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The article analyses the development of representative democracy in Croatia from its independence to today. During the 1990s, Croatia changed its electoral system several times and had a bicameral parliament. With the constitutional changes implemented in 2001, the legislative power was organized on a unicameral principle. At the same time, the previous semi-presidential system was replaced by a parliamentary one. These changes represent only the basic framework within which representative democracy in Croatia developed over time. An important milestone in this development was the introduction of preferential voting at the national elections in 2015, which allowed the voters to vote for a particular list and a specific candidate on that list. According to some, this improved the problematic state of inner-party democracy, although, for others, the reform was not far-reaching enough. Given that representative democracy does not function in a vacuum, the article also considers the impact of direct democracy on the functioning of representative democracy in Croatia. Referring to the Croatian experience, it argues that this complementary form of democracy had a positive impact on the quality of representative democracy in the country. Nevertheless, in the face of representative democracy in Croatia, many open questions still need to be addressed. The most important one is how to increase the turnout in the elections, which is still comparatively low and arguably related to the low trust in politics.

In Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, the coronavirus crisis raised pre-existingdeficiencies in the democratic orders to the surface, i.e., issues infunctioning according to democratic principles in the circumstances of apublic health crisis. In Austria, the strained executive-legislative relationswere already visible in April 2020, when the opposition parties refused tosupport the second wave of crisis legislation without the appraisal processthat would justify its urgency. In Croatia and Slovenia, the governmentsdecided not to declare a state of emergency, arguably in order to avoidcooperation with the opposition and other state institutions in drafting andpassing crisis legislation. Finally, in Slovenia, the government used the crisisas a pretext to install its people into leading positions in several key stateand public institutions.

Hrvatski ustav promijenjen je 2010. godine kako bi se snizili uvjeti za provedbu neposredne demokracije na nacionalnoj razini, te na taj način spasio referendum o članstvu Hrvatske u Europskoj uniji od vjerojatnog neuspjeha. Od tada je u Hrvatskoj došlo do naglog uspona građanskih inicijativa putem kojih je zaustavljana provedba nekoliko vladinih reformskih prijedloga. Stoga se može reći da je u Hrvatskoj recentna privlačnost neposredne demokracije stvorila novo okružje za djelovanje predstavničke demokracije. Počevši od teorijskih razmišljanja, ovaj članak analizira praksu neposredne demokracije u odabranim tranzicijskim zemljama, koja bi mogla biti poučna za Hrvatsku. Središnji dio članka razmatra prepreke na putu prema učinkovitoj provedbi neposredne demokracije u Hrvatskoj. ; In 2010 the Croatian Constitution was changed to lower the requirements for the implementation of direct democracy at the national level, in order to save the referendum on Croatia's EU membership from possible failure. Since then, Croatia has witnessed a sharp increase in people's initiatives that have managed to block a number of the government's reform proposals. Therefore, the newly discovered appeal of direct democracy in Croatia has created a new environment for the operation of its representative democracy. Starting from theoretical notions, this paper analyses the practice of direct democracy in selected transitional countries, which could be instructive for Croatia. In its central part, the paper explores the obstacle that stand in the way of the efficient implementation of direct democracy in Croatia.

"The year 2023 marked the tenth anniversary of Croatia's membership of the European Union, the last acceding country to the EU and thus, represents a fitting opportunity to explore the political, economic and social dimensions of this tremendous transformation. This book examines how Croatia has changed over the last ten years and looks at the driving forces as well as the obstacles on its post-accession path of Europeanization. The book argues that the Croatian case has special importance given that the last decade of European integration has arguably been the most challenging one yet. It started with the Eurozone-wide sovereign debt crisis and ended with the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's aggression on Ukraine. Such demanding circumstances where agenda was often defined in an ad hoc way posed a huge test for Croatia's governmental capacity. The book provides answers to the question of how successful Croatian policymakers were in dealing with the crises related challanges and other needed adaptations. The book explores how EU membership has affected the design and implementation of selected national public policies, the functioning of governing institutions and patterns of cooperation between main social actors. Expert contributors analyze the impact of the EU membership in two principal areas: political and economic. Each of these book parts is composed of individual chapters addressing relevant topics. The book is intended for researchers, academics and students interested in these issues, as well as policymakers, entrepreneurs and lobbyists concerned with European integration"--

Ovaj članak analizira položaj osoba s odobrenom međunarodnom zaštitom, s ‎posebnim osvrtom na iskustvo njihova zapošljavanja, odnosno stjecanja ekonomske sigurnosti. Ekonomska sigurnost i neovisnost pretpostavka su i temelj ‎uspješne integracije osoba s odobrenom međunarodnom zaštitom u društvo. ‎Ipak, unatoč mogućnostima predviđenima zakonskim rješenjima, rijetki slučajevi zapošljavanja i nedostatna ekonomska sigurnost osoba s međunarodnom zaštitom među ključnim su problemima u njihovoj integraciji. Ovaj članak donosi pregled relevantne literature u području zapošljavanja izbjeglica, ‎studiju slučaja integracijskog programa jedne nevladine organizacije, preporuke koje se tiču unaprjeđenja politike zapošljavanja izbjeglica te daje doprinos raspravi o donošenju useljeničke politike s naglaskom na socio-ekonomska prava i prilike za kvalitetnu integraciju izbjeglica i migranata‎‎