Political Aspects of Andrić’s Career

Political Aspects of Andrić’s Career

Author(s): Ivo Banac / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

Described ironically as “a discreet and melancholic writer” in the index and glossary of names to the first volume of Krleža’s Journal, Danas, as edited by Masleša and Ristić, Ivo Andrić has become for us today a largely unknown quantity, or perhaps better his inner states and the deep reasons for his public choices have. He passed through life in conspiratorial fashion, taking great pains to say as little as possible about the question of identity that today exercises so many commentators. According to Radica, “it is very difficult to force this key issue,” since Andrić “always evaded it, as though he had mastered it so completely, that it was pointless wasting time on it.”

Europe in the Age of Apology

Europe in the Age of Apology

Author(s): Obrad Savić / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

In the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in selfcritical awareness of past injustice and mass atrocities around the world. “No peace without Justice” has become a new motto of the post-conflictual history of reconciliation. As Nelson Mandela declared, “True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past.” This means that transitional justice cannot be successfully realized without new, just memory and without collective, trans-national, rememberance of the tragic past. According to Jennifer Lind, “this view is bolstered by many scholars of transitional justice, who argue precisely that within states, truth-telling and legal prosecutions for human right abuses promote democratic consolidation and post conflict stability.”

Imbro Tkalac’s View of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Imbro Tkalac’s View of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Andrea Feldman / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

A writer, journalist and political thinker, Imbro (Emeric) Ignjatijević Tkalac (1824-1912) was a leading proponent of liberal ideas in Croatia and the Habsburg Monarchy during the second half of the nineteenth century. After contributing to Croatian political and cultural life for more than a decade, Tkalac moved to Vienna in 1861. There he became engaged in political activities against Austrian rule, writing extensively against Austrian policies toward Croatia in the pages of the journal Ost und West, of which he was the editor. In 1863, Tkalac was accused of disturbing the public order, brought to trial, and convicted. After serving a prison sentence of nine months, he was exiled from Austria to Italy, where an exciting and little-known period of his political thinking developed under the strong influence of the Italian Risorgimento. Tkalac remained in Italy and worked for the Italian diplomatic service, never to return to Croatia. He died in exile in 1912.

Yet Another Abraham

Yet Another Abraham

Author(s): Gil Anidjar / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

Was Abraham religious? Was he, I don’t know, very religious? Was he more religious on a particular day of the week, or was it only when the angels dropped by? More so when he bargained with God or did battle for his nephew? Was his religion more visible, more ostentatious, when he migrated—twice—to Canaan, cursed or blessed himself and his descendants with a life of aliens, when he built or arranged a house (or the Ka‘ba), or when he realized, all on his own and no thanks to the king of Sodom (Sodom!), his version of the American dream (livestock, silver, and gold, and a private mausoleum too—a lasting investment there)? Was it visible when he denied Sarah—twice, again, not thrice, like Peter with Jesus—or banished Hagar and their son to the wilderness? Did he perhaps affirm and demonstrate his religiosity better when he circumcised himself, walked with his son, perhaps the other, to the mountain, or when he had his servant later swear with his hand on his genitals? Was that because he was against mixed marriages, by the way? Was Keturah? And did Abraham have a take on abortion as well, a religious take? And what was his religion anyway?

Twenty Previously Unpublished Marginal Glosses from the Bosnian Vrutok Gospels

Twenty Previously Unpublished Marginal Glosses from the Bosnian Vrutok Gospels

Author(s): Lejla Nakaš / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

The late 14th century Vrutok Gospels have until recently been the private property of the Popović / Popovski family from the townland of Vrutok near Gostivar in Macedonia. When International Forum Bosnia published Herta Kuna’s Srednjovjekovna bosanska književnost / Mediaeval Bosnian Literature in 2008, I noticed two previously unpublished images of pages from the Vrutok Gospels (page 194), which included four marginal glosses boxed in with wavy lines. Using a magnifying glass, I was able to read the text and discovered that two of the glosses were textually identical to two from the Srećković Gospels.

Abrahamic Religions between Confrontation and Relation - Some Thoughts on Karl-Josef Kuschel’s Juden, Christen, Muslime-Herkunft und Zukunft

Abrahamic Religions between Confrontation and Relation - Some Thoughts on Karl-Josef Kuschel’s Juden, Christen, Muslime-Herkunft und Zukunft

Author(s): Mile Babić / Language(s): English / Issue: 58-59/2012

Karl Josef Kuschel’s great work, Juden, Christen, Muslime— Herkunft und Zukunft (Jews — Christians — Muslims, Origins and Future), introduces and develops a new paradigm in the relationship between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Up till now, this relationship has been marked by confrontational views which aim to repress and remove the Other. If the Other could not be repressed and removed, he should at least be isolated. One’s own identity is established through struggle against the Other, negation of the Other.

