The Elements of Culture of Peace in some Multiethnic Communities in Croatia

Abstract

Peace is mainly a micro-social phenomenon. The concept of a culture of peace, as well as the concept of liberal peace, is designed for studying peace on nation-state level and internationally. In the first part of this paper micro-social foundations of peace are discussed, primarily to explain why the rising participation of women in parliaments is correlated with a decrease in collective violence in societies. In the second part of the paper, De Rivera’s analytical concept of the culture of peace is adapted for the sake of studying peace at a local level, i.e. Croat-Serb ‘peace enclaves’ in the 1990s, and comparing them with Croat-Serb conflict areas. The empirical findings confirm the relevance of the concept of culture of peace. The most important link between micro-peace and macro-peace is recognised in trends towards gender equality and non-dominance over weak, respectively, which are stronger in the peace than the conflict areas. Such results fit a pluralist approach to culture, which maintains that some non- or pre-liberal communities may also preserve peace as their prominent value.