STARČEVIĆ, ANTE. — Croatian politician, born on 23 May 1823 at Žitnik (Lika), died at Zagreb on 28 February 1896.
From 1845 to 1848 he studied theology at Budapest, where he graduated in philosophy. After leaving the Seminary, he became for some time secretary of the Provincial Council of Fiume. He was imprisoned several times, as in 1871, after the unsuccessful revolt against Austria for the independence of Croatia, led by his principal political collaborator Eugenio Kvaternik. From 1861 to 1871 and from 1878 to 1896 he was a deputy in the Croatian Parliament (Sabor).
A man of modest habits and endowed with uncommon learning, S. also gave his political activity a distinctly intellectual character, particularly emphasizing its ethical principles. Thus he called his party (1861) the “Party of Rights,” making the historical right of the Croatian State its political foundation and principal weapon, and personal union with Austria and Hungary in common affairs, together with Croatian national and state independence, its programme. Oriented toward the Napoleonic idea of liberty and the national principle, S. profoundly influenced Croatian national life, above all through his tenacious defence of the national name against every form of substitution (Illyrian, Yugoslav) that would have compromised the existence and future of the Croatian people. With regard to religion, he was not free from rationalistic tendencies, but Catholicism always appeared to him as the one true and authentic form of Christianity. An original stylist, he was responsible for various political and literary writings.