Towards the Interpretative Approach to Political Culture: History Education as a Democratization Indicator And the Presentations of the Yugoslav Past in Croatian Textbooks 1991-2007 Cover Image

Prema interpretativnom pristupu političkoj kulturi: nastava povijesti kao indikator demokratizacije i prikaz jugoslavenske prošlosti u hrvatskim udžbenicima povijesti 1991.-2007.
Towards the Interpretative Approach to Political Culture: History Education as a Democratization Indicator And the Presentations of the Yugoslav Past in Croatian Textbooks 1991-2007

Author(s): Tanja Vučković Juroš
Subject(s): Political history, Social history, Political behavior, Politics and religion, School education, State/Government and Education, Sociology of Politics, Sociology of Education
Published by: Fakultet političkih znanosti u Zagrebu
Keywords: Political Culture; Democratization; History Education; Textbooks; Yugoslavia;

Summary/Abstract: Based on the interpretative approach to political culture, this study examine s‎how democratic principles and practices are embedded in institutions, especially ‎in those not explicitly defined as parts of the political process, as the se‎can more easily hide democratic flaws not easily measured by formal democratization ‎measures. This research problem is approached by an analysis of ‎the institutional framework of the history education in Croatia in the 1990s and‎2000s and an analysis of how the controversial socialist Yugoslavia, as a critical ‎case, was presented in history textbooks. This analysis includes 34 textbooks of‎20th-century history that were published between 1991 and 2007 for the use of‎ elementary schools, vocational high schools, and grammar schools. The findings ‎are considered as indicators of the development of democratic political ‎culture. The conclusions suggest that, despite the progress in formal democratization‎ measures in the 2000s, based on this critical case, Croatia failed the test‎ of institutionally-embedded democratic assumptions and norms.‎

  • Issue Year: LX/2023
  • Issue No: 04
  • Page Range: 51-82
  • Page Count: 32
  • Language: Croatian