REGIONALNE POLITIČKE STRANKE
REGIONAL POLITICAL PARTIES

Summary/Abstract: Based on the Beyme classification of "party families", the author discusses the concept of the "regional political party". On the one hand, the question arises whether one can speak of parties if they in advance renounce the possibility of gaining power on a national level, while on the other hand, this in advance accepted partial quality is precisely the reason for calling this party group a "party". The author accepts Beyme's interpretation about the genesis of regional parties: they appeared as an act of opposition to the tendencies of centralization. Autonomy is one of the basic concepts of regionalism, and it has brought many regional parties closer towards liberal paradigms. In the second chapter of the text the author indicates the essential difference between parties representing territorial autonomy and those which add to it a strong ethnical dimension. Parties can become regional due to their original intent, or via facti, as a result of elections. In the third part of the text, the author analyzes the attitude towards regionalism in the 1990 elections for parliament. The central issue of these elections was defining Croatia's status: between a region in Yugoslavia and an independent state.

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