Tonči Kursar

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 Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 191                                                                                                                                               Book reviews                                                                Book review                                 Jere Jareb  Pola stolje}a hrvatske politike 1895. — 1945. (Half Century of Croatian Politics 1895 — 1945)  Institute for Contemporary History, Zagreb, 1995, 180 pages   The book by a Croatian émigré historian Jere Jareb was first published in 1960 in Buenos Aires. The first edi-tion achieved an almost cult status but was unavailable to the largest part of the Croatian public. That is the ration-ale for its reedition, this time in Croa-tia. Jareb's book's subtitle “On the oc-casion of Ma~ek's autobiography” might give an impression that it deals with critical reactions to, at that time re-cently published autobiography of the leading Croatian politician of the 1930s, Vladko Ma~ek. The autobiography was published in English under the title In the Struggle for Freedom.  Jareb considers it a valuable contri-bution to the elucidation of the Croa-tian question to English-speaking read-ers. In his evaluation of Ma~ek's book, Jareb goes beyond pure criticism of Ma~ek's factual inaccuracies. Not only does he analyse certain dubious asser-tions by means of various available sources, but the results of that proce-dure are synthesised with the aim of making a comprehensive review of basic developments in the Croatian politics in the first half of the 20th century.  In order to realise this task, how-ever, free access to the historical ar-chives as well as to the memoirs of the political protagonists of that era is of utmost importance. Jareb had no such access at the time when he was writing his book. Unfortunately, in that respect, the situation today is similar because “the archives and the documents of the vanquished state (Independent State of Croatia - NDH) received a barbaric treatment”. (p. 1).  Today, the historical documents of that state are on the list of claims of the government of the Republic of Croatia in the process of succession of the states on the territory of the for-mer Yugoslavia. Despite these momen-tous flaws, Half Century of Croatian Politics is so far the only exhaustive study which deals with the analysis of key political concepts of “Croatian poli-tics in the period between 1895 and 1945” (p. 139).  The book is divided into several chapters of various length. The most voluminous are: Croatian politics from 1919 to 1928; Croatian politics from 1929 to 1941; Croatian politics from 1941 to 1945. There are a number of smaller chapters, ex. Croatian politics from 1895 to 1918 and April 10th, 1941, as well as a rather extensive bib-liography which includes, among other things, valuable contributions of the Croatian political emigration to this subject-matter. The Croatian edition of the book includes the author's fore-word, written in 1991.  Jareb's starting-point assumptions are the sovereignty of the Croatian state as the indisputable goal of any Croatian politics at that time and the claim that “Yugoslavism was the biggest Croatian political folly of the 20th century” (p. V).  Jareb assesses all major political protagonists according to their attitude  Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 192                                                                                                                                               towards these basic assumptions. His analysis is based on these premises be-cause of the existence of two different national and integrational ideologies in Croatian politics, which date back to the second half of the 19th century.  The first of them is the Croatian-Yugoslavist ideology, founded on the “fiction of the national unity of Croats, Serbs and Slovenes”, which insisted on a common state which would be the best safeguard of Croatian political in-terests” (p. 38). The author shows how this ideology was dominant at the time of the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. At that time, the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), the major Croatian political party with the aim of establishing a federal state, the policy which ran counter to the interests of the king and Serbian parties which advocated the preservation of the existing unitary state.   The assassination of Stjepan Radi} in 1928 marked the beginning of a new era in the political life of Yugoslavia between the wars. That period wit-nessed the affirmation of the other Croatian national-integrational ideology, that of the Croatian state right, founded on uncompromising efforts aimed at attaining an independent Croatian state.  Jareb sees the reasons for this dra-matic ideological turn of the screw in:  1) “the emergence of a new Croa-tian revolutionary youth” of different social composition with the positive platform of restoring the independent Croatian state to life;  2) the creation of revolutionary Croatian emigration, which had (since 1930) “rallied under the Ustasha banner and the leadership of Ante Paveli}” (p. 40).  Thus, the new generations were shaped by antagonism against Yugosla-via and from their ranks came recruits for secret organizations that practised terrorist methods. However, after the introduction of dictatorship in 1929, the activities of the emigration forked: Ante Paveli}'s Ustashas embraced terrorism while the organizations of HSS adopted more moderate and pacifist methods.  In his analysis of people and events in the 1930s, Jareb is particularly criti-cal of Vladko Ma~ek, who took over the leadership of HSS after the death of Stjepan Radi}. The latter is depicted in positive light, primarily because he was the first Croatian politician who at the beginning of the twentieth century recognized the political clout of Croa-tian peasantry.   By means of this mobilization of peasants, who made up the vast major-ity of Croatian population, Radi} politi-cally shaped the Croatian nation (for further details, see an essay by a Croa-tian political scientist of a younger generation, Tihomir Cipek, “Ideja selja{tva u politi~koj misli Stjepana Radi}a” /”The Concept of Peasantry in the Political Thought of Stjepan Radi}”/, in Dru{tvena istra`ivanja, vol. 4, no. 2-3, 1995).  