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The paper begins by considering the difficulties which are confronting the process of European integrations. The reluctance of the European Union to pursue its politics of enlargement, which has lately become visible in several vetoes blocking the start of accession negotiations, has provoked disappointment in the countries which are candidates for membership or on their way to becoming it. Among them are a few states of our region, which seem to be doomed to remain at the periphery of Europe. At the same time, the European Union is faced with the old problem of its own, the so-called democratic deficit. This paper seeks for a perspective in which these difficulties on both sides could be dealt with. It discusses three paradigmatic ways of representing Europe, which serve as a basis for different strategies of legitimizing the European Union. The first of them is idealist, since it elevates Europe to the rank of a philosophical concept which transcends the empirical definition of Europe as just one continent among others. This view reflects the representation of Europe as a unique, privileged part of the world and assumes that the rest of humanity should accept and pursue Europe's fundamental values. The second, more realistic conception envisages the European Union as an empire which is legitimized in terms of de facto arguments, such as the estimates of the costs of renouncing the Union, which would allegedly surpass those of its survival and continuation of the integration process, or by the need of preserving peace. A critical examination of these ways of legitimizing Europe reveals their factual unfoundedness and ideological character. The heritage of colonialism looms behind the idealist view of European supremacy, while the concept of the European Union as a sort of benevolent empire has paternalistic implications. The last part of the text, dealing with the problem of the European civil war (theorized by Carl Schmitt and Ernst Nolte), suggests that these shortcomings could be addressed in a conception of European politics which would not aim at pacifying or neutralizing conflicts but, on the contrary, at exposing the very conflictual component of politics. The example of ancient Greek democracy shows that preventing the civil war does not consist in eliminating all conflicts from politics but rather in their transposition to a superior level or their sublimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins by considering the difficulties which are confronting the process of European integrations. The reluctance of the European Union to pursue its politics of enlargement, which has lately become visible in several vetoes blocking the start of accession negotiations, has provoked disappointment in the countries which are candidates for membership or on their way to becoming it. Among them are a few states of our region, which seem to be doomed to remain at the periphery of Europe. At the same time, the European Union is faced with the old problem of its own, the so-called democratic deficit. This paper seeks for a perspective in which these difficulties on both sides could be dealt with. It discusses three paradigmatic ways of representing Europe, which serve as a basis for different strategies of legitimizing the European Union. The first of them is idealist, since it elevates Europe to the rank of a philosophical concept which transcends the empirical definition of Europe as just one continent among others. This view reflects the representation of Europe as a unique, privileged part of the world and assumes that the rest of humanity should accept and pursue Europe's fundamental values. The second, more realistic conception envisages the European Union as an empire which is legitimized in terms of de facto arguments, such as the estimates of the costs of renouncing the Union, which would allegedly surpass those of its survival and continuation of the integration process, or by the need of preserving peace. A critical examination of these ways of legitimizing Europe reveals their factual unfoundedness and ideological character. The heritage of colonialism looms behind the idealist view of European supremacy, while the concept of the European Union as a sort of benevolent empire has paternalistic implications. The last part of the text, dealing with the problem of the European civil war (theorized by Carl Schmitt and Ernst Nolte), suggests that these shortcomings could be addressed in a conception of European politics which would not aim at pacifying or neutralizing conflicts but, on the contrary, at exposing the very conflictual component of politics. The example of ancient Greek democracy shows that preventing the civil war does not consist in eliminating all conflicts from politics but rather in their transposition to a superior level or their sublimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author highlights the contemporary relevance of Machiavelli’s teaching as contained in The Prince and Discourses. In a dialogue with Claude Lefort and his groundbreaking interpretation of the Florentine (1972), this paper offers an alternative, subversive reading of Machiavelli’s theory of political conflict. At the same time, the author highlights the elements of a specific Machiavellian theory of recognition through a critical engagement with Honneth (1995). The author argues that the fundamentally democratic character of Machiavelli’s project is directly related to the ability of the plebs to recognize their novel function in the social field and to audaciously adopt queer “identity”. This is made possible only with the help and the support of the prince. In the text, the plebs represent a dynamic collation of diverse groups (of Others) which are being oppressed in the society. The plebs are invited to transform their desire not to be oppressed into a positive desire “to be” and become in such a way that enables them to maintain their difference in contrast to the greats. By discovering the “self” as a place of radical alterity, the plebs ceaselessly invent new modes of being which are opposed to the “regimes of the normal”. In this way the plebs become an inexhaustible source of innovations which are available for the entire citizenry. Queering of the plebs enables a higher degree of (our) common being in the society. The strength of a democratic society directly depends on the vitality of the plebs’ desire and their ability to imagine, produce and sustain new modes of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When we talk about the European idea, Europe as a geographical or cultural space, or especially about the European Union, we can often hear about the Founding Fathers of EU and the famous trio of Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi, and eventually Jean Monnet with them. This is historically grounded and certainly justified. But very rarely we can hear about the great French philosopher Jacques Maritain and about his influence on the European project and Euro-Atlantic integration. This should not be seen as an injustice, but only as a curiosity. This paper, in which the author brings and expands some excerpts from his doctoral