engleski

Modernization processes in the context of institutionally embedded neoliberalism: a theoretical perspective on post-transitional Croatia

This paper discusses the characteristics of modernization processes taking place in the specific social context of a post-transitional country. The tenets of new modernization theories (Beck, Giddens, Touraine, Eisenstadt, Inglehart-Welzel) are applied to explain the trends evolving in what has been described as the “hybrid society” of Croatia after its “post- socialist transformation”. The starting point of the discussion is the hypothesis according to which two modernization processes (those associated with “first” and “second” modernity) were simultaneously at work in Croatian society during the period of post-socialist transition (Tomic-Koludrovic, 2000). In a context most decisively marked by the 1990s war of independence and post-2008 economic crisis, “first” modernity trends were increasingly pushing out those associated with "second modernity", i.e. with a previously more pronounced general social reflexivity. Added to this in the most recent period should be “regressive modernity” (Nachtwey, 2016), characteristic of the pan-European “society of descent”, as well as a further complication represented by the clash of by now firmly institutionally embedded neoliberalism and continued manifestations of the “egalitarian syndrome”, theoretically postulated by Zupanov in the late socialist period. The paper aims to show the usefulness of a theoretical perspective based on new modernization theories in interpreting the seemingly contradictory results of recent empirical studies of the post- transitional Croatian society. Examples of empirical research, suggesting that what is at stake in this case is a “non-linear modernization”, characterized by “partial acquisition of modernization values”, are also provided.

modernization theories, post-transitional society, Croatia

Rad je pripremljen u okviru projekta "Relacijski rodni odnosi u Hrvatskoj: modernizacijske i razvojne perspektive (GENMOD)", koji pod šifrom 6010 financira Hrvatska zaklada za znanost.