Participation and local democracy in Croatia
In: Politička misao, Band 35, Heft 5, S. 10-24
There is substantive interest in politics and public life. People are well informed but they receive their information in most cases from the electronic mass media, state televison and local radio stations. The positive level of interest is not translated into their political efficacy. A strong majority of the people think that they have no influence on the local or national government. Elections are the major form of collective political participation. In Croatia they had additional importance as the instrument of democratic change. In general electoral participation the turnout is getting smaller. Citizens prefer to observe and vote and are not willing to take part in party campaign activities. Croatian citizens see their problems in the economic area, income, standard of living, unemployment, etc. Political issues are not their priorities. They see the strength of the countr in the people and natural resources, combined with the national values and the independent state. + The author presents the basic findings of the survey on political participation in Croatia. Data presented indicate that Croatian citizens still have rather satisfactory level of political interest and that they do follow the political information in the mass media, specifically on television. On the other hand, they express low levels of political efficacy and believe that there is very little that can be changed by political participation and activism. The formal forms of political participation, like voting, also show the declining rates. Levels of non-satisfaction with the quality of democratic life are high. Major problems in the country are perceived as economic and major strengths are seen in the natural resources and potential of the people. + The areas of possible intervention by strengthening participation and community efforts are human rights and local democracy in general. In these areas there are basic positive conditions for improvement and change in the desired direction. One of the major obstacles to participation is seen by the people in the lack of resources, skills, information, time, and money. Investment in democratic capacity and potential will influence those areas in which citizens today see a limited space for influence (the areas under the strong state regulation). Participation is not only the instrument of democratic change but also has value in itself, and this can have many other positive and unexpected consequences. As an additional form of conclusion I have created the "public participation index" from four data sets: general interest, perception of influence, perception of possible change by political participation and motivation to participate in election campaigns. Used in future surveys it can show the basic trends in the Croatian democratic life. (SOI : PM: S. 10; 22f.)