engleski

County Elections in Croatia: On the Path to Genuine Regional Politics

Croatian counties were tailored with little consideration for historical, natural, economic, social, and professional criteria. They are rather small in size and population and there are considerable differences between them. Subnational electoral system with proportional representation, blocked lists and five per cent threshold causes depersonalisation of local politics. In addition, only few political parties and their political agendas could be identified as regional. Political arena in the counties is still dominated by national parties and their organizational branches while county elections are highly “nationalized” and subordinated to national elections. The analysis of congruence between county and national governments, turnout rates and electoral supply shows “second-orderness” of county elections resulting in voters’ orientation towards national elections and statewide parties. Counties are politically autonomous, but fiscally depend on the central state, which in turn has a decisive influence on county voters’ political behaviour at the county level – they turn to statewide parties just as counties turn to the state. The abolishment of counties and introduction of true regions with broader autonomous scope of affairs in the Croatian territorial organization could contribute to a positive feedback of regional electorate towards genuine regional politics.

counties ; Croatia ; electoral system ; national elections ; county elections ; county assembly ; regional political parties ; regional politics

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