dissertation, seeks to shed some light on Maritain's role in this context, i.e. to try to look at the future of Europe in the light of his philosophy, and especially in the context of the issue of the relationship between politics and religion. In one sentence - over the past century, Maritain has played perhaps the most important role in shaping the idea of European and world unity, and despite everything that discourages us today, the future of Europe and then the whole world in the light of Maritain's philosophy is not dark and there is room for everyone in it. Is it possible and wise to think about the future of European unity without thinking about the world unity? If the unification of Europe is a good thing, is the unification of the world even better? Is the anthropological question the crucial one? How important is religion in the context of Europe and its future? What about secularity and secularism? What is the future of religion? Are Europe and EU (exclusively) Christian continent and project? Is democracy conceivable without Christianity? To what extent is religion/faith personal and private, and to what extent is it a public matter? What about the controversial relationship between religion and politics? Finally, what does all this mean for interreligious dialogue within the EU - especially between Jews, Christians and Muslims? – these are some of the issues that the author deals with in his work or just points to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a short overview of theoretical considerations of civil society from Greek and Roman thinkers to the present. Here are some of the points of interest: Jean-Rene Milot, Leonard Bruny, Charles Taylor, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Alexis de Tocquevil, Jean Cohen, Antoni Gramsci and Vucin Pavlovic. The paper also gives a brief overview of the theoretical considerations of the civil society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I specifically mention the considerations of Esad Zgodić, Slavko Kukić and Salih Foča. In the end, instead of the conclusion, we make critical observations of Esad Zgodic's thesis that it is impossible to imagine the construction of a civil society that would function successfully without a strong state with reflections on the state and society of Bosnia and Herzegovina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theme of this paper is Citizen participation in the electoral democracy - election of Municipal council: Case study, Ilidža 2008 and 2012. The starting point for the elaboration of this theme lies in the fact that participation of citizens in the electoral process is a precondition for the constitution of the Municipal council as the representative body of citizens in the local community and the local government. Public policies at a local level are most directly implemented through the Council's work, which is the main purpose and objective for the constitution of the Council. The main subject matter of this paper is the participation of citizens in local elections within the electoral (representative) democracy as the basis of the constitution of the Municipal council, on one side, and ensuring accountability of elected representatives, on the other, with a special emphasis on the Municipality of Ilidža. The participation of citizens in the Ilidža Municipal council's election is seen through comparative analysis of local elections in 2008. and 2012. This paper uses historical method, content analysis (document analysis), comparative method and statistical method. After the completion of theoretical and empirical research, the overall conclusion is that participation of citizens in the election (representative) democracy is a precondition for the constitution of a representative body of the Municipality of Ilidža, since the representative body of the Municipality - the Municipal council rests on democratic free will of the citizens of the Municipality of Ilidža. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to be found in the wish to present the ideas of sameness and equality among the people which are declared in many documents, constitutions, charters, and other religious scriptures, written and unwritten principles, natural and positive law on one hand and their very complicated application on the other hand that characterizes the entire human history, so that human history can be with right seen as the history of human inequality and lack of freedom, of waging a war and usurpation of an essential human right to life. The accent of this paper is set on the relevancy and the role that human rights should play in the process of democratization of one society and the unbreakable bond that exists between the degree of respect for human rights and the level of democracy in the particular community. Also, the need to write about these issues in the region is the reality that stems from the facts that point to decades, or rather a continuing period of violation of fundamental human rights, including the most rigid forms that we thought would never happen again. In addition, we wish to point out in this paper on the importance of education through a variety of educational activities, so we can assume that societies that do not have a traditional feature of the positive attitude towards the phenomenon of democracy and whose history is xenophobic, must truly commit themselves to acceptance of the approach of these ideas, for real, not just in assertive way, for the simple reason that democracy and its values are first felt, then they become the dominant feature of the collective spirit, and then they are manifested through various forms of expression and spirituality. Human rights are taught in the family, in all educational and religious institutions, on the square, on the street, in a football stadium, in parliament, on elections, media and daily intra and interpersonal interaction. Democracy is viewed as a result of conciseness of a particular political community that fosters the value of human rights, so that's the basic principle on which to govern on behalf of the majority. Democracy therefore becomes a dialogue and it is achieved through tolerance that replaces myth mania and all forms of ethnocentrism that precludes any cultural specificity. Politics, in the end, should be understood as the power to regulate relations in society, in the manner of dialectical relationship of the collective consciousness of a community and its spokespeople, politicians representing that consciousness and with various mechanisms they create a desirable impact on the collective opinions on all important issues. For us, the important question is how to improve human rights and how can we contribute that the ideas of universal human values occupy a significant place in the collective consciousness of inhabitants that live in this area? Our view is that politics can play a really important role in the creation of such an enterprise which does not require a lot of sacrifice, but the one sacrifice of rejection of anything that could produce a stereotypical story of others as genuine enemies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the paper is social reconstructionism, which represented the radical