SVIBOR - Project code: 5-04-140

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Strossmayerov trg 4, HR - 10000 ZAGREB
tel.: +385 1 459 44 44, fax: +385 1 459 44 69
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Project code: 5-04-140


THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL AND THE EXPIRIENCE OF HISTORY. TAKING STOCK AT THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY


Main researcher: POSAVEC, ZVONKO (38311)


Assistants
Type of research: basic
Duration from: 04/01/91. to 12/31/95.
Papers on project (total): 21
Papers on project quoted in Current Contents: 14
Institution name: Fakultet političkih znanosti, Zagreb (15)
Department/Institute: Faculty of Political Science
Address: Lepušićeva 6
City: 10000 - Zagreb, Croatia
Communication
Phone: 385 (1) 4558-022
Fax: 385 (1) 412-283
Summary: Democracy has been one of the great themes of the century now drawing to ist close. From the collapse of the last bastions of the ancien regime in the First World War through to the crumbling of totalitarian socialism at the end of the 1980s, one can describe this century as a triumphant onward sweep of democracy, emerging ever victorious from the catastrophes along its way. Or, one can describe it in terms of a seventy year conflict-from the October Revolution until the de facto termination of the experimant this began - between two antagonistic conceptions of democracy: the constitucionalist one of the West and the totalitarian one of the East. Or, one can describe it, above all in its latter half, as a largely failed attempt to transplant, to all continents and cultures, the idea and constitutional form of democracy born and matured in the European culture. For all that the experience of the 20th century has been clear and explicit, it is uncertain, at the end of it, quite at what point we stand in the historical process of democracy. In particular, it is uncertain how democracy as a political system will stand the test of the exceptional, funamental challenges facing mankind. What is and how it may be achieved, are over.

Keywords: Democracy-constitutional state, democracy-pluralism, democracy-capitalism, democracy-socialism, democracy-technocracy, democracy-nationalism

Research goals: This research will deal with democracy as the dominant topic of the 20th century. Inspite of all catastrophes of the First and Second World War democracy spread inevitably in all countries in Western Europe and other parts of the world. It is necessary to take these events into account. We have to investigate why democracy has been victorious towards totalitarian systems. A great experiment that has begun with the October Revolution looks for its interpretation, especially because we have suffered forms of totalitarian democracy that are destroying a real ethos of democracy. We ecpext this research enabling us to examine the best ways of forming an expression of democratic will.

COOPERATION - PROJECTS


  1. Name of project: Lehrstuhl fr politische Wissenschaft III
    Name of institution: Universit„t Manheim
    City: Manheim, Njemačka
Other information about the project.
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