TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION AND REGIONALISM THE CASE OF CROATIA
TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION AND REGIONALISM THE CASE OF CROATIA

Author(s): Lino Veljak
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Constitutional Law, Governance, Government/Political systems
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: Regionalism; centralism; local self-government; administration; democratic control; Euro-regions
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author presents a historical overview of the genesis of the regional division of the Republic of Croatia, as well as an outline of the development of territorial organization and local self-government. Particular attention is devoted to the development of territorial self-government after 1990. Over this period, the antithesis between a centralist-etatist approach to the problem of territorial organization of the country on one hand, and a regional approach on the other, with quite a marginal federalist option is conspicuous. The author indicates the differences between Croatian regions where the regionalist option is dominant (Istria, Međimurje) and areas with a majority Serb population. Following an overview of the constitutional and legislative regulations concerning territorial administration and local self-government, the focus shifts to the examination of the alternative: regionalism-centralism. The issue of regionalism is to be examined within the framework of the centralization-decentralization antithesis, which derives from the answer to whether state administration should be decentralized and to what extent it should be treated as a direct transmission of authority. The author pleas for a search for optimal balance between local, regional, state and supra-state demands for democratic decisionmaking and the administering of general and common affairs (which also has to be subdued to democratic control). In this process, it is not only the functional and cultural dimension of this problem that has to be taken into consideration, but also the perspective of the establishment of trans-border Euro-regions.

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