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The article discusses the historical foundations & development of the right to free development of personality guaranteed by Article 2 section 1 of the BL. Though Article 2 section 1 has remained unchanged since enactment of the BL, the right to free development of personality has been significantly developed & elaborated by the Federal Constitutional Court. On the one hand, when interpreted in conjunction with Art. 1 section 1 of the BL it protects the general right of personality, & on the other hand a broadly defined general freedom of action. Both lines of jurisprudence are supported by a large number of cases that have granted protection to a number of unspecified rights. Examples are protection of private & intimate life sphere, data protection rights, right to personal dignity, right to one's own spoken word, etc. That leads to a conclusion that any attempt to create a comprehensive formal catalogue of fundamental rights must necessarily remain incomplete. An exhaustive list of fundamental rights is possible only in absence of their concretization. As the German experience shows, any interpretation, ie, concretization of fundamental rights, necessarily leads to the change of their scope & substance. Adapted from the source document.

The author outlines constitutional & legal provisions regulating the rights of ethnic minorities in the Republic of Croatia as well as the site-based policy of the protection of minority rights. The major areas in which the Croatian government has been supporting the activities of minority group organizations are publishing, cultural societies, libraries, minority curricula, preservation of the minority cultural heritage, & research projects. Between 1992 & 1997, the government earmarked 22 million DEM for minorities' activities. The author concludes that ethnic minorities in Croatia, despite some political & economic hardships, have enjoyed a high degree of minority rights & freedoms. Adapted from the source document.

A comparative analysis of available data on state security services of several European states & the US points to the fundamental theoretical tenets concerning the role & the functioning of these services in a democratic environment. Since their beginnings, these agencies have been the chief instrument in national security protection. Historically, in various states & in different periods, the unique mission of security services -- the protection of national security -- has not included uniformity of content. Among other things, this is largely due to a lack of an unequivocal definition of the concept of national security & a miscellany of "perceptions" by the ruling structures of certain states. This is why security services in totalitarian regimes, in the name of protecting "national security," have violated human rights. Due to their specific role within national security systems, security services restrict certain rights of certain individuals & organizations even in democratic societies. However, democratic societies are characterized by the fact that security services operate strictly within the law & that such violations are minimal. In other words, in democratic states, security services violate some civil rights in order to protect the key sections of national security, democratic society, & community rights. 28 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes the pre-political & political genesis of human rights, followed by the later process of positivization of human rights. The subject of the author's analysis are, on the one hand, contractual theories by Locke, Hobbes, Kant, & their critique by Hegel, & on the other, the genesis of human rights after the Declaration on the Rights of Men and Citizens. In the end, on the basis of Rawls's postulates, the author describes the state of human rights in democratic pluralist civil states & contemporary constitutional states governed by law, which have been trying to restrict democracy by means of either new contractual theories or by insisting on an autonomous & active constitutional judiciary. Adapted from the source document.

The development of awareness of human rights is an important part of the process of the democratization of democracy: the development of citizens' participation, civil society, people's self-protection, self-development, & self-fulfillment. The awareness of rights should be understood as an awareness of "the right to the possibility" of personal action, & not only as the right to "unbounded" activity. Human rights should be understood as being empowered to realize the freedom for something & not only the freedom from something. That is why the awareness of human rights is increasingly becoming part of people's civic & democratic political culture. The research has shown how the human rights awareness increases the democratization potential of any country & that the development of this awareness does not depend so much on social demography (class, gender, education, age) -- though there are some inter-ethnic differences -- as on the leftist political inclinations. This has been corroborated by our survey of Croatian university students. The research has also shown that the average number of respected rights is relatively high in many countries, but that there are significant differences regarding certain rights. 3 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

The author has tried to prove that interethnic relations in democracy cannot be handled solely by means of legal, economic, & institutional means; political culture, ie, civic democratic political culture, can have a significant role. The analysis shows that there is room for the build-up of a transnational democratic citizenry, free from all ascriptive criteria & identities such as religion, ethnicity, etc. It also reveals how classic liberalism neglects various identities (ethnic, national, etc) while communitarian liberalism overlooks the excluding force of various identities. It has also demonstrated that there are several concepts of civic identities (liberal, communitarian, & social/group) & that each of these concepts can exert profound influence on the relationship between citizens & their political community. Finally, the relation between patriotism & interethnic relations in democracy are reviewed. Patriotism, in the circumstances of growing social pluralization, & despite a plethora of political integrations, can play a prominent role in bridging the political & cultural atomizations & conflicts in society. It can undertake this role only if constituted in the civic & not the crude (fixed) ethnic sense -- though the national defines the limits & the meaning of this constitution -- provided it evolves into loyalty to one's homeland & goes hand in hand with the development of democracy & human rights. In short, the purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that it is necessary to expand democratic political culture that might aid in resolving intricate & sensitive relations among various ethnic & cultural communities. Patriotism can assume a decisive role in this. It lays down the limits & legitimacy of each meaningful political discourse & each genuine political subject. Adapted from the source document.

