Minority Cultural Autonomy in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia: A Real Opportunity for Cultural Survival or a Right Void of Substance?

Abstract

The minority cultural autonomy model, as firstly theorized by the eminent Austro Marxists Karl Renner and Otto Bauer, is said to guarantee, if properly implemented, minority protection and state stability. For a variety of reasons this model is clearly overrepresented in the region of the former “Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia”, mostly in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. Its effectiveness, however, in minority protection in the area is under question. In some cases the right to self-proclamation in order to be registered in minority electoral catalogues is compromised (Slovenia <italic>e. g.</italic>) or partly violated (Serbia <italic>e. g.</italic>), in others the minority councils merely have a decorative ‘advisory’ role (Croatia, <italic>e. g.</italic>) and enjoy but an insufficient legitimacy due to their partial indirect election (Serbia <italic>e. g.</italic>), while in all cases they have no legislative or taxing powers and enjoy inadequate state funding. In such circumstances, if the model is to make any significant contribution to minority protection it has to be improved in the direction the Austro-Marxists proposed and the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has recently opined. Otherwise, it would be better to abandon the term as an analytical tool since in its present forms it offers autonomy only by euphemism, serving more as a state strategy for minority patronage than as an effective device for minority protection.