trial in which, in August of 1997, some former members of the Politburo of the United Socialist Party of the former Democratic Republic of Germany were sentenced to prison terms after they had been found guilty for the murders committed by the East German border patrols when trying to prevent people from fleeing to the West. The legal grounds for such a sentence is dubious, not only because it runs counter to the ban on the retroactive enforcement of legal provisions but also because it presupposes the universal validity of the western concept of human rights. If the intention was to react legally to what, from the Western point of view were unpardonable acts during the communist reign, then the most prominent representatives of that system should have been - in accordance with wartime law - treated as the enemies defeated in a (cold) war. (SOI : PM: S. 77)

These assertions are corroborated with the statistical data on the trends in Croatian trade and other economic relations, before and after Croatia's independence. The author also pleads for the necessity of Croatia's economic co-operation with its neighbouring states, in line with its interests - the real measure of the relations among sovereign states. (SOI : PM: S. 54) + The real reasons which run counter to the conclusion that "the Balkan market" is essential for the economic development of Croatia are discussed. The author's thesis is that the Westeuropean market (particularly Italian and German markets) is crucial for Croatia and that it has always been so, even when Croatia was a part of the former Yugoslavia. That is why it is thought that Croatia's acceptance of the American notion of an economic integration of Southeasteuropean states would be detrimental to Croatia. The same applies to the European Union's "regional approach" which links EU's co-operation with Croatia to Croatia's co-operation with the states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia

The beginnings of the scientific study of international relations in Croatia precede its inauguration and international recognition as an independent state in the early 1990s. Already in the former state of Yugoslavia, there were pioneer attempts in Zagreb at serious research into the complex science of international relations. In 1962, the Faculty of Political Science was founded; one of the subjects was international relations. At the end of the 1970s, and at the same Faculty, a postgraduate study program of international relations was launched. Zagreb, due to the quality and quantity of its experts and their dedicated pedagogical work, the publication of their works, and their contacts with their colleagues abroad, had the central role in the development of a modern science of international relations, not only in the former state but in the wider region of South-East Europe. The declaration of the independent Republic of Croatia, and geo- political and geo-economic changes in the international environment, pose new challenges, obstacles, opportunities as well as objective needs for a new approach and the development of the study of intentational relations, the accompanying institutions and the publication of relevant literature. (SOI : PM: S. 187)