Suchergebnisse

In numerous European countries, majority nations and national minorities that live in them, aware of the complexity of relations between majorities and minorities in the ethnic sense, and the ensuing dangers, have engaged in mutual accommodation and compromise, thus fashioning certain models of coexistence. Constitutional provisions of European states prove that there is no single model of the recognition of the rights of national minorities. Still, European states may be divided into three groups. The first group includes those states which advocate the constitutional principle of the integral nation and refuse to recognize any other ethnic origin of their citizens. The second group comprises those states which do not divide its ethnic communities into majority and minority ones, which practically means that they do not recognize the category of the national minority; they protect the ethnic identity of their members by dividing their equal citizens by the languages they use. The third group includes those countries which recognize the notion of the majority nation and national minorities. This group has elaborated the provisions regarding the rights of national minorities, particularly the protection of their national, cultural, religious and linguistic identity, with major differences in the scope of individual rights. (SOI : PM: S. 84)

The changes in the social position of women in transitional countries is the consequence of the latest economic and political changes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Croatians think that the social position of women today is worse than in the former regime; in this, women are more critical than men, particularly the well-educated women, working outside the home (modernists). Those who nevertheless do believe that the position of women today is better than it used to be, make a smaller group; hey believe that a woman's place is primarily in the home, that the Church should have a decisive say in the position of women, that women are not born for politics, and that pro-choice attitudes should not be tolerated. Women should resolve their dissatisfaction with their lives and social position by choosing either the modern or the traditional variant, or a middle path, which has been suggested by the logic of the newly-created living conditions. (SOI : PM: S. 168)

This work analyses the relation between democracy and political participation, the typology and model of political participation, the findings of the research of political participation in the world (S. Verba, N. H. Nie, 1972; S. H. Barnes, M. Kaase, 1 979; and others), and the research of the same phenomenon on a sample of Croatian students. This analysis has shown that today all the elements necessary for a more comprehensive theory of political participation are in place. This theory would enable a more systematic and standardized investigation of this phenomenon in the national and the international context. The article also shows how the non- conventional participation is gaining ground while the conventional is gradually levelling out. Significant are the results of the analysis of the etiology of political participation, particularly the relation between the standard SES model and the model of value orientations (left-right materialism, materialism-postrnaterialism, etc.). The analysis of the model of participation of Croatian students has shown that the model of protest behaviour/potential' has a more complex etiology than other models, such as conventional participation and voting in parliamentary elections. Thus, for the "protest potential" it is necessary to possess a developed civic competence, a critical attitude towards the government's performance, a liberal arts education, etc., while for the conventional participation it is central to have a higher level of political interest. Significant differences between the Croatian students and those from other European countries can be observed regarding the role of value orientations in explaining political participation. (SOI : PM: S. 140)

The aim of the research was to find out whether the recent socio-economic changes in Croatia generated the corresponding change in the religiosity of Croatian youth and if so, what was the nature of this change. To this end, the results of the studies of Croatian youth of 1986 and 1999 are compared. Several indicators of religious devotion are included: confessional and religious self-identification, beliefs, and religious practice. Since all four indicators have increased significantly, this means that in the mentioned period religiosity registered a marked increase, which signifies a massive shift from the non-religious to the religious orientation of Croatian youth. This is an indirect confirmation of the claim that this shift in the religious devotion of Croatian outh and its remarkable increase is due to the social changes such as the fall of communism, the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, the creation of the independent Croatian state, and the Serbian aggression against Croatia. (SOI : PM: S. 160)