wing of the broader Movement for Progressive Education in the United States in the twenties of the twentieth century. Starting from understanding of social reconstructionism as an educational and social program, which presupposes support to socially democratic political economy, cooperative culture, socially-based approach to education, and view of the role and importance of the school in directing the social and political changes, the aim of this paper refers to the examination and evaluation of socially democratic educational reconstructionism practice. The new learning paradigm, which is implied in the socially reconstructionism theory and practice, is also a focus of interest of this paper. Namely, according to social reconstructionism, the basic aim of education is to promote the program of social reforms, resulting in an emphasis on the social role of the school, i.e. the emphasis on the activist role of the school in the implementation of progressive social changes. The teacher's role is not to be a disseminator of information, but an activist of social changes who should actively involve pupils in the research process through open discussions and experiential learning. In that context, the reconstructionism emphasis on providing the experiences in experimentation and reflective research is consistent with the idea on pupils as active constructors of their own knowledge. The way in which social reconstructionism supports democracy is illustrated by concrete possibilities for application of these theoretical positions in practice. From a pedagogical point of view, the most important example of embedding socially reconstructionism ideas into the school curriculum certainly represents a unique curricular experiment conducted by Theodore Brameld in 1944, in a high school in Floodwood (Minnesota, USA). Regardless of many difficulties that have arisen in its implementation, the Floodwood project showed how young people could discuss dimensions of the post-war American society in a democratic way, provide different services to the community, and get educated through the practical activities. In this context, the successes and limitations of the teaching practice framed by ideas of early social reconstructionism could be instructive for advocates of educational reforms which promote social changes through democratic negotiation and action. Despite the fact that social reconstructionism in the first half of the twentieth century has been criticized, which primarily apply to the difficulties related to the application of basic ideas of this perspective in practice, and the lack of explicit educational suggestions, this philosophy of education has encouraged the awareness development on the social dimension of the educational process at schools, facilitating understanding of the impact of the hidden curriculum, and the fact that the knowledge in general implies certain social values. In this context it can be said that in the later periods of the twentieth century, the social reconstructionism continues to evolve within the theory and practice of critical pedagogy with the aim of raising the awareness on the injustices in the world, and the desire and ability to change it. Hence, it seems that the study of the theory and practice of early social reconstructionism is important for understanding how education could be used for the initiation of democratic and emancipation processes. Finally, understanding the tradition of social reconstructionism in relation to its contribution to our understanding of the nature and possibilities of schooling in a democratic society seems to be very useful, since building of socially cohesive civil society requires an education that contributes to the development of abilities and characteristics of active citizens whose actions affect changes of reality both in the local and global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the link between Kant's "Perpetual peace" and the democratic peace paradigm with which contemporary International Relations are being interpreted. In doing so, the monadic and dyadic versions of liberal theory of democratic peace are explained through the institutional-structural and cultural-normative models. The theory of democratic peace is critically analyzed, with emphasis on the causal relationship between the independent variable, the democratic regime, and the dependent variable, peace. Empirical studies of cases in which the crises among democratic states have not resulted in war are also questioned, which brings into doubt the causal logic of the theory itself. In critical thought about the democratic peace theory, special emphasis is placed on the realistic interpretation of causes that are believed to contribute to democratic peace, as well as on the existence of the so-called "democratic war". There exist a number of factors explaining this foreign policy behavior of democracies and their hiding behind the theses of the theory of democratic peace. An example is the position of power that democracy occupies in International Relations, with which, aside from liberal dependent variables, realistic variables must be taken into account as well, such as the concentration of power, economic interdependence and national interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent attempts to show the area of the Western Balkans as a potential conflagration of insurmountable conflicts due to unresolved accounts from the past and as an expression of historical memory that is based on a desire for annihilation of everything that is different, is another form of déjàvuing the truth and an attempt of establishing stereotypes about the impossibility of coexistence in this region. This stereotype has reached proportions of general acceptance due to the lack of rational-critical approach to the problem itself, and completely ignoring the facts that will substantiate our position that this stereotype is not sustainable, it does not correspond with reality, and that is a reflection of nationalist ideologies, primarily Greatserbism, coming from almost all the historical and various professional backgrounds, who according to the established conformist pattern have its duration, are vital, and above all are the fatal acts. The Western Balkans is at least similar to the narrow and broad geographic environment when it comes to conflicts and wars, and concerns that accompany this phenomenon with some spotting of a specificity which does not significantly affect the specificity of the antagonism of Western Balkan, which would depart from the usual animosity which in various forms and times occurred in the rest of Europe. Therefore, in this paper we have started from the premise that the stereotypical story about some kind of primordial and "specific" intolerance is trying to assert itself as the primary attribute on the account of the actual facts that are ignored or pushed to the ground of unimportance and actually mean, a classic example of territorial expansion on superior neighbors at the expense of the weak and an attempt to provide a nationally-sterile areas using all available resources that would help them accomplish these projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]