engleski

The Croatian youth between national identity and the European integration

The paper will present the attitudes of the young in Croatia toward their own nation and the Europen integration. The presentatin is based on the empirical research carried out in 1998 on a representative sample of the young people at the age from 15 to 29 in the territory of the whole country. The data show that young people express strong national feelings but in the same time they are open toward the Europen integration processes and liberaly oriented. All listed basic liberal democratic values (freedom, protection of human rights, equality, protection of minorities’ rights, rul of law, etc.) were higly evaluated by most of them. They also manifested positive attitudes toward the European integration, perceiving it as an adventage for Crotia, especially in terms of economoc prosperity, rise of living standards, betterment of employment opportunities, etc. Yet, when speaking about the social distance in regard to specific nations a difference between nations who belong to the Western-catholic cultural circle and those who belong to the Eastern culture is evident. The most highly ranked nations are the Americans, Germans, Italians, French while at the bottom are Serbs, Albanians, Bosniacs and Russians. Such attitudes of the young reflect the influence of the ruling ideology in that time which apostrophised the belonging of Croatia to the Western-catholiv cultural circle, attributing it as a superior to the Eastern culture.

youth; Croatia; national identity; European integration

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