Ivo Pilar, the theoretician of Croatian modernization

To this day, there has never been a systematic study of the works and life of Dr. Ivo Pilar (1874-1933), theoretician of Croatian modernization, whose name is rightly named after the Institute of Social Sciences in Zagreb, the holder of this project. It was mostly the political and ideological circumstances that made it impossible for the public to know anything about this distinguished and above all versatile Croatian thinker, scientist, writer and public worker after 1945. Our academic public was also silent about him: historians, sociologists, psychologists, literary and legal historians, despite the fact that in all these disciplines I. Pilar was not only a prominent creator, but was among the first (or even the first!) in Croatia. who were seriously engaged in political geography or social psychology. Furthermore, his many years of legal, political and cultural activity in Vienna and Zagreb and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Tuzla) are unknown to experts. Methodologically appropriate research will provide a reliable insight into the most important components (facts, circumstances) about Pilar’s work, life and public activity of I. Pilar, as a prominent theoretician of Croatian modernization and one of the most prominent figures of Croatian public life with a radius of action not only on the territory of the Republic of Croatia but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an influence on events in the greater part of the great Austro-Hungarian monarchy. As such, through theoretical contributions and practical action on the necessary reforms of social and political relations in Croatia and surrounding countries that were part of multinational states (Austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia), he is shown to be an indispensable creator in the broader period that we call (still unfinished) modernization. The proposed systematic research of relevant aspects in the life and work of I. Pilar as a theoretician of Croatian modernization will provide a new picture not only of the high intellectual potential but also of the achievements (theoretical and practical) of this prominent representative of his generation, and thus an insight into the activities of his entire generation and the time in which he lived, thus a different and certainly more accurate picture of Croatian conditions and circumstances in which the Croatian people lived in the last period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and in the first Yugoslav state. The results of these researches will be presented in an appropriate way not only to our and the world’s scientific community, but also to a wider intellectual circle and educated contemporaries.