In memoriam Ralf Dahrendorf (1929-2009)

In memoriam Ralf Dahrendorf (1929-2009)

Author(s): Ana Pažanin / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

The Role of Conspiracy Theories in Construction of Social Reality in Croatia: Analysis of Political Discourse 1980-2007

Uloga teorija zavjera u konstrukciji političke zbilje u Hrvatskoj: analiza političkog diskurza 1980.-2007.

Author(s): Nebojša Blanuša / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Visual/Figurative (Il)literacy of Political Parties in Croatia

Vizualna/likovna (ne)pismenost političkih stranaka u Hrvatskoj

Author(s): Vera Turković / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: visual literacy; political advertising; political campaign; political persuasion; negative comparative advertising; political poster

In this paper the author evaluates the level of visual literacy of Croatian politicians. Her evaluation is based on the analysis of visual material used by political parties in the pre-electoral campaign late in 2007. Assisted by students at the Academy of Visual Arts as politically independent visual experts/evaluators, she examines the visual quality of the political message, its symbolic and communicational, as well as aesthetic and ethical value, taking the examples of posters, advertisements, spot commercials and other products. Research results point to the conclusion that our political public recognizes the power of images mainly in the context of present-day visually oriented society, and that it attempts to use visual effects in communication with potential voters in order to influence their opinions. Unfortunately, the level of such communication is very low, and mostly boils down to negative comparative advertising, which, as proven in other countries, is counterproductive, because it fosters mistrust and doubt of the public regarding the politicians’ opportunities and ability to solve social problems. The visual rhetoric in politics requires an art of discourse that has a specific effect on its target group, and this in turn presupposes a high level of visual literacy of both the politicians themselves and the professionals they rely upon.

Thirty Years after the Revolution: Iran at the Center of World Politics

Trideset godina nakon revolucije: Iran u središtu svjetske politike

Author(s): Dejan Jović / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: Iran; political Islam; Iran Revolution (1979); theocracy; US foreign policy; Israel

The article puts forward an answer to the following question: why is Iran, thirty years after the 1979 revolution, still at the centre of world politics, and why is it, on top of that, a legitimate candidate for the status of one of global powers in the new, multi-polar international order. The author stresses that Iran has been the main obstacle to global ambitions of liberal democracy since 1989, and that it has developed a specific ideological and political system based on the idea of theocratic-republican dualism. Furthermore, after the end of the Cold War, it was convenient to the West to have Iran as the Antagonistic Other (and vice versa). The relative American failure in the war against Iraq (2003-) opened up for Iran the options of connecting on a wider basis with Russia, China, Venezuela and the countries of “Old Europe” (Germany and France). Since the relatively prosperous neighbouring countries – China and the four Asian tigers – are also founded on dualistic principles, Iran did not have to be liberalized in the way that Eastern Europe was liberalized after the Cold War. As the author concludes, the election of Barack Obama for American president presents a new opportunity to normalize relations between Iran and the West, but the opportunity will be seized only if the USA is willing to accept the multi-polarity of international relations and to renounce the doctrine of liberal interventionism. Regardless of the outcome, however, there is still a very real danger of a conflict between Israel and Iran.

An Antique Strategy of Development Policy (on Xenophon's Ways and Means)

Jedna antička strategija razvojne politike (uz Ksenofontove Načine i sredstva)

Author(s): Zvonimir Baletić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: development policy; economic power; citizens’ welfare; Athens

Xenophon was the first Greek philosopher to clearly separate the economic phenomenon from morality, law and politics, defining it from the standpoint of efficiency, deprivation and welfare. These traits of Xenophon’s approach are particularly pronounced in Ways and Means. In this essay he presents an integral discussion of possibilities to increase income of the state of Athens, focusing only on issues pertaining to the boosting of economic activity as source of the state’s income and the source of its security. Thus it is rather a development study, a strategy of economic growth, an evaluation of economic power and of ways of increasing it, and, to the extent of our knowledge, it is the first such treatise in history. Although its intent is to provide practical instruction on development policy, it is not conceived as a set of suggestions regarding actual steps to be taken, but as an integrated plan of development, the consistency of which is ensured by theoretical understanding of economic processes and by sober insight into the entire internal structure and external relations of a particular state (Athens) with its surroundings. The predominant evaluation criterion is economic efficiency and citizens’ welfare, i.e. the narrower economic criterion, by which a state’s development policy is to be judged.

