The Croatian Constitution belongs into the category of pioneer constitutions in the Eastern European countries and its content-related achievement cannot be appraised outside the context in which it has been merged. Unlike some other Eastern European constitutions, it does not include the context of transitional experience. Consequently, the author analyzes the 1991 Croatian Constitution via several foci of comparison: The Preamble culture in the introductory article, Basic provisions and fundamental values provision, fundamental human rights, constitutional court, and others. In the conclusion, the author claims that the Croatian Constiuition is a solid foundation for developing today's type of constitutional state. (SOI : PM: S. 55)
The author analyses the concept of human dignity in historical and logical perspectives of its meaning. The key terms are: (a) dignity as an attribute of humanity; (b) the meaninglessness of this notion in some historical periods; (c) human dignity as human achievement; (d) human dignity as human potential; (e) human dignity as belonging to humanity. Then he goes on to stress the superiority of dignity as such over the acquired dignity. And finally, the author concludes that human dignity is inviolable, both in the virtues of its autonomous subjectivity and in its deviations: in the fallacy, deception, guilt, and awareness of one's own finality. (SOI : PM: S. 44)
The standard view of Croatian and Yugoslav historiography holds that the Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) in general collaborated with the Ustasha-regime and supported its policies of persecutions and forced conversions. The author submits those assessments to a critical review, reexamining the documents and their standard interpretations. He concludes that a major reassessment of historiography regarding the role of the Church during the war is needed. While only pointing to major misrepresentations, the author provides basic elements for a new evaluation of the Church's role in the political turmoil during the World War II. (SOI : CSP: S. 474)
The author focuses on about twenty Croatian and non-Croatian authors, who published in this renowned political and literary review. They belong to different social groups and adopt differing political options, which also determine their attitude toward NDH. There are two main approaches. One, which simply explains the policies of NDH, where Jere Jareb is the most representative author. The other approach is the justification of those policies to some degree. A special attention is paid to authors who analyse foreign, especially German literature, that touches on Croatian issues, and to authors that were direct participants in the events, such as Mate Frkovic, who participated in the Lorkovic-Vokic putsch. (SOI : CSP: S. 95f.)
The author provides a definition of political marketing and hightlights its links with democratic polity, reviews the evolution of political marketing from the party to the marketing concept, looks into political marketing as a sort of construction of political reality and analyzes political marketing in Croatia. The author points out that political marketing is resisted by the very people who should make use of it, but that there are some objective circumstances which stand in its way, such as the lack of money, the undeveloped public electronic media, and the still predominantly traditional culture of the society, more inclined to oral communication. (SOI : PM: S. 167)
The author poses the question: what makes Francois Mitterrand the "classic" type of ruler i.e. what makes him above-the-average contemporary politician. Following the well-documented analysis of the entire period of his rule, the author concludes: history will reveal Mitterrand's various masks, but never his true face. He exploited the classical mise en scene of power, so his true persona should be sought in the interplay of his numerous disguises. Mitterrand stands out among the contemporary political figures in the ability to use his power to ward off all attempts at its usurpation, th transforming his own power into the memory of the coming generations. (SOI : S. 178)
The author describes Buchanan's theory of political constitution and his individualist understanding of political science. On the basis of homo economicus, Buchanan deduced the normative elements of political science, i.e. the proposals for the choice of political institutions. In his opinion, the choice of political institutions always contains the ethical dimension. The positive elements of political science are illustrated by means of the analyses of the behaviour of political actors within the designated framework. The author shows how this type of radical individualism does not satisfy the standards of political science since it de facto does away with the political sphere. (SOI : PM: S. 195)
Polemically oriented towards Plessner's "Belated Nation" and the introductory presentations in the debate about this book at the Faculty of Political Science, the author is of the opinion that the German case is the one of a belated attempt at empire-creation, and that all the nations in the world are "late" - except for the Dutch. By referring to the literature on politico-economic history and the model and comparative analysis of the nation-state as a complex politico-economic community within the world system of the West, the author thinks that Schieder's typology of the creation of European nations is not plausible, neither theoretically nor factually/historically. (SOI : PM: S. 30)
The author poses the question about the fate of neoconservatism, in the 1980s the official political orientation in the USA. Twenty years later, one can see how anti-communism and anti-modernism, neoconservatism's fundamental ideological premises, have changed the political practice and awareness, both (and equally) in American foreign and national policy. Though conceptually incoherent, neoconservatism has proved to possess exceptional clout. This has led the author to conclude that neoconservatism, despite the claims by neoconservatives themselves that it is dead, still has much leeway, since voters' awareness has been changed: they have got used to the new political context, they vote for well-balanced "mixtures" of rightist and leftist ideologies. (SOI : PM: S. 164)
The author critically analyses Plessner's views on the lack of a clear idea of the state in German tradition as well as the consequences of that for its development in the 20th century. The author claims that it is not so much a question of the non-existence of the idea of the state as of the non-existence of a democratic social stratum that would have prevented the authoritarian and later totalitarian developments. He also rejects the interpretation of history as meaningful, goal-oriented processes, since they presuppose a philosophical knowledge about the goals and purposes of an inimitable historical development, the assumption which today cannot be methodologically vindicated by any historian. (SOI : PM: S. 53)
