France Bučar
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France Bučar (2 February 1923 – 21 October 2015) was a Slovenian politician, legal expert and author. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as the first speaker of the freely elected Slovenian Parliament. He was the one to formally declare the independence of Slovenia on 25 June 1991. He is considered one of the founding fathers of Slovenian democracy and independence. He is also considered, together with
Peter Jambrek Peter Jambrek (born 14 January 1940) is a Slovenian sociologist, jurist, politician and intellectual. He is considered among the fathers of the current Slovenian Constitution and among the most influential public intellectuals in Slovenia. Li ...
, the main author of the current Slovenian constitution.


Biography

Bučar was born in the small Upper Carniolan town of
Bohinjska Bistrica Bohinjska Bistrica (; german: Wocheiner Feistritz) is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Municipality of Bohinj, in the Upper Carniola region of northwestern Slovenia. Geography The settlement lies in the Julian Alps southwe ...
in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, now in Slovenia. After graduating from the
St. Stanislaus Institute St. Stanislaus Institute, also known as St. Stanislaus Orphanage and Holy Child Church, is a historic former Catholic Church, Roman Catholic orphanage complex located at 141 Old Newport Street in Newport Township, Pennsylvania, Newport Township, ...
in Šentvid near Ljubljana, he enrolled in the University of Ljubljana, where he studied law. After the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
, Bučar joined the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People. In May 1942, he was arrested by the Italian Fascist authorities and sent to the Gonars concentration camp. After the Italian armistice, he returned home, but was arrested by the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. In July 1944, he escaped and joined the
Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
resistance in southern
Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
. In 1944, he joined the Communist Party of Slovenia, after a guarantee that he could keep his Roman Catholic religious affiliation. In May 1945, he was in the military unit that liberated Klagenfurt. After the end of the war, Bučar was included in the Slovenian division of the Corps of National Defence (later renamed to
OZNA The Department for People's Protection or OZNA ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Одељење за заштиту нaрода, Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda, Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda; mk, Одделение за заштита на народот; sl, Oddele ...
), a Yugoslav military counter-intelligence service. He was demobilized in 1946. In 1947 he graduated from law at the University of Ljubljana. Between 1947 and 1956, he worked as an expert on economic law in the government of the
Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...
. In 1956, he obtained his PhD at the University of Zagreb and moved to
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, where he worked as a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Commerce for one year. In 1957, he became a legal consultant of the Republic Assembly (State Parliament) of Slovenia. In 1959, he travelled to the United States as an Eisenhower Exchange Fellow, studying for ten months at the University of Philadelphia. In 1962, he started teaching public administration at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana. During this period, Bučar started openly voicing his criticism to certain features of the Yugoslav
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
system, especially the excessive
centralism Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
and the not entirely successful economic integration of the different regions of Yugoslavia. In 1963, he was excluded from the Communist Party. He continued teaching at the university, where he grew increasingly popular among students; in an environment that was skeptical to non-
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
social theories, Bučar expanded the curriculum by introducing
system theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
and the thought of
Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
. Unlike other prominent faculty, Bučar assumed a skeptical attitude towards the student movement in the years 1968–1972. After 1968, he published numerous articles criticizing the establishment of large business systems in Yugoslavia, the frequent changes in the legal framework and the lack of clear responsibilities in decision-making processes. In 1976, he was fired from the university and was not allowed to publish anything for five years. In the 1980s, he started collaborating with the alternative journal '' Nova revija''. In early 1988, he was invited to speak at the European Parliament; he caused a scandal in Yugoslavia by proposing to block all economic aid to the socialist countries of Eastern Europe in order to force them to adopt economic and political reform. In 1989, he was among the co-founders of the
Slovenian Democratic Union The Slovenian Democratic Union ( sl, Slovenska demokratična zveza, acronym SDZ) was a Slovene liberal political party, active between 1989 and 1991, during the democratization and the secession of the Republic of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. His ...
, one of the first opposition parties to the Communist regime in Slovenia. After the victory of the DEMOS coalition in the first free elections in Slovenia in 1990, Bučar was elected as the Chairman of the
Slovenian National Assembly The National Assembly ( sl, Državni zbor Republike Slovenije, or ), is the representative democracy, general representative body of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slovenia and the Constitutional Court of Slovenia, it is the major p ...
. As the speaker of the Parliament and member of the Constitution Committee, Bučar had a crucial role in the adoption of the new Slovenian constitution. During this period, Bučar insisted on providing a sound legal basis for Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia, and rejected all voluntaristic political actions, gaining a label of
legalist Legalist, Inc. is an investment firm that specializes in alternative assets in the private credit industry. Today the firm manages approximately $750 million across three separate strategies: litigation finance, bankruptcy (debtor-in-possession or ...
. After the split in the Slovenian Democratic Union, Bučar joined the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
led by Dimitrij Rupel. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in 1992 and became the chairman of the Committee for the Control over the Secret Service. In 1993, he left the party, remaining an independent MP until the elections of 1996. In 1996, he unsuccessfully ran as mayor of Ljubljana backed by a coalition of centre-right parties. In 2002, he unsuccessfully ran for President of Slovenia as an independent candidate. Until May 2012, he was the president of the
International Paneuropean Union The International Paneuropean Union, also referred to as the Pan-European Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement, is the oldest European unification movement. It began with the publishing of Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's manifesto ''P ...
for Slovenia. In June 2012, Bučar stated in an interview for the magazine Mladina that the democracy in Slovenia was very weak, with the power concentrated in the hands of a few people, as in the time of the
Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...
before 1991, and that the Parliament was only a formal institution. Bučar lived in Ljubljana. Besides Slovene, he was fluent in German, English, and Serbo-Croatian. He died on 21 October 2015 at the age of 92.


