The Church in the Process of Democratic Changes in Croatia

Abstract

Analyzing the role of the Church in the process of democratic changes in Croatia, the author in the first part deals with the phenomenology of democracy in general. In this regard, he identifies three basic characteristics of democracy: democracy as partitocracy, democracy as nomocracy, and democracy as the peaceful transfer of power, and seeks to highlight the specific challenges each of these characteristics poses in relation to the Church.

In the second part, still on a general and principled level, the author analyzes the relationship between democratic and ecclesial logos, Christian and secular anthropology, and the relationship between democracy and Christian sociology. Stating that there are serious problems at this level that even the Church in the West has not yet resolved, the author emphasizes that democracy, aside from being a civilizational value, does not inherently contain other values; rather, it receives all values from the specific society that utilizes it. In this context, the Church, as a social factor, can advocate for, defend, and offer its values.

Based on these premises, the author in the third part discusses the specifics of Croatian democracy at this moment. According to him, this specificity is significantly determined by historical heritage, the prevailing mentality among the people, and the state of war. In this context, he describes the current state of democracy in Croatia as ethnocracy, warns of the danger that it could degenerate into plutocracy, and highlights the special obligation of the Church to do everything possible to ensure that democracy in Croatia develops into ethocracy.