Insecurity of the Security System – The Example of the Pension Scheme in the Republic of Croatia

Nesigurnost sustava sigurnosti – primjer mirovinskog osiguranja u Republici Hrvatskoj

Author(s): Ivor Altaras Penda / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: security; risk; welfare state; pension scheme

This paper gives an overview of the socially clearly expressed desire and need for social security, promoted by means of various measures and policies known under the common designation: elements of the social state. Since many different socio-economic, political and value factors are simultaneously at work, with the passing of time possibilities for realization of social security as a criterion of social successfulness are increasingly, and ever more clearly, reduced. Moreover, the author points out the fact that such a constellation of social relations is not to be found in the Republic of Croatia alone, but is a worldwide phenomenon. Of course, Croatia has its specific traits – from the state of war, via the period of transition, to the creation of new social elites – which are incorporated in the overview. All above-mentioned aspects are expounded through an analysis of the pension scheme in the Republic of Croatia, which, like many other sectors, such as health, education, housebuilding etc., went through, or is still going through, the process of structural reforms. In that sense, the Croatian pension scheme is used as an indicator of the set of risks which we expose ourselves to precisely in order to reduce, and even eliminate risks; particularly in the context of positive effects expected at the moment when reforms of the former pension system were launched, since the latter was assessed as unfavourable and inadequate to the new social circumstances. This work attempts to identify the neuralgic points of the system through the existing “three pension pillars”. The purpose of the analysis is to estimate whether and to what extent we can rely on well-known institutional security systems applied thus far, in order to attain an acceptable, necessary and adequate feeling of personal security, as well as to determine all other elements which can potentially contribute to creating such a feeling. Accordingly, insight is offered into the reasons for dissatisfaction of those who benefit from the above-mentioned social services through the existing security systems.

Iraq War (2003-): Was It Morally Justified?

Iraq War (2003-): Was It Morally Justified?

Author(s): Miljenko Antić / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: Iraq; just war; morality; intervention; democratization; power; unipolarity

This article argues, after explaining the theory of just war, that the US-led invasion on Iraq was not morally justified. Furthermore, it explains why democratization cannot be a justification for aggression, neither from the legal nor from the ethical point of view. In addition, this article claims that the immorality of the war has been a crucial factor, because it has caused a low level of public support for the war and, consequently, has led to American military failures and failure of other coalition forces in Iraq. Finally, the author concludes that the Iraq war has shown that we do not live in a unipolar system of international relations and that the power of the USA was overestimated prior to the war.

Globalization and Politics

Globalizacija i politika

Author(s): Ana Pažanin / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: Beck; Europe; globality; globalization; globalism; cosmopolitan state; politics

The text provides a presentation and appraisal of the relation between globalization and politics in Ulrich Beck’s recent works. Engaging with the issues of globalization, globalism and globality, Beck propounds the following answer to globalization challenges – the cosmopolitan state. Consequently, the text analytically examines whether Europe could be the answer to globalization, and whether the idea of cosmopolitism could bear forth the heritage of ideas which marked the twentieth century.

Transformations of Biopolitics

Preobrazbe biopolitike

Author(s): Žarko Paić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

Keywords: biopolitics; life; power; totalitarianism; democracy

In this article the author analyses the transformations of the biopolitics concept from its initial introduction into political-science discussions through the organicist theory of the state to Foucault’s critical theory of the subject. In the contemporary debate of social-humanistic theorists, biopolitics delineates a wide area of biomedical, genetic and biotechnological changes of life structures. The addition of a new concept of life to the political sphere requires a redefinition of modern foundations of political construction of the community. The author critically analyses various theories of biopolitics, thus showing that the reception of Foucault’s take on biopolitics is a synthetic path toward overcoming the one-sidedness of naturalism/biologism and politicism in the understanding of life and politics in a global age. Biopolitics goes beyond its conceptual definition and becomes a first-rate problem of relations between human life and the way in which state regulates life in the global order of power ever since the traditional understanding of sovereignty and of natural and human rights ceased to be valid.