The author is of the opinion that experts in international law are not broad-minded regarding the establishment of a state. Most legal experts take for granted the statements of the international judiciary on the existance of certain rules of general international law and consider them validated and indisputable. This faction has been given support by states since they uphold those legal statements that suit their interests. The author analyses the Opinions of the Arbitration Committee on the process of the disintegration and the criteria for the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia as well as the criteria for the creation of the new states. He considers this precedent as central for international judiciary law. (SOI : PM: S. 187)
The policy of pressure on Croatia as an illustrative - although not isolated - example has not inspired empirical and theoretical studies of this phenomenon. The discussion has remained at the level of everyday political discourse, even "coffee-house politics". Due to its extreme topicality, as well as its theoretical "solvency", the author has attempted with this essay to come up with a theoretical definition of the concept of pressure and to demonstrate on the Croatian example its goals, scope, dynamics and future prospects and outcomes. Among the existing approaches, the author has chosen the "politico-economic approach" which defines the policy of pressure as a specific form of political communication between the "centre" and the "periphery" in Wallerstein's "world system". The example of Croatia serves the author as an ideal-type model of such communication through a combination of political science and sociological analysis. In his opinion, and due to certain favourable contingencies, Croatia is the nearest to the ideal type of such communication. + Due to a lack of systematic empirical data, the discussion naturally remains at the theoretical- hypothetical level, and should be understood as an invitation to further discussion and as an incentive for more extensive empirical research. However, since this is a very dynamic phenomenon, the question is: is the author's argumentation still valid today as it was at the time when the essay was written? There have been two changes: (1) the war on Kosovo which proves the author's hypotheses; and (2) a certain "thaw" in the relations between the international community (particularly USA) and Croatia (it is still unclear whether this change concerns the fundamental strategic trends or is solely a "politico-meteorological" phenomenon (the alteration of colder and warmer periods). This is why the author did not deem any alterations in the text necessary; one should wait and in the meantime expose the (hypo)theses to some critical scrutiny. (SOI : PM: S. 211)
In this paper, the author deals with some institutional and structural elements of the emerging European post-cold war security environment. In the early 1990s, at the level of institutionalization of European security, a plethora of institutions came into being whose purpose has been to gradually incorporate the former communist states into an integral security structure. Also, international security was formalized in international organizations covering Europe. Thus one of the key challenges to the European security system has been the need for melding its central components into a consistent system. The author also describes some current processes and developments within the European security setting that will shape the European security structure in the future as well. This setting has been and will undoubtedly be affected by various international (regional and global) and national factors in the European economic, political, and security space as well as by the joint efforts of European states (their leaders) and international security organizations to provide common security in Europe. The author concludes that the European international system today includes many organizations and institutions that, with an appropriate division of labour and cooperation, may help set up a common and integral European security system which would efficiently ensure the security of individual states as well as the security of entire Europe. (SOI : S. 55)
The author discusses the works by Croatian and foreign theologians and historians (Ivo Pilar, Alois Hudal, Janko Simrak, Krunoslav Draganovic, Fran Grivec and Dragutin Nezic) about the Serbian Orthodox Church which appeared in the inter-war period. These authors posed a series of questions which are still open for debate today. Pilar describes the Serbian Orthodox Church as an institution which has an important role in the process of Serbian national integration. Hudal analyzes the reasons for the decline of Catholicism in the Balkans, discussing the negative consequences which befell the Roman Catholic Church in the Yugoslav Monarchy, which supported the expansion of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The works of Simrak, Nezic, and Draganovic deal with the complex process of attempting a union between the Roman Catholic Church and orthodox Christians. The author mentions that these writers and their works are not well known to the Croatian public, and that only during the 1980s was more intensive research undertaken by Croatian academics on the topic of the political and cultural activity of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The author concludes the article by suggesting that these works by Croatian and foreign historians and theologians can serve as the basis for further research on this topic. (SOI : CSP: S. 573f.)
The author analyses the tension which exists in constitutional states between the popular sovereignty and the constraints of the people by constitutional order. After explaining and historically interpreting the significance of popular sovereignty as well as the danger hidden in the unequivocal adherence to this principle, he describes the functioning of popular sovereignty in several European constitutions. Most of them express certain misgivings about the people and its direct participation, so that its activities are limited to constitutionally predictable decisions. The author also highlights certain ethic dilemmas and perimeters of popular sovereignty. Constitutional state is based on the compromise between the liberal and the democratic principle; recently, this compromise has been endangered in some newly-created constitutional regimes by non-liberal democracy or the disequilibrium between these two principles. (SOI : PM: S. 77)
