Concept and Practice of Citizenship among Croatian Secondary Schools Students

The essay describes the study of the evolution of the sense (understanding) and the practice (activities, participation) of citizenship among Croatian secondary school students (the first new generation of full-age citizens). The study was conducted in line with the similar models in relevant international studies, which enabled a comparative analysis. The analysis of the concept of citizenship was followed by a comparative analysis of the development and the distribution of the sense of citizenship and the measures of the practice of citizenship among Croatian secondary school students. A number of indicators of the sense of citizenship (civic identity, the model and the type of citizenship, the concept of a “good citizen”, and the concept of the rights and duties of citizens in democracy), and several measures of the practice of citizenship (interest in politics, discussing politics, following news in the media, the anticipated conventional and protest political engagement, political tolerance) have been used. The comparative analysis has shown that the Croatian students are in some aspect of citizenship at the level of the students in many of the compared countries, but that in others there are significant differences. For example, their level of interest in politics is significantly lower. The analysis has shown that there is a high sense of the rights, but a relatively low sense of the duties. Perhaps this discrepancy between the sense of the rights and the sense of the duties is the main problem in the development of the political culture of Croatian students and citizens. The anticipated conventional and protest participation of the Croatian students is significantly lower than among the students from the other countries. The research also shows that among the Croatian students (this has been noticed in the other countries as well) there is a significant discrepancy between, for example, the sense of the rights and the duties of citizens in democracy and the level of political tolerance: the high sense of one’s rights (freedom of speech, association, etc.) coexists with a relatively low level of tolerance. Thus, it can be said that various inconsistencies tag and “burden” the development of citizenship among Croatian secondary school students