The existence of ethnic minorities gives headaches to most newly independent states, though they are much more homogeneous than their predecessors. Also, the fate of the minorities in the countries that have been trying to build themselves as nationally homogeneous is uncertain, although all the newly created states -- due to the triumph of the democratic models of government -- are forced to pledge allegiance to democracy. Due to the global dominance of democratic values, the authoritarian governments of the newly created states are forced to reach an accommodation with their minorities. The priority is to make the recognition of the minorities' rights one of the key measures of democracy. There are many ethnic conflicts in Europe but only those in the former Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) have spiraled into all-out war. Unlike the other incomplete democracies in postcommunist societies, the degrees of violence in the relationship majority-minority within nondemocratic states like Serbia (or SRY) or Tudman's Croatia, combined with the secessionist/separatist conflict, rapidly increases. In fact, the institutional protection of civil liberties & the respect for human rights are nonexistent; this prevents ethnic minorities from turning their demands into democratic electoral clout. Such governments are not able to govern democratically & to keep in check their ethnic opposition with democratic means. Also, a broad popular support for the peaceful resolution of conflicts via democratic institutions is lacking. 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.

The existence of ethnic minorities gives headaches to most newly independent states, though they are much more homogeneous than their predecessors. Also, the fate of the minorities in the countries that have been trying to build themselves as nationally homogeneous is uncertain, although all the newly created states -- due to the triumph of the democratic models of government -- are forced to pledge allegiance to democracy. Due to the global dominance of democratic values, the authoritarian governments of the newly created states are forced to reach an accommodation with their minorities. The priority is to make the recognition of the minorities' rights one of the key measures of democracy. There are many ethnic conflicts in Europe but only those in the former Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) have spiraled into all-out war. Unlike the other incomplete democracies in postcommunist societies, the degrees of violence in the relationship majority-minority within nondemocratic states like Serbia (or SRY) or Tudman's Croatia, combined with the secessionist/separatist conflict, rapidly increases. In fact, the institutional protection of civil liberties & the respect for human rights are nonexistent; this prevents ethnic minorities from turning their demands into democratic electoral clout. Such governments are not able to govern democratically & to keep in check their ethnic opposition with democratic means. Also, a broad popular support for the peaceful resolution of conflicts via democratic institutions is lacking. 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.

Democracy & 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 & as members of a collective, since it is desirable for a collective to be a synergic sum of individuals. Thus it is prudent to search for a correlation between democracy & 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 ideologized inaugural effect in designing government & adopted "constitutional engineering": power-sharing, popular sovereignty, representative parliamentarism, promotion of freedoms, & basic rights of individuals & 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. Adapted from the source document.

A revised translation of an article originally published as "Der ambivalente Liberalismus. Oder: Was halt die liberale Demokratie zusammen?" Zeitschrift fur Politik (42 [1995] 3, 250-267). A few years after the collapse of communist regimes, it is evident that the confidence about the ultimate triumph of liberal democracy was premature. This waking up to reality is not only the consequence of the hardships in the transformation of postcommunist societies, but of the intellectual skepticism regarding the normative potential of liberal democracy in the developed Western societies. The problem might in most general terms be formulated as the incapacity of liberal democracy to generate & reproduce the normative requirements for its own survival. The author thinks that the solution to this paradox can nevertheless be found within the institutional framework of liberal democracy: if the traditional moral concepts on which liberal democracy was founded in the past are worn out indeed, & no civil-religious substitute for that tradition has emerged as yet, then its only possibility is to create its own, modern or postmodern, morality by means of the public discourse mechanisms & the political participation of citizens. The normative dimension of liberalism must not be reduced to the theory of private ownership, market, & competition, but be envisaged as a constitutional theory of human rights & restricted government & the egalitarian distribution of goods & opportunities. Adapted from the source document.

What are today's mass media like? Are they objective enough or are consumers too fastidious? How topical are the issues of the freedom of the media, truth, & objectivity? The author has tried to provide the answers by looking into the norms & regulations in Croatia & abroad, beginning with the Code of Honor of the Croatian Assoc of Journalists, the documents of the Council of Europe & the famous First Amendment to the US Constitution. Civil society has set up many commissions, councils & committees with the aim of controlling mass media so that they would not only be a profit-amassing industry but would also conform to the fundamental demands that are put on journalism. A probe into the freedoms of American journalism shows that there are no all-inclusive recipes & that these freedoms must be fought for & won. The best way to secure the right to the freedom of speech is to consistently respect the standards of professional journalism. However, our experience & practice show that this aspect is most lacking. Particularly interesting is how these problems were noticed by Croatian journalist Frano Folnegovic & Bogoslav Sulek more than a century ago. Apart from the political restrictions & pressures, Croatian journalists do not pay enough attention to this respect for the standards of professional journalism, which can best be illustrated by the example of the catastrophe of that American plane near Dubrovnik, when some media reported not only that the plane had safely landed but published the late Secretary's statement. Only by strictly respecting professional standards, which may be achieved through constant improvement, study & research, the preconditions for objective & authentic reporting may be realized. 10 References. Adapted from the source document.