Transition of Croatia

Résumé du document

According to Linz and Stephan, five interacting areas need to be in place before a consolidated democracy can exist in a state. First, there must be a free and lively civil society. A civil society is the arena of the polity where self-organizing groups, movements and individuals can express and articulate their values and interests relatively autonomous from the state. It can include social movements and civic associations from all strata of society, and can be a crucial vehicle in regime change . The second area is the political society, which is the arena where polity is arranged to contest the legitimate right to exercise control. It must be concerned with the development of appreciation of core institutions such as political parties, election, electoral rules, political leadership, interparty alliances and legislatures . Further, the rule of law is meant to make sure that the necessary degree of autonomy and independence of the civil and political society is kept. It must be respected and upheld, and hold consensus over the constitution and a clear hierarchy of laws, interpreted by an independent judicial system and have the support of a strong legal culture in the civil society . The fourth condition is a functioning state bureaucracy, which is essential in order to exercise basic tasks as and have the effective capacity to command, regulate and extract . Finally, the being of an economic society is crucial. A non-wartime consolidated democracy in a command economy has never existed, nor in a pure market economy. The mediation between state and market must be achieved by a set of socio-politically accepted and crafted norms, institutions and regulations. The aim of this paper is to identify Croatia's position in transition to democracy. It will guide the reader through Croatia's historical development in order to clarify Croatia's path to its present situation, with an emphasis on the five arenas of democracy outlined above. It has a closer look at the developments before the First Yugoslavia, highlighting the development of the Yugoslav idea. Further it investigates both the First and Second Yugoslavia before the attention turns to the fall of Yugoslavia, the type of transition and post-transition developments in Croatia.

Extraits

[...] This coalition endured till the spring of 1992. The executive soon became the dominant force in the whole system. It were above all three aspects which clearly pointed towards the power asymmetry of the new regime: 1. the spreading of secret services under direct control of the president[68] 2. the possibility of the executive to oversee and infringe upon the independence of the courts 3. media manipulation All the three above mentioned examples were excused by the government on the grounds that with the then situation in Krajina these measures were a necessary evil The influence in the judiciary Within six month since it took office the government replaced some 280 judges and court officials, among them a number of highly ranked ones.[69] Already in October 1990 a law was accepted, which gave a number of powers concerning the appointment as well as the recalling of people from functions in the judiciary to the Minister of Justice. [...]

[...] The so called “Croatian Spring”[54] and a mass movement MASPOK functioning within the “Savez Komunista Hrvatske“ (SKH) were, however, suppressed by Tito relentlessly in 1971. “Trustworthy cadres”[55] were installed into the leadership of SKH and they remained there till the late eighties. The MASPOK reformers either had to leave politics or the country. One party system and the territorial integrity were preserved. “Political life became more or less frozen”.[56] “Thawing” did not come until the end of the eighties. In 1988 89 four main factors, which accelerated the change of the regime, can be underlined. [...]

[...] The Prospects for Change in Post-Tudjman Croatia. www.law.nyu.edu Online Access: 11 Nov Jasic, S. (2000): Monitoring the Vote in Croatia, Journal of Democracy 11.4 Linz & Stephan: 3 Ibid Ibid.8 Ibid Ibid Ibid Shahini: 9 This movement was drawing upon the ideas from the French revolution towards national awakening Cohen: 4-5 Ibid Ibid. Ibid Ibid. 8-9 Croatian People's Peasant Party (Hrvatska Pucka Seljacka Stranka HPSS) Allcock: 222-223 The Serbs had great military successes in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) He was assasined by Gavrilo Princip, who with his compatriots were closely linked with the extremists Serb youth movement Allcock: 223 Cohen:. [...]

[...] The positions sharpened, and the preconditions changed. Although the enthusiasm for South Slav unity still was concentrated in the upper strata of the population, a growing educated populace increased the number of participants in the discussion and also on social and political matters in general. Important to note here is the growth of a civil society, in particular the areas many newly formed youth organizations. Solidarity among the political forces dedicated to increase the South Slav cooperation and influence within the Habsburg monarchy was also strengthened with the 1905 formation of the Serbo-Croat Coalition. [...]

[...] This resulted into an exodus of Serbs, which had been almost the entire Serbian population in Krajina. Nevertheless, or maybe precisely exactly because of this, Tudjman was celebrated as a national hero and his popularity was unprecedented. He was able to use it well in the elections, which he planned for 29th October 1995, just a few weeks after the operations in Krajina. From 127 seats in the lower chamber HDZ got 75 Continuous authoritarian tendencies between 1995 and 1999 When the country was united again and faced no war enemies, Tudjman had to find enemies elsewhere in order to justify his authoritarian rule. [...]