U situaciji smanjene fi nancijske moći države logično je pitati se kako se odvija svakodnevno funkcioniranje hrvatskih općina i gradova, kakva je njihova kadrovska ekipiranost, te jesu li u mogućnosti osigurati zadovoljavajuću kakvoću javnih usluga. S više strana čuo se prigovor kako je brojka od 429 općina i 127 gradova prevelika. Takvim ocjenama prethodile s većinom analize državnog i lokalnih proračuna, dok je empirijska analiza ruralne društvene zbilje gotovo potpuno izostala. Ovim smo istraživanjem htjeli prikupiti što više informacija o općinskim problemima i mogućnostima iz perspektive lokalne elite – načelnika općine, te pobliže se upoznati sa samim načelnicima analizirajući njihovu poslovnu i socijalnu pozadinu. Rad je nastao na temelju analize 32 dubinskih intervjua s načelnicima triju sjeverozapadnih hrvatskih županija. ; In a situation of reduced financial power of the state, questions arise regarding daily functioning of Croatian municipalities and cities: how are they being organized, do they have enough personnel, and whether they are able to provide a satisfactory quality in public services. The complaint about Croatia having too many municipalities (429) and cities (127) has often been made in both scientific and political circles. Such assessments were grounded heavily on the analysis of state and local budgets, with very few fieldwork studies. In this research we wanted to gather information about municipal problems and opportunities from the perspective of the local elite - the mayors, as well as to get to know the mayors themselves by analyzing their professional and social backgrounds. The findings are based on the analysis of 32 in-depth interviews with the mayors from three north-western Croatian counties.
Starting from a two-dimensional understanding of trust in institutions, we examine the predictability of trust in political institutions and trust in non-political national institutions in explain voting and protest forms of citizen participation in politics, as well as the possible mediating role of satisfaction with the functioning of the political system. The paper is based on the Croatian data of the fifth wave of the European Values Study (EVS, 2018). Individual associations between the two forms of trust and the two types of participation indicate that greater confidence in political institutions is associated with more frequent electoral participation and a lower propensity for protest participation. In contrast, trust in non-political institutions is only associated with less propensity for protest participation. At the same time, both forms of political trust are strongly interconnected and accompanied by greater satisfaction with the functioning of the political system, which is weakly positively associated with voting and negatively associated with a tendency to protest. The multivariate analysis confirmed only the independent positive contribution of trust in political institutions to voting. We discuss the results in the context of the high association between the two forms of political trust in Croatian context, and the findings to date regarding the determinants of voting and protest participation as two forms of citizen participation in politics. ; Polazeći od dvodimenzionanog razumijevanja povjerenja u institucije, u radu provjeravamo prediktivnost povjerenja u političke institucije i povjerenja u nepolitičke nacionalne institucije za objašnjenje glasanja te protestnih oblika sudjelovanja građana u politici, kao i moguću posredujuću ulogu zadovoljstva funkcioniranjem političkog sustava. Rad se temelji na hrvatskim podacima petog vala Europske studije vrednota - ESV (European Values Study - EVS, 2018). Pojedinačne povezanosti dvaju oblika povjerenja i dvaju tipova sudjelovanja ukazuju da je izraženije povjerenje u političke institucije povezano s češćom izbornom participacijom, a manjom sklonošću prosvjednog sudjelovanja, dok je povjerenje u nepolitičke institucije povezano samo s manjom sklonošću prosvjednom sudjelovanju. Ujedno, oba su oblika političkog povjerenja snažno međusobno povezana, te praćena većim zadovoljstvom funkcioniranjem političkog sustava, a koje je u slaboj pozitivnoj vezi s glasanjem, te u negativnoj sa sklonošću prosvjedima. Multivarijatnom analizom potvrđen je samo samostalan pozitivni doprinos povjerenja u političke institucije za pojašnjenje glasanja. Rezultate raspravljamo u kontekstu visoke povezanosti dvaju oblika političkog povjerenja u hrvatskim uvjetima, te dosadašnjih nalaza o odrednicama glasanja i protestnog sudjelovanja kao dvaju oblika sudjelovanja građana u politici.
The author describes James Buchanan's theory of political constitution & his individualist understanding of political science. On the basis of homo economicus, Buchanan deduced the normative elements of political science, ie, the proposals for the choice of political institutions. In his opinion, the choice of political institutions always contains the ethical dimension. The positive elements of political science are illustrated by means of the analyses of the behavior of political actors within the designated framework. The author shows how this type of radical individualism does not satisfy the standards of political science since, de facto, it does away with the political sphere. Adapted from the source document.
Democratic consolidation of postauthoritarian & posttotalitarian societies is looked into at the levels of (1) basic political institutions; (2) chief proponents of representative democracy (political parties & interest associations); (3) behavior of powerful informal political actors (army, church, entrepreneurs, etc); & (4) civic culture. Democracy is stable only after it has been consolidated on all four levels. This "maximalist concept" of democratic consolidation excludes the explanation of a breakdown of democratic systems by voluntaristic & nonconceptualized descriptions of "deconsolidation.". 1 Table, 1 Figure, 123 References. Adapted from the source document.
