engleski

Gangs, Mafia and Groups of Renegades: (Mis)conceptions about Civil Society and Third Sector in Croatia

It may be considered that the main problems of the third sector in Croatia could be divided in the following three categories: (1) weaknesses of the organisations, (2) lack of co-operation between different sectors, and, (3) general perception of the sector. In this paper the third category will be discussed. It could be stated that unawareness, misconceptions and ignorance both by ordinary citizens and responsible State officials characterize general perception of the sector, making serious obstacles for the democratisation and development of civil society. In order to search this problem deeply a pilot research was done with the main purpose to explore the level of knowledge about the basic concepts of civil society and third sector, as well as about the modes of behavior and attitudes connected with the civil society and third sector development. The participants in the research were 200 high school and university students. The results show that the level of knowledge about the basic concepts of civil society (philanthropy, civil society, third sector, nongovernmental organisations, civil rights, welfare state, human rights, charity, altruism) is very low. Only 10% of the participants declare that they know what the concepts mean, but their description of the concepts was in the most cases wrong or insufficient. Also, the participants' attitudes and modes of behaviour necessary for the development of civil society show that they do not go in favour of the democratisation and civil society development. For example, the participants think that it is not important to pay taxes or respect the law ; they are not interested in the development of their society and they think that they can not influence the change in the society. It could be considered that knowledge and attitudes towards civil society could be on lower levels among older generation in Croatia. Research results show that serious analysis of possible reasons for such a situation should be done. One direction is to explore the role of the state in the development of civil society, as well as its influence on media. The other is the influence of educational system. In any case, it could be considered that serious and systematic efforts regarding building awareness and changing misconceptions about the third sector and civil society should be taken in Croatia.

civil society; third sector; knowledge and attitudes toward civil society

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