Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 81 No. 4, 2011.
Pregledni rad
Elements on the Croatian Social-Political Scene in Light of the Principles of Subsidiarity
Nenad Malović
orcid.org/0000-0001-6986-3582
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Based on research conducted within the project »Subsidiarity in Croatian society«, this article attempts to highlight the situation in Croatian society regarding subsidiarity through a political-social perspective. The presumption of subsidiarity is positive anthropology: the human person and the family. Subsidiarity presumes man's awareness of personal responsibility for oneself and the community he lives in, the will to engage in common good and a feeling of effectiveness for one's engagement. The research analysis begins with the question of citizens' trust in various institutions where we see that citizens place the least trust in government institutions and a great deal of trust in themselves. The unnatural path and skipping of a second reform of democracy is seen to be a handicap to developing subsidiarity which should lay the path and preconditions for a third reform which emerges as a response to trans-national organizations. Overrated expectations of the government to resolve problems relating to everyday life are brought out to the surface as something inherited after a long period lived in a totalitarian regime. This is reflected in the level of undeveloped civil society in Croatia. Seeing that civil society should be the subject of subsidiarity, we can conclude that that subject in Croatia does not exist. Nevertheless, there is a certain level of social awareness that is related to the tasks of civil society organisations which leads to a positive, primary potential in the development of subsidiarity which focuses on the importance of civil virtues in that process. In Croatia however, awareness of the importance of civil society and volunteering by citizens for common good is insufficiently developed which is evident in the high percentage of those surveyed who are not members of any civil society organisation. This is however the result of a personal feeling of inability to participate in important decision making processes at the local, regional or national level. In conclusion the author highlights the lack of subsidiarity in Croatian society but also the existence of pre-political preconditions for any serious engagement of the state/political elite in developing subsidiarity.
Ključne riječi
subsidiarity; trust in institutions; civil society; democratic reform; civil virtue
Hrčak ID:
76046
URI
Datum izdavanja:
11.1.2012.
Posjeta: 1.463 *