Original scientific paper
THE CONCEPT OF NATIONAL MINORITIES AND THEIR POLITICAL REPRESENTATION: THE CASE OF CROATIA
Milan Mesić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author first deals with the concept of national minority, presenting various
attempts of their legal and conceptual defining. Since there is no generally
accepted definition of national minorities, even within the EU, there are still
controversies on the issue of defining a group as “national minority”. In addition,
there are disputes over the issue of representation and political-juridical
protection of minorities. At the same time such international legal uncertainty
allows for broad flexibility in conceptualising and implementing instruments
for protection and representation. The article focuses also on some of these
models, especially when it comes to Croatia. We argue that there is no clarity
in who constitutes a national minority in Croatia, and thus the practice of political
representation remains driven by political considerations rather than by
principles. This is a source of inconsistency in legal solutions for parliamentary
representation of national minorities. The author argues in favour of special
representation of national minorities in the Parliament and for the instrument
of double vote for citizens who belong to national minorities. This instrument
is justified also because of the very significant contribution that national minorities
have given to Croatian society in the past.
Keywords
Conceptual Debates on National Minorities; National Minorities in Croatia; Political Representation; Minority Representatives in Croatian Parliament; Multiculturalism
Hrčak ID:
111725
URI
Publication date:
5.12.2013.
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