POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE AND THE THEORY OF RECOGNITION: MODERN STRUGGLES FOR RECOGNITION OF THE CROATIAN PEOPLE

Political Philosophy has been analysing various political scenarios and governments for centuries. It is therefore very surprising that contemporary political philosophy has not contributed much to the analysis of the social experiences of the Croatian people during the war and events leading up to the war from 1990 to 1995 compared to other sciences. This research thus envisions to use the philosophical theory of recognition (and reification) to fulfil the extremely difficult task of analysing the social experiences and struggles for recognition of the Croatian people from the Habsburg monarchy until the end of the war of the Former Yugoslavia. As recognition as a concept was elaborated by various philosophers, this research presents different concepts of recognition developed by Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel, and Taylor while focusing on the recognition theory conceptualised by Honneth. This allows for the reconstruction of the evolution of the theory of recognition and the presentation of the interconnectedness of these different interpretations. Through the presentations of the different interpretations and the subsequent arguments and illustrations demonstrating their inadequacies to grasp the complex social experiences of the Croatian people throughout the different time periods, only Honneth’s theory of recognition can ultimately be used to capture and contextualise all the different forms of disrespect the Croatian people faced as well as the struggles for social appreciation of the Croatian culture and language and legal recognition of their right of political participation followed as a result of the deeply felt psychological consequences of the endured long-term disrespects. The extremely violent war of the Former Yugoslavia, however, falls out of what recognition theory can offer. This is where Honneth’s interpretation of Lukács reification theory comes to the fore. Using Honneth’s interpretation of reification, the different social experiences of the Croatian people during the war on the Croatian territory (1990-1992) and the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995) are analysed and examined through the three forms of reification namely intersubjective reification of people, objective reification of their environment and self-reification of the perpetrators. As the relations between the Serbian and Croatian population of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina remain rather tense to this day, this research also adopts Honneth’s conditions for peace and reconciliation between two states. While taking into account the valuable and important attempts of peace and reconciliation in the region, this research tries to offer an additional path of reconciliation between the Serbian and Croatian state and people in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A future joint research between representatives of the nations part of the Former Yugoslavia would allow for an objectification of the existentially subjective experiences of all the different nations and subsequently also offer a new path of reconciliation in the region.