Patriotism Types and Strength of Croatian National Identity

The first aim of this study is to explore the multidimensionality of Croatian national identity specifically the distinction between critical and uncritical patriotism, and their relationships with strength of national identity. The second aim of the study is to explore multivariate relationships between two types of patriotism with sociodemographic characteristics, religiosity, political orientation, importance of personal and social identity, and war traumas. The analyzed data were collected in May 2008 by survey on a national representative sample of Croatian citizens (N=11000). Principal components analyses confirmed the distinction between critical and uncritical patriotism, as relatively independent dimensions which are both significantly correlated with strength of national identity. Multivariate analyses confirmed the distinction between critical and uncritical patriotism with regard to possible determinants. The relatively most important determinant of critical patriotism is the importance of personal identity. In contrast, important predictors of uncritical patriotism are political orientation, religiosity importance of social identity and ethnicity. With regard to its determinants, uncritical patriotism is similar to strength of national identity which can also be predicted from the importance of social identity, ethnicity and political orientation.