IDENTITY, LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE ON THE EXAMPLE OF CROATIAN NATIONAL MINORlTY IN HUNGARY SUMMARY

Today <II most <Ill states of the international community have minority problems, Technological transformation has estilblished selecLive developmental Integration as the dominant form of international relations and world development. Selective integration is founded Oil the belief that inequality. disharmony ~lf1ddisparity arc the basie lJIcenlives of developmellt. COlllmullities that cannot selectively lntegrate !Ilto global developmental processes like minority communities throughout the world remain marginali7.ed and arc ill practice excluded from the development process, They are confined to tire dynamics of internal development, which is so out of harmony with dominant global dynamics that they ;He condemned to stagnation or deterioration, Thc prospects of ethnic or national minorities depend most of all on overall <:ommunication processes in tire oo<:icl)' they belong to (educational system, cenLral <:ulLural in~titutions, the !!lass media), The~e processes help or hinder the selective integration of a minority into the prevailing social sy:;tcill. The last decadco of the twcntieth <:entury have witnessed a strong revival of ethnic movelllconts worldwide, This phenomenon has a SOCL~[ (collective) and individual level. both 01 which arc conditioned by so-called global factors either In a wider or a more limited context (regional. European. world). There arc many rea,;ons for ethnic revival. and the special features of every community decide which of a chain of factor:; are more or lcos important. In former socialist coulltries of Enst Europe ethnicit)' WilS regarded as unimportant, It was considered th<lt as cl,lsses di5~ppear so. too. will ethnic differences, and a $ocialisL nation wdl emerge cleansed of both the local and the individual. In western cOl.lntries it ,vas considered that the rise of the modern nation state would eliminate the need for ethnic identity and grollping on an ethnic basis, Whnt happe~ed, however, was (h~t in 8o<:ialist countries nationalism and ethnic conflict appeared as a reaction and opposition to totalitarianism. and in the function of solving IIlternal tensions. Sociahsill has no mechanisms for peacefully resolVing internal tension but Llses pressure IIIstead. As the Institutions of centrill power we~kcned, nationalism tlarcd. Simliarly, the Sirengtilenillg 01' the sl;ile ,lIld Lhc sprcad oj" capitalism generates ~nd deepens ethnic conflict. Ethnic, political and economic relatiolls arc IIltercolinected ~nd every specific