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Justice and Righteousness in Post-Communist Societies - The Case of Croatia

Received: 11 March 2020     Accepted: 24 March 2020     Published: 14 April 2020
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Abstract

Can Croatia, as a transition country, be put in the category of democratic states? Yes, if by democracy we consider only implemented mechanisms, which provide a formal democratic procedure for the election of power holders, and guarantee certain political rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech, opinion, assembly or association. However, if we describe the concept of democracy as a political system that serves the people through a democratically elected government, guaranteeing every citizen the right to work, prosperity, equality before the law, justice, righteousness, equal opportunity for every member of society, but at the same time if we take into account that it has no control over it, Croatia is still at the beginning of its democratic development. There are numerous obstacles along the way. The aftermath of the war, and the poorly implemented transformation of the inherited socialist political order and economy based on self-management of social property, opened the way for the development of corruption into a disease of the system, as well as political clientelism and conflict of interest as a way of functioning of political elites. The consequence is the stratification of the Croatian society in material terms, and the division in ideological and world-view issues. Structural reforms in all areas of society, starting from the political system, the public administration system, the health, education and justice systems are a precondition for Croatia's development towards true democracy, in which every individual will be provided with the so-called the rights of the first, second and third generation. In order to carry out the reforms, the political will of the authorities is crucial, the imposed system of value, partly inherited from the period of socialism and partly formed in the beginnings of the functioning of a newly founded state, must be changed through reforms.

Published in Journal of Political Science and International Relations (Volume 3, Issue 1)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Corruption as a Systematic Issue in the Developing Countries

DOI 10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13
Page(s) 16-25
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

New Justice, Post-conflict Transition States, Duopolism of the Political System

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  • APA Style

    Karmen Skube. (2020). Justice and Righteousness in Post-Communist Societies - The Case of Croatia. Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 3(1), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13

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    Karmen Skube. Justice and Righteousness in Post-Communist Societies - The Case of Croatia. J. Polit. Sci. Int. Relat. 2020, 3(1), 16-25. doi: 10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13

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    AMA Style

    Karmen Skube. Justice and Righteousness in Post-Communist Societies - The Case of Croatia. J Polit Sci Int Relat. 2020;3(1):16-25. doi: 10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13,
      author = {Karmen Skube},
      title = {Justice and Righteousness in Post-Communist Societies - The Case of Croatia},
      journal = {Journal of Political Science and International Relations},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1},
      pages = {16-25},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jpsir.20200301.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jpsir.20200301.13},
      abstract = {Can Croatia, as a transition country, be put in the category of democratic states? Yes, if by democracy we consider only implemented mechanisms, which provide a formal democratic procedure for the election of power holders, and guarantee certain political rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech, opinion, assembly or association. However, if we describe the concept of democracy as a political system that serves the people through a democratically elected government, guaranteeing every citizen the right to work, prosperity, equality before the law, justice, righteousness, equal opportunity for every member of society, but at the same time if we take into account that it has no control over it, Croatia is still at the beginning of its democratic development. There are numerous obstacles along the way. The aftermath of the war, and the poorly implemented transformation of the inherited socialist political order and economy based on self-management of social property, opened the way for the development of corruption into a disease of the system, as well as political clientelism and conflict of interest as a way of functioning of political elites. The consequence is the stratification of the Croatian society in material terms, and the division in ideological and world-view issues. Structural reforms in all areas of society, starting from the political system, the public administration system, the health, education and justice systems are a precondition for Croatia's development towards true democracy, in which every individual will be provided with the so-called the rights of the first, second and third generation. In order to carry out the reforms, the political will of the authorities is crucial, the imposed system of value, partly inherited from the period of socialism and partly formed in the beginnings of the functioning of a newly founded state, must be changed through reforms.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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  • Public Administration and Independent Researcher, Karlovac, Croatia

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