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In The New Religious Intolerance, Martha Nussbaum addresses rising intolerance and fear of difference in contemporary societies. She suggests overcoming these issues through ethical consistency, equality, and the cultivation of sympathetic imagination. Nussbaum views this imaginative engagement as a form of civic friendship essential for societal transformation. However, we argue that her concept of civic friendship is problematic. First, Nussbaum's criteria do not suffice to define friendship. Second, this thin concept of civic friendship is unlikely to achieve the societal transformation Nussbaum envisions. We propose developing a more substantive account of civic friendship. This paper aims to create an Aristotelian account of civic friendship within a capabilitarian framework compatible with contemporary, plural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we argue that the religious governance in Croatia was shaped by the specific position that was given to the Catholic Church in Croatia as the historical and moral guardian of the Croatian people. We describe how the fusion of religious and national identity occurred and how it was connected to the relationship between the Catholic Church and the political party that governed Croatia in the 1990s, as well as the relationship between the state and minority religious communities. The article also deals with the issue of whether religious nationalism, which is very strong at the levels of society and national self-consciousness, played any role in the governance of religious diversity and how it has influenced social movements that have reconfigured mutual recognition of different religious communities in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of affiliation by developing a contextually sensitive mid-level theory comprising specific elements, layers, and factors of affiliation. Vulnerable groups are a locus of analysis because they are particularly sensitive to various forms of social exclusion or non-affiliation. A binary study of persons with physical disability and treated alcoholics in Croatia was conducted by focus group interviewing. Through thematic analysis, six different code patterns were detected—solidarity affiliation, identity affiliation, alcoholism affiliation, disability affiliation, disability exclusion, and alcoholism exclusion—that represent key respondents' narratives on belonging. Crucial findings stress how vulnerable groups ground affiliation mostly in elements of solidarity rather than in terms of identity, how layers of affiliation (social and associational affiliation) are not so clearly differentiated but still deepen insights on affiliation, and how important factors enhancing affiliation are personal virtues which are not so prominent in theory. Therefore, the role of political institutions supporting affiliation as a meta-capability should be primarily set on solidarity affiliation, should nourish various layers of affiliation, and should be supported by citizens who care about their fellow citizens, especially those from vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together the discussions on international resource trade and immigration. Following Wenar's analysis of the resource curse, the aim is to challenge the conventional view on immigration that asserts the right of states to have discretionary control over these policies. The paper shows that more liberal immigration is required as an additional remedial policy to persons harmed in unjust trade. The right to self-determination and territorial rights, which are used as the basis for the exclusion of immigrants, are in the context of this analysis constrained by both attentiveness to harm and the charge of inconsistency. Both rights, which are protected domestically, are violated by the unjust 'might makes right' trade rule in the international context, causing harm to people in resource exporting countries. This inconsistency presents a challenge to the moral plausibility of the conventional view in the context of the resource trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss some problems for epistemic democracy as it is presented and defended by Ivan Cerovac in his book Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy (2020). I discuss three problems I think are present in his discussion about the role of experts in democratic deliberation. The first problem is concerned with what the proper design for the educative role of technical experts is in deliberative democracy. The second problem deals with the question if there is a certain moral duty of justification towards other citizens of our choice of normative experts. This implies that, in the first place, we have a duty to consult opinions of those who know better than us when we are in the process of enacting decisions that have an influence on the lives of other citizens. Finally, I briefly mention the problem of Constitutional or Supreme Court; namely, are they normative experts or technical experts because this group of experts is not present in Cerovac’s discussion of the role of experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his book In a Better World? Public Reason and Biotechnologies Elvio Baccarini employs public reason argument to justify legitimate use of genetic interventions. According to his argument policies of genetic interventions are legitimate if and only if they (i) correct generally recognized genetic impairments and disabilities; (ii) add talents without removing other talents; and (iii) enhance given or added talents without removing any other. In my discussion I find third requirement problematic. But, even if there is suitable public reason answer to this worry I believe that it still has problems connected to justice of such policies if they will be only affordable to higher classes of society. I claim that in these circumstances we have good reasons to ban such interventions. I try to argue that this ban is not the form of levelling down objection; that these policies will endanger social bases of self-respect and that we have good reasons to believe that if such technologies are available the scope of distributive justice changes to include distribution of talents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]