Reviews

Prikazi i recenzije

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

KREŠIMIR PETKOVIĆ - Jürgen Habermas, Eseji o Europi. S prilozima Dietera Grimma i Hansa Vorländera Školska knjiga – Biblioteka Globalizacija i identitet, Zagreb, 2008, 343 str. Luka Ribarević - Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Republican Liberty Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008, 245 str. Ivana Milan - Erich Fromm, Bit ćete kao Bog: radikalna interpretacija Starog zavjeta i njegove predaje Izvori, Zagreb, 2008, 231 str. Zorica Siročić - Joseph A. Tainter Kolaps kompleksnih društava Naklada Jesenski i Turk, Zagreb, 2008, 395 str. Ana Mihaljević - Jacques Rancière, Mržnja demokracije Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb, 2008, 117 str. Enes Sedić - Tarik Kulenović Politički islam V.B.Z., Zagreb, 2008, 216 str. John L. Esposito Nesveti rat – teror u ime islama Šahinpašić, Sarajevo/Zagreb, 2008, 157 str. Vladimir Filipović - Andrej Rahten, Savezništva i diobe. Razvoj slovensko-hrvatskih političkih odnosa u Habsburškoj Monarhiji 1848.-1918. Golden Marketing-Tehnička knjiga, Zagreb, 2008. Marta Zorko - Marko Zajc Gdje slovensko prestaje, a hrvatsko počinje. Slovensko-hrvatska granica u 19. i na početku 20. stoljeća Srednja Europa, Zagreb, 2008, 420 str.

Pluralist Theory of Foundation of Human Rights

Pluralistička teorija utemeljenja ljudskih prava

Author(s): Enes Kulenović / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2009

The Church Judiciary’s Functioning in Medieval Hungary. The Esztergom Tribunal in 1399-1428

Fungovanie cirkevného súdnictva v stredovekom Uhorsku. Ostrihomský tribunál v rokoch 1399 – 1428

Author(s): Bálint Lakatos,Gábor Mikó / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 1/2015

Keywords: Hungary; 15th century; the church judiciary; archbishopric of Esztergom; Matteo di Vicedomini of Piacenza

The knowledge of the church judiciary’s functioning in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary shows that previous historical publications contain only general, summarizing opinion when analyzing its issues. Therefore, the authors of the paper decided to examine the activities of episcopal courts in Hungary by means of a new, as yet untried method of a probe: by evaluation of activities of a single judicial vicar. This person is Matteo di Vicedomini of Piacenza (+1428) who for more than three decades lived in Hungary and in the first third of the 15th century served as a judicial vicar of the archbishop of Esztergom (in 1399-1403, 1411-1423, 1425-1428). Since he served at the highest church court of the country for a long time we can assume that he dealt with various types of cases. In this paper the authors deal with what they found in the sources. Thus, they also focus on those aspects which in the prior examinations – just due to the general character of scholarly literature – remained in the background or were absent.

Pleasures of a Rural Villa in Later Roman Gaul. Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. 2.2

Pôžitky vidieckej vily v neskororímskej Galii. Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. 2.2

Author(s): Marek Babic / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 1/2015

Keywords: history; Late Antiquity; Romans; architecture; Sidonius Appollinaris

Sidonius Appollinaris’ Epistula 2.2 is one of the best known letters of this 5th century A.D. Gallic Roman aristocrat. In his letter Sidonius invites his friend Domitius to spend a summer holiday in his rural villa called Avitacum, located in all probability in modern Aydat in the Auvergne, France. He describes the layout of the villa as well as the pleasures that are at visitors’ disposal. In the paper the author introduces the historical and philological context of the letter. The main objective of the paper is to provide a modern translation of this letter for Slovak readers.

The Church’s Participation in the Defence of Hungary. The Implementation of the Legal Article No. 63/1397 by Way of Example of the Bratislava Chapter

Účasť cirkvi na obrane Uhorska. Realizácia zákonného článku 63/1397 na príklade Bratislavskej kapituly

Author(s): Norbert C. Tóth / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 1/2015

Keywords: Hungary; history; church tax; 14th and 15th centuries; country defence; Bratislava chapter

The paper deals with a little explored topic. On the basis of presented data it states that the church tax aimed at defending Hungary was paid by a large number of church dignitaries. Besides secular provostries the tax also had to be paid by archdeacons, Benedictine abbeys and Premonstratensian provostries. Based on the legal article, each church dignitary was obliged to pay half of all of his income. The question is whether it is possible to determine the group of those who really paid this tax. Using the obtained data, there is a good precondition for finding an answer to this question. In the following lines we will look for answers to the following questions: Who and how much would pay? Were some dignitaries exempt from the tax or were they accorded at least some tax concessions? In which years was the tax collected? Who would collect the tax and to what end would they invest the money?