According to Jareb, Ma~ek, the new leader of HSS, did not heed the opin-ion of the Croatian people, who fer-vently strove after their own and inde-pendent state. The author thinks that the causes for this are in the fact that Ma~ek was “born and raised in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy” (p. 81) and he could not renounce the federal-ist concept which had been championed by the Croatian parties prior to the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918.  Besides, Ma~ek does not “distinguish between Croatia of the 1920s and Croatia of the 1930s” (p. 43). To cor-roborate his assessment, Jareb cites Ma~ek's falling out with Croatian na-tionalists since they “fought for an in-dependent Croatian state without Yugo-slavia” while “Ma~ek did not believe in  Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 193                                                                                                                                               the viability of such solution; for him, the solution lay within the Yugoslav framework” (p. 58).  After parting ways with the nation-alists, the next disappointing step (according to Jareb) was the Cvetkovi}-Ma~ek agreement, which served to es-tablish a separate administrative unit - Banovina Hrvatska - the first more sig-nificant alteration in the structure of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Particularly problematic was the territorial division of Bosnia, which was de facto divided between Banovina Hrvatska and Serbia. Contrary to Ma~ek, Jareb says that Croatia had to accept the option of their “Muslim compatriots and propose to Belgrade the creation of two banovi-nas: Banovina Hrvatska and Banovina Bosna i Hercegovina” (p. 69).   Shortly after this, Ma~ek joins the government of general Simovi}, who came into power by a coup d'etat at the end of March of 1941. Ma~ek took part in this government solely for the reasons of foreign politics, since HSS did not want to “side with Germany, since he believed in the victory of western democracies” (p. 75). On the basis of Vladko Ma~ek's political activ-ity in the 1930s, Jareb labels him as a “Yugoslavian federalist” who wants to solve “the Croatian question within Yugoslavia” (p. 78).   The episode in April 1941, when Germany offered Ma~ek the post of the chief executive in NDH, highlights his point. Ma~ek's refusal marked the ter-mination of his political activity in Croatia and HSS ceased functioning as a united front.   The stage was set for another po-litical protagonist - the Ustasha move-ment. In his analysis of the ustasha rule from 1941 until 1945, Jareb lists two fateful ustasha deficiencies. The first and, according to the author, the most important was their domestic pol-icy, particularly their attitude towards the Serbian population, “fatal for civil peace and the survival of the state” (p. 89). There is no doubt that in Croatia of 1941, “an extremist totalitarian sys-tem was introduced” (p. 92).  The Roman treaties were another remarkable misstep, since they settled the borders between Italy and Croatia so that the most important portions of the Dalmatian coast were ceded to It-aly. Due to these critical political de-velopments, a vigorous partisan move-ment sprung into being under the lead-ership of communists who wanted to restore a federal Yugoslavia but under their rule.  The communists, following the dis-armament of the army of NDH in May of 1945, seized power on the entire Croatian territory and re-established Yugoslavia. Though the communists championed federal system, the position of Croats did not change significantly; they were “oppressed and exploited just like in the kingdom of Yugoslavia” (p. 128).  Jareb, though markedly critical to-wards all Croatian political elites - communist, HSS or ustasha - considers Vladko Ma~ek, hypothetically, an ideal president for a republic, but in untrou-bled times. In turbulent times in which he worked, he tried his best and did not succeed, but his “failure is a part of the Croatian historical experience and tragedy” (p. 138).  Jareb's concluding passages are highly conciliatory. He thinks that Croatian politicians “should try to seize any opportunity to liberate the Croatian people” (p. 130). This Jareb's statement should be taken with a grain of salt, the same as with another statement of his, that “the Croatian people had to use the attack of the Axis forces on Yugoslavia and declare their independ-ence” (p. 99). This statement complies with the ethics of duty which Max We-ber, in his famous essay “Politics as vo-cation” ties with the assertion: I have to do it, no matter what might happen.  Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 194                                                                                                                                               Political deeds guided by this logic are heedless of the consequences. An ethi-cally good end might be ruined by an ethically precarious means, which was the case of the NDH, a nazi Ger-many's pawn.   The basic quality of Jareb's study is the juxtaposition of all major political postulates and movements regarding Croatia's independence. Unfortunately, after his book, such attempts have been very rare or could not meet the stan-dards of historical or political science. The fact that today Croatia is a sover-eign state might encourage the future researchers to follow the course of thought outlined by Jareb in this valu-able and worthwhile study.  Ton~i Kursar                                Book review                                 Luka Brki}  Teorije me|unarodne ekonomske integracije (International Economic Integration Theories)  Gordon, Zagreb, 1995   The contemporary global political economy was not built on a single theoretical and methodological approach. Rather, it might be said that it repre-sents a collection of tendencies, theories and methods. The confirmation of that unequivocal postulate by James Capo-raso, stated at the beginning of his re-view of the international political econ-omy (published in the book: Ada W. Finifter, ed., Political Science: The State of the Discipline, Washington, 1993), is to be found in the book reviewed here. The author states this in the foreword: “This book is an attempt to highlight the heterogeneity of the contemporary economic thought regarding the issues of international economic integrations, both from the viewpoint of the funda-mental theoretical orientation and the problem it investigates” (p. II). Speak-ing about one of the aspects of inter-national political economy - the theories of economic integration - the author is aware that it is not possible to isolate a concept which would unequivocally represent the mainstream of this scien-tific field.  