ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on five areas: the demographic preconditions and historical background to the conflict, the genesis and dynamics of full-scale inter-ethnic war; the changing constitutional and legal framework for Serb minority status and representation. It also includes the nature and forms of Serb political organization and the prospects for normalization and inclusion of Serbs into Croatian political life. Agitated by the deepening conflict within the leadership of the Yugoslav federation and threatened by nationalist political rhetoric during the electoral campaign, most Serbs in Croatia supported the political bloc of the old regime, the Communists and their allies. The development of constitutional and legal instruments defining the rights of the Serb minority in Croatia has followed the general dynamics of the Serb-Croatian conflict. The Constitutional Law included a wide range of special provisions for Serb minority rights which amounted to an assurance of extensive political autonomy.
