hrvatski

Legitimitet policije i socijalni kapital u postsocijalističkim zemljama: primjeri Hrvatske i Srbije

Police legitimacy and social capital in post- socialist countries: case of Croatia and Serbia Abstract According to procedural justice theory, social institutions, such as police or criminal justice system as whole, can be important component of social capital and catalyst in improving collective efficiency, if they have appropriate legitimacy in their community. By abandoning communist ideology and system of values suitable for a socialist society, the so-called transition countries of Central and Southeastern Europe were faced with the problem of the legitimacy of all the institutions, especially the police, which carries the heavy burden of the legacy of the previous period. Due to a number of international and internal socio-political circumstances, the police in Serbia during the last decade of the XX century, suffered serious delegitimization. After the overthrow of the regime of personal rule in 2000, the Government of Serbia has initiated the reform of the public security sector in an effort to regain public confidence in the police. Croatian police reforms began in the late 1990s, but the greatest impulse was adopting the Strategy of the Community Policing in 2002. It was a comprehensive process of change in the police and Ministry of Interior. The ultimate goal of this process was the transformation from the traditional policing to community policing model and building a compatible model of the organization of policing in relation to contemporary democratic European standards. To achieve the goals of these reforms in both countries are not only sufficient changes in the police, but the key is how they corresponded to the community as a whole: it is a measure of the legitimacy of the police. That is why the subject of this paper is to review public opinion research on police and security in Serbia and Croatia over the last ten years, which indicates in which direction these countries should move further in order to improve the processes of the organization and conduct of the police. Key words: police, legitimacy, reforms, social capital, public opinion, post-socialist countries

policija; legitimitet; reforme; socijalni kapital; javno mnijenje

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