Sociology and Space, No. 119-120, 1993.
Preliminary communication
The war, problems of renewal and the political commitment of the urban and rural youth in Croatia
Vlasta Ilišin
Abstract
A war, and especially a defence war
waged on one’s own territory, decisively
influences the overall life of the
population. Children and young people
are certainly affected by trauma and
frustrations the most deeply. It is in this
context that the author views the possible
influence of the war on the political
commitment of young people. To enable
the formulation of a valid hypotheses it
was first necessary to reinterpret empirical
results about youth political attitudes from
the end of the eighties in Croatia and
place them in the context of the given
political conditions. Earlier results show
that young people were distanced from
the existing political system and ready to
establish a radically different political
order. The basic characteristics of the
political order desired were: multiparty
parliamentary democracy, pluralism of
ownership, the decisive role of experts in
decision-making and a »weak« state. The
war in Croatia, hoewever, and the great
human and material losses that it meant,
did not favour the development of an
independent Croatian state that would
fulfill such expectations. This is the
foundation for the hypotheses about two
basic types of reaction among some of the
young: political apathy or pronounced
politization (which can take various forms,
intensity and courses). As far as results
allow, the paper analytically discusses the
difference in commitment among the
urban and rural youth. Bearing in mind
their heritage from the preceding period
and the war experience, the rural youth
are expected to become more radical and
their social reintegration in the post-war
period more difficult.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119777
URI
Publication date:
11.6.1993.
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