Major works

*''Naš bodoči razvoj'' (Our Future Development; Ljubljana, 1961) *''Pot napredka'' (The Path of Progress; Ljubljana, 1961) *''Kakšen gospodarski sistem?'' (What Kind of Economic System? Ljubljana, 1963) *''Podjetje in družba'' (Business and Society; Ljubljana, 1972) *''Upravljanje'' (Administration; Ljubljana, 1981) *''Resničnost in utvara'' (Reality and Illusion; Maribor, 1986) *''Usodne odločitve'' (Fatal Decisions; Ljubljana, 1988) *''Prehod čez Rdeče morje'' (Crossing the Red Sea; Ljubljana, 1993) *''Ujetniki preteklosti'' (Prisoners of the Past; Ljubljana, 1995) *''Slovenija in evropski izzivi'' (Slovenia and the European Challenges; Ljubljana, 1996) *''Demokracija in kriza naših ustavnih inštitucij'' (Democracy and the Crisis of Our Constitutional Institutions; Ljubljana, 1998) *''Porušena harmonija sveta'' (The Destroyed Harmony of the World; Dob pri Domžalah, 2003) *''Na novih razpotjih'' (At New Crossroads; Celje, 2006) *''Rojstvo države'' (Birth of a Nation; Radovljica, 2007) *''Slovenci in prihodnost'' (The Slovenians and the Future; Radovljica, 2009) *''Temelji naše državnosti'' (Foundations of Our Statehood; Ljubljana, 2012)


See also

* Jože Pučnik * Contributions to the Slovenian National Program *
Breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
*
2002 Slovenian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Slovenia in 2002. The first round was held on 10 November, with a run-off held on 1 December after no candidate passed the 50% threshold in the first round. The result was a victory for Janez Drnovšek, who won ...


References


External links


Interview on the Slovenian TV
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bucar, France Slovenian Democratic Union politicians Presidents of the National Assembly (Slovenia) Lawyers from Ljubljana Yugoslav Partisans members University of Ljubljana alumni Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb alumni Thomas Jefferson University alumni Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana Slovenian Roman Catholics Politicians from Ljubljana League of Communists of Slovenia politicians 1923 births 2015 deaths Slovenian Spring Ethnic Slovene people Democratic Party of Slovenia politicians People from the Municipality of Bohinj Yugoslav lawyers