Suchergebnisse

By "collective" human rights we understand the ones that belong to a collective. We should distinguish the individual rights which can be exercised only collectively (suffrage). The demands for "collective" human rights lead to misconceptions and explanatory problems since the universal, egalitarian, and categorical postulate of human rights cannot be equally valid for collectives and individuals. Thus, the protection of minorities' interests can be solely procured by adopting a restricted definition of individual human rights which necessitates more and better respected social human rights. In some cases, collective rights were designed to protect endangered minorities but were justified by means of equalizing fairness. However, such collective rights are not possible at the level of human rights: they are regulated by special by-laws at the state level. Thus, they are restricted by the requirement that they do not violate individual human rights. (SOI : SOEU: S. 48)

When analysing the role of the individual in society or even in international relations, there are two polar opinions, and neither can be documented or corroborated with definite and irrefutable evidence. According to the first opinion, the history of mankind is, in fact, the result of the exploits of several prominent individuals, while the other views history as the outcome of social, political, and economic circumstances and processes, which are basically unalterable. The reality and practice of today's international political relations are, naturally, much more complex than might be gathered from these two contrary approaches. In searching for a consensual attitude towards the role of the individual in international relations, there are still many more unanswered questions than acceptable answers, the reason which makes this topic a subject of vigorous and persisting debates among today's theoreticians of international political relations. (SOI : S. 192)

The author explores the legitimating roots of the constitutional state. In his opinion, they can be found in moral universalism and national democracy. Both principles undoubtedly belong with the fundamental tenets of the constitution of modern constitutional state. While the former implies the universality of its postulates which are accepted by every constitutional state, the latter represents the restrictive principle of this universalness. The author links these two principles and defines a people as a group of individuals who, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, and religious station may, in line with the principles of freedom and equality of individuals create a successful political community. By the universality of its legality, the defence of human rights and power-sharing, constitutional state is a necessary prerequisite for the prospect of fashioning a people as a group of responsible individuals in establishing universal will. (SOI : PM: S. 16)

Democracy and constitutional state should understandably be reviewed in the context of a society's progression in curbing the state. In any community the central issue is the relationship between the people as individuals and as members of a collective, since it is desirable for a collective to be a synerg sum of individuals. Thus it is prudent to search for a corellation between democracy and constitutional state. Democracy is an emanation of freedom, constitutions always a limitation. A state hems in a civil society; within it there is a network of the processes of structuring government from "above", which is of particular interest in transitional countries that gave up on the ideologised inaugural effect in designing government and adopted "constitutional engineering": power-sharing, popular sovereignty, representative parliamentarism, promotion of freedoms and basic rights of individuals and citizens. In this, it is imperative to make note of the necessity of structuring societies from "below" by means of the principle of local self-rule. (SOI : PM: S. 147)

In today's world, marked by an increasing interdependence, national security is becoming a component of international security, which is not a mere sum of individual national securities, but a permanent international framework of universally acceptable values. Interethnic relations today are central for a state's security, as well as for international order. There is the question whether the international system must guarantee individual and collective security of ethnic groups/minorities, regardless of the state they live in. Today, human and minority rights have become an important institutionalized international factor of security and stability and a concern of the entire international community, despite the fact that many states still claim that minority policy is their internal problem into which international community has no right to interfere. The affirmation of the rationalist approach to contemporary security implies that the responsibility for guaranteeing security lies not only on individual states and unions but also on the international system as a whole. (SOI : PM: S. 35)

The paper analyses the influence of familial "political biographies" during World War II on party preferences. The survey has shown that about 50% of its subjects have a single-track political biography (they belonged to either the partisan movement (NOB) or the army of the Independent Croatian State (NDH)). The individuals whose political biography is NOB-inclined have a markedly more negative attitude towards the Croatian state of the II World War and Ante Pavelic, positively assess Josip Broz Tito, are less religious and prefer leftist parties. The individuals who have the NDH biography have a positive opinion of the Croatian state during II World War and Ante Pavelic, negatively assess Josip Broz, are much more religious and vote for the parties of the right. The individuals whose families did not get involved into the conflict or have a "mixed" political biography, are moderately religious and largely vote for centrist parties. Besides the political biography factor, the degree of religiosity has proved an extremely important factor in the choice of political parties. (SOI : PM: S. 128)

Hegel's teaching on the objective spirit, as a moment of the world spirit is an idea based on objective morality, while modern state is the highest historical manifestation of that morality. The objective spirit understood in this way is juxtaposed by the subjective morality in the form of the contingency of instincts and concepts of individual subjects: these two elements make for the specific constitution of modern state. For a state to exist as the realisation of freedom and to fulfil its world-historical task, i necessary to eliminate and overcome the opposition of these two elements. That is why in Hegel's "ideal" concept of the structure of the state (which for him means communal life in freedom), the state-community is defined as a unity of free individuals-citizens, permeated with the idea of the good. (SOI : PM: S. 223)

This paper analyses the connection of interests and corruption, especially corruption and political interests. It first considers the notion of interest, i.e. its meanings and significance, both for an individual and for a society. It presents the classification if interests by Albion Woodbury Small. A special emphasis is given to the encounter of different interests as the beginning of clash between humans. The paper analyses individual, special and general interests, as well as their relations. The paper also analyses two levels of conflict of interest: the conflict between public and private interest and the conflict between interests within the public offices. The relation of interests in society and politics is solved in the best way by adopting laws, i.e. by introducing the rule of law into political order. Without that the interest orientation of politicians can easily end up in abuse and illegality. In turn, abuses and illegalities open the possibilities for various kinds of corruptive acts.

The essay first highlights certain basic features of the attitude of the European immigrant countries towards the new (migrant) ethnic minorities in their midst, the attitude that at the same time is indicative of the existence of various forms of ethnicity in the development of the European nation-states. The differences in the individual "national responses" regarding the existence of new ethnic communities reflect these differences in the understanding of the ethnic/national identity of individual countries. The author then goes on to deal more specifically with the presence of the Muslim population in West-European countries, the population that - perhaps more than any other group of "aliens" - is torn between the Westeuropean practice of ethnic and increasingly cultural discrimination, and a belief in liberalism and pluralism. ln connection with this, the role of Islam and the "Muslim" identity in the Muslim communities in West- European countries is analyzed. (SOI : PM: S. 108)