The book Teorije me|unarodne ekonomske integracije is the first by Luka Brki}. This Zagreb political scien-tist and economist has been studying international economy for many years. He majored in political sciences and economics, and did postgraduate studies on international relations at the Univer-sity of Mainz; all of this has provided him with the analytical instruments in-dispensable for unravelling the Gordian knot of international economic relation-ships. Integrations are but one of their aspects, but it does not mean that the book is narrow in its scope.   As Brki}’s mentor and the founding father of international political economy in Croatia, professor Vlatko Mileta has often reiterated, it is best to analyze the plethora of different concepts in this field by their subject-matter (theories of international trade, balance of payments, international labour divi-sion, industrial development, integration, etc.). By sticking to such approach, the author has narrowed his interest to economic integrations, mostly using the methods of economic analysis as well as the methods of positive descriptions of the integrational processes.   The book is divided into four parts: 1. Theoretical models of international economic integration; 2. Contributions of major authors to the theory of in-ternational economic integration; 3. Quantitative evaluations of the effects of EU on international trade; 4. Reca-pitulation of the evolution of the theory of international economic integration.   Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 195                                                                                                                                                Although the expression “integra-tion” was used by F. Oppenheimer as far back as 1910, this concept is rather novel in literature on international eco-nomic relations - it has been around since 1950s. Since then, however, it has become an unavoidable concept of pre-sent-day communication, due to the boom in international economic rela-tions following World War II, when national economies began joining into bigger units. It became clear that on the existing level of the division of la-bour, the exclusive reliance on foreign trade and international capital flow cannot provide sufficient base for a long-term economic development.   The book begins with a review of classic integration theories. Brki} right-fully concludes that their roots can be found in the customs union theory. Apart from static effects of customs union, such as the changes in the size of production, consumption and trade relations, the dynamic aspects of such type of integration are described as well. These effects are the results of the research of the relationship between the size of a market and the industrial specialization and the effects on invest-ments and balance of payment.  The second chapter deals with more recent theories of integration. They are not limited to the liberalization of in-ternational trade and the problem of tariffs. The champions of contemporary theories speak of industrial, monetary and fiscal integrations, which means that they take into account the need for bringing into line national economic policies. Within this approach, the im-plications of integrations are explored, not only on national economies on the whole, but on individual industrial sec-tors, types of products and economic protagonists.  Following a review of the theoretical models of international economic inte-gration, the author describes the contri-butions of five classics: Jacob Viner, James E. Mead, Richard G. Lipsey, Ti-bor Scitovski, and Bela Balassa. The basic assumptions of these economists are monographically analyzed, which makes for a sort of a compendium about the origins of the theory of in-ternational economic integration, very useful as an introduction for economic nonspecialists.   It should be mentioned that despite very precise analytical instruments there are a number of restrictions to the ex-isting integration theories. This particu-larly applies to their suitability for the conditions in undeveloped countries and their stagnant economies. These restric-tions are dealt with in the third chap-ter.  The third part is devoted to the European Union. This part is divided into two chapters. The first deals with the emergence of the idea of Eu-ropeism and its implementation. The author reminds us of the initiatives af-ter World War II which marked the beginning of European integrations, which culminated in the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957. The author then goes on to list the basic processes and dilemmas that accompanied European unification.  The next chapter deals with the empirical studies of quantitative effects of the integration on the third coun-tries. That part is particularly valuable since it can serve as a base for the evaluation of possible costs and benefits from Croatia's membership in EU.   The last part of the book contains the recapitulation of the evolution of the theory of international economic integration. Brki} classifies various groups of authors into two major groups: liberalists and institutionalists. For the former, the integration is nothing more than the integration of markets, made possible by the disap-pearance of national borders and the creation of a bigger common market. The advocates of the institutionalist concept, however, think that the most  Book reviews, Politi~ka misao, Vol. XXXIII, (1996), No. 5, pp. 191—196 196                                                                                                                                               desirable structure of international economy is the one which is the result of economic policy. A market can be expanded not through liberalization but through programming.  I believe that Luka Brki}'s book will become imperative reading for all those interested in the issue of eco-nomic integrations. Its particular value is in the fact that it depicts quantitative effects of the process of integration based on the highly precise language of economic analysis.  Zdravko Petak 

Jere Jareb: Pola stoljeća hrvatske politike 1895. — 1945. (Half Century of Croatian Politics 1895 — 1945)

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