engleski

Local democracy and citizen participation in the Croatian local self-government: discrepancy between legal regulation and real institutional life

During the socialist period, especially during the self-management experiment (1950-1990), the governance system was locally oriented and based on large, powerful municipalities with good capacities and significant share in public revenues and expenditures. Municipalities were intended to provide the whole life circle to their inhabitants and had several significant forms of citizens’ influence on local decisions (sub- municipal bodies, local representative bodies, institutions of direct democracy and participation of citizens, network of self- managing interest councils, etc.). After Croatia gained independence, previous communes and their representative institutions were partly retained, but other forms of citizens’ influence and participation were abolished. Deep territorial, functional, financial, and institutional reform of 1993 definitely transformed the governance system of the country. The whole system was finally organized in a centralistic vein, with a strong link between central state executive and local institutions. Local government was overpowered and deprived of resources, competences, and capacities. The constitutional and legal reform of 2000- 2001 reduced the degree of centralisation, enabled harmonization with the standards of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and abolished formal links between central state executive and local governments. Despite decentralization attempts of 2001 and 2005, the system is still lacking of adequate capacities. The position of local government is rather weak. In the 1993-2009 period local bodies functioned in a parliamentary-like manner, with formally dominant position of local representative bodies (town and municipal councils). In 2009, direct election of mayors was introduced, initiating the change of balance between local councils and mayors. Various forms of direct democracy and citizen participation have been legally enabled since the reform of 1993, but their usage in real life of local communities is poor. In the paper, we speculate about the reasons for the continuous gap between legal regulation of local democracy and real institutional life at the local level in Croatia.

local self-government, participation of citizens, new forms of participation

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