Electoral Discrimination Against Immigrant-Origin Candidates

Political Behavior - This article explores the Electoral Discrimination thesis, according to which voters tend to discriminate against minority candidates. The free-list PR system used in Swiss...     

Truth,justice, and education: towards reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia

Key to the success of peacebuilding and social reconstruction in the former Yugoslavia are the attitudes of these young people. Our goal in this paper is to explore young people’s attitudes about the prospects of reconciliation vis-a-vis those with whom their nations were formerly at war. In particular, we examine three sets of factors. First, we contend that the level of contact among people engendered by the segregated educational systems affects the attitudes of the young about the possibility of reconciliation. We suggest that those who are able to interact more frequently with fellow students from other ethnic groups will be more likely to believe in the possibility of reconciliation. Second, we contend that attitudes of young people about which ethnic groups were responsible for the violence in the former Yugoslavia and the efforts of the international community to bring truth and justice will strongly influence attitudes. Finally, we examine other factors such as education and the influence of gender on reconciliation.     

Normative political theory,democratic politics and minority rights

In Equal Recognition, Alan Patten argues that in a proper relationship between normative political theory and democratic politics, we must make a clear distinction between two questions related to cultural rights: (a) authority (who should decide?) and (b) the substance of deliberation. The question he wants to explore, however, is not the authority question but the substantive question. The aim of this article is to show that an account of equal recognition cannot bracket out the democratic element. It argues, first, that Equal Recognition does not live up to its initial promise, as it contains a number of reflections and recommendations (on language rights, on secession, on the rights of migrants’ cultures) that either explicitly or implicitly include the democratic element. Second, it points at other important areas of political decision-making – such as electoral system design, districting, referendums, quotas – in which it is quite clear that in order to extend equal recognition to minority cultures, we are obliged to take decisions related to the design of democratic institutions.     

Alan Patten’s theory of equal recognition and its contribution to the debate over multiculturalism

In this introduction, we first give a brief overview of the debate over multiculturalism in political theory. We then situate Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition in that context by highlighting his major normative thesis, according to which there are reasons of principle, in a liberal democracy, to grant special forms of public recognition and accommodation to cultural minorities. Finally, we present a succinct summary of the nine articles that follow this introduction and that critically engage with Patten’s arguments.     

The influence of demographic trends on number of undivided family households in Southern Croatia

On the assumption that the rural population of southern Croatia (Dubrovnik) during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries tended to form and live in joint families, the article seeks to establish the extent to which demographic tendencies influence the number of joint families. The small number of joint families in the seventeenth century is not a result of essential changes in the way of life, i.e. in attitudes towards joint family. Rather, is a logical consequence of extremely unfavorable demographic trends between late fifteenth and late seventeenth century which reduced the population of the Dubrovnik villages to one third. Renewed expansion of joint families in the nineteenth century is closely connected with the demographic transition, which caused population growth.     

Democratization,State-building and War: The Cases of Serbia and Croatia

The author explores the connection that exists between democratization, state-building and war in the cases of Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. It is necessary to examine closely how these processes influence one another because state-building and democratization are not necessarily contradictory and even war might not be an obstacle for democracy. However, in Serbia and Croatia state-building and war influenced democratization negatively, but in different ways. In Serbia, the nationalist mobilization for a state-building programme prevented democratization, while in Croatia democratization was a precondition for state-building, which then impeded democratic consolidation. Further important differences are the lower level of institutionalization, incomplete state-building, and polarized party system in Serbia and a higher level of institutionalization, completed state-building, and moderate party pluralism in Croatia. The war also influenced Croatia directly, while Serbia was only indirectly affected by the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina before the NATO intervention in 1999.     

Serbia After the Criminal Past: What Went Wrong and What Should be Done

This article explores the relationship between the recent criminalpast and the contemporary socio-political condition in Serbia.Basic assumptions employed are that the recent past is definedby collective crimes, this past has retained relevance afterthe regime change of October 2000 and that Serbia has thus farchosen the wrong methods for dealing with its criminal legacies.Due to the persistence of damaging political, cultural and moralattitudes about the past, the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevichas failed to bring about the necessary political and moralbreak. Thus, it is legitimate to explore alternative ways ofcoming to terms with the legacies of past crimes, including,as this article proposes, the establishment of a truth commissionin Serbia.