Zagreb, (IKA) — Under the organization of the Center for the Promotion of the Social Doctrine of the Church of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Goethe Institute in Zagreb, on Friday, September 26, a conference was held on ethics in politics, with particular attention to political education in Germany, ethics in politics, training for politics, the ethics of institutions and the concept of responsibility, training for democracy, political elites in countries in transition and the question of how to get a good government. Dr. Stjepan Baloban, the head of the Center for the Promotion of the Social Doctrine of the Church, spoke on ethics in politics and training for politics, explaining first of all that every discussion of politics invariably encounters questions on ethics and morals, i.e. the immoral behavior in politics, and the problem is that genuine discussions on this subject are conducted at such a high theoretical level that the general public cannot understand them. Speaking about the Croatian situation, he noted that after the democratic changes of 1990, there was talk of unethical and criminal behavior in the transformation and privatization processes, which was consciously and even more so unconsciously politicized. Dr. Baloban told the conference participants that insofar as transitional Croatia, burdened by a communist legacy, wants to develop in a democratic manner, it must confront the topics of ethics in politics and training for politics. Since Croatia is part of the circle of Central European and Mediterranean countries, he proposed that the experiences of these countries could help. According to Dr. Baloban, political ethics require consideration of the moral foundations of politics, permissible means and desirable behavior by people in politics. Furthermore, he said that people in politics can be inspired by religious values and that genuine faith cannot be an obstacle for the successful political leadership and personal success of politicians. He added that in public and political life it is not permitted to confuse moral behavior with religious behavior. He warned that today in the world there is the opinion that morality is foreign to a politician and that a religious person is a poor politician. Speaking about politics as an integral part of human activity, which as such is important to every person, Dr. Baloban clarified the difference between politics in the broad sense of the word, such as the politics of culture, and in the narrow sense, such as political practice. He pointed out that the majority of our contemporaries consider politics to be exclusively practice, equating it with the specific politics of a given country in the world and with individual politicians.
Speaking about the Croatian society that is burdened with the mentality of the communist and totalitarian system, Dr. Baloban warned that the Croatian citizens are ambivalent regarding public life because from one side, they have fairly high demands regarding how public life should look, and from the other side, they are not prepared to become engaged in order to achieve such a public life. In Dr. Baloban’s opinion, for the political competency of politicians, civil and political training are necessary, and in transitional countries it is necessary to organize education and training for political activity. He also noted the important role of the media, pointing out that without suitable media it is impossible to influence the development of the civil society, particularly ethics in politics.
The head of the Department of Education of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Helmuth Stock, spoke about the political education of adults in Germany, which in his opinion, is crucial for the maintenance and development of democracy. Political education, Stock pointed out, must outgrow the helpless expressions of opinions. Dr. Zvonko Posavec, a professor at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, presented three models of the relationship between ethics and politics. According to one, politics must act within the framework of certain ethical norms; according to the second, everything is permitted in politics if the goal is achieved, and according to the third, politics should fortify and renew the world.
At the beginning of the conference, the participants were greeted by Hans Friedrich Freiherr von Solemacher of the Hanns Seidel Foundation; Dr. Gebhardt Weiss, the German ambassador to Croatia, Dr. Baloban and Dr. Ante Simonić, Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia.