Naslov
Measuring and Evaluating Intra-Party Democracy in Croatia

Autori
Nikić Čakar, Dario ; Čular, Goran ; Raos, Višeslav

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
ECPR General Conference

Mjesto i datum
Prag, Češka Republika, 07.09.2016. - 10.09.2016

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
intra-party democracy ; party statutes ; content analysis ; semi-structured interviews ; Croatia

Sažetak
A growing number of studies on intra-party democracy reports on general trends of introducing democratic procedures and broadening decision-making bodies in party leadership selection, candidate selection and policy-making within contemporary political parties. Since most of research efforts on intra-party democracy focus on West European and Anglo-Saxon countries, party development and intra-party organizational structures in post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe are mostly neglected. In this paper, we shall try to overcome the selection bias and only partly fill this evident research gap by providing quantitative and qualitative analysis of intra-party democracy in the major political parties in Croatia. In measuring the level of intra-party democracy in Croatian parties, we employ an integrated approach through deductive and standardized content analysis of party statutes, as developed by von dem Berge, Poguntke, Obert and Tipei in 2013. Party statutes are usually the focal point in the analysis of intra-party democracy since they provide the most reliable formal record of the balance of power between different party bodies. In the second step of the analysis, we rely on semistructured interviews conducted with the prominent party leaders and officials in order to get an insight into informal distribution of power in Croatian parties. In such a way, observed results are then interpreted with regard to informal party practice and eventual consequences of both for the actual state of intra-party democracy within Croatian parties are discussed.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Politologija

POVEZANOST RADA