THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF CROATIA (1990-2000) AND POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF CROATIA (1990-2000) AND POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES

Author(s): Smiljana Leinert Novosel
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Governance, Government/Political systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: democratic transition; political system; parliamentarism; semi-presidentialism; party system; electoral politics; post-war democratization
Summary/Abstract: Central and Eastern Europe’s transition to democracy has opened the gate for the globalization of this part of Europe. Fifty-year old ideological and political barriers between the West and the countries behind the iron curtain have been removed, and a path for adjusting to the economic and political standards of the developed world has opened. Demand for abolishing all forms of totalitarianism, ideological monism, and state control expressed the aspirati­ons of these countries for life in a pluralist, democratic community of nations. New national states have been created with attempts to change the whole social system, re-privatize property, replace planned economies with free economies, and adopt new value systems in place of old ones. When Yugoslavia dissolved, Croatian independence was realized under war conditions followed by large human and material losses as well as unimaginable psychological consequences. Democratic transition in Croatia, therefore, had a specific character compared to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. “The war turned the transiti­ onal processes in the country into minor processes because the creation and defence of the newly established state acquired a clear priority over the trans­ formation of the political and social order” (Kasapović/Zakošek, 1997).

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