Članak propituje doprinos hrvatske politologije razvoju demokracije u Hrvatskoj. Fokus analize je pojam kulture o kojem autor govori u pet koraka. U prvom koraku je određena u modernom ključu, u drugom kao različita od prirode, a u trećemu kao različita od društva. U četvrtom se unutar politike razlikuje politička kultura od političke ekonomije i političkih ustanova, no u petom se pokazuje da je kultura nosivi dio politike i kao politics i kao policy i kao polity. Na temelju tih odredaba pokazuje se da je matica hrvatske politologije zaokupljena pretežito i u sve većoj mjeri izučavanjem upravo predmeta koji na prvi pogled pripadaju politici kao kulturi, i to u užem smislu političke kulture, te da se ona sama reproducira kao politička kultura. ; The article discusses the contribution of Croatian political science to the development of democracy in Croatia. The focus of the analysis is the concept of culture which author talks about in five steps. In the first step it is understood in the modern key, in the second step as different for nature and in the third as different from society. In the fourth step author differentiates political culture from political economy and political institutions, but in the fifth part there is an attempt to show culture as a fundamental part of politics, policy and polity. On the basis of these insights author shows that the matrix of Croatian political science is more and more devoted to scientific investigation of politics as culture as both study of political culture and as a source of development as politics as culture.
Polazeći od dvodimenzionanog razumijevanja povjerenja u političke institucije, u radu provjeravamo prediktivnost povjerenja u vladu i predstavničke institucije i povjerenja u provedbene institucije za objašnjenje glasanja te prosvjednog sudjelovanja, kao i moguću posredujuću ulogu zadovoljstva funkcioniranjem političkog sustava. Rad se temelji na hrvatskim podatcima petog vala Europskog istraživanja vrednota – EIV (European Values Study – EVS, 2017). Pojedinačne povezanosti dvaju oblika povjerenja i dvaju tipova sudjelovanja pokazuju da je izraženije povjerenje u vladu i predstavničke institucije povezano s češćim glasanjem te manjom sklonošću prosvjednom sudjelovanju, dok je povjerenje u provedbene institucije povezano samo s manjom sklonošću prosvjednom sudjelovanju. Ujedno, oba su oblika političkog povjerenja snažno međusobno povezana te praćena većim zadovoljstvom funkcioniranjem političkog sustava, a koje je u slaboj pozitivnoj vezi s glasanjem te u negativnoj sa sklonošću prosvjedima. Multivarijatnom analizom potvrđen je samo samostalan pozitivni doprinos povjerenja u vladu i predstavničke institucije za pojašnjenje glasanja. Rezultate raspravljamo u kontekstu visoke povezanosti dvaju oblika političkog povjerenja u hrvatskim uvjetima te dosadašnjih nalaza o odrednicama glasanja i prosvjednog sudjelovanja kao dvaju oblika političkog sudjelovanja. ; Starting from a two-dimensional understanding of trust in political institutions, the paper examines trust in the government and representative institutions and trust in executive institutions as predictors of voting and protest participation, as well as the possible mediating role of satisfaction with the functioning of the political system. The paper is based on the Croatian data from the fifth wave of the European Values Study (EVS, 2017). Individual associations between the two forms of trust and the two types of participation indicate that greater trust in government and representative institutions is associated with more frequent voting and a lower propensity for protest participation. In contrast, trust in executive institutions is only associated with a lower propensity for protest participation. At the same time, both forms of political trust are strongly interconnected and accompanied with greater satisfaction with the functioning of the political system, which is weakly positively associated with voting and negatively associated with the propensity for protest participation. The multivariate analysis confirmed only the trust in government and representative institutions as a unique positive predictor of voting. The results are discussed in view of the high association between the two forms of political trust in the Croatian context, and the findings to date regarding the determinants of voting and protest participation as two forms of political participation.
The author gives an account of the evolution of the theories of institutional design or constitutional engineering in political science in the last twenty years. This is a special branch of political science that looks into how political institutions may serve as the means of conflict management in divided societies & whether they may be constructed in such a way as to contribute to the conflict resolution, democratization & the democratic stability of societies in general. Their rise was theoretically enabled by new institutionalism & historically by the third wave of democratization of autocratic political regimes since the 1970s & particularly since the 1990s. Using several seminal works to illustrate her point, the author shows how the theories of institutional design overlap with the theories of democratic transformation, consociational democracy, liberal democracy, & others. 42 References. Adapted from the source document.
U ovom radu se na temelju podataka terenskih anketnih istraživanja iz 2015. i 2016. godine analizira odnos između povjerenja u političke i provedbene institucije s jedne strane te protekcionizma s druge strane. Točnije, u prvom dijelu teksta se nastoji prikazati kako je povjerenje u institucije, kao normativno očekivanje, konceptualno povezano s protekcionizmom. Uz to, temeljem faktorske analize, utvrđuje se protekcionistička dimenzija stavova te se prikazuje njena distribucija kroz posljednje desetljeće. Istodobno, u svojevrsnom istraživačkom predkoraku, rad analizira i socioekonomske te demografske determinante takve dimenzije stavova. Nakon toga, u središnjem djelu analize, prikazuje se negativna međusobna povezanost povjerenja u institucije i protekcionizma, pri čemu su efekti takvog utjecaja nešto izraženiji kod povjerenja u provedbene institucije. Osim toga, regresijski modeli pokazuju kako su, uz protekcionizam, najznačajnije nezavisne varijable koje ispituju razine autoritarnosti i socijalnog povjerenja. Također se prikazuje kakve efekte identifikacija sa strankom na vlasti ima na razine institucionalnog povjerenja. ; This paper analyzes the relationship between trust in political and implementing institutions on the one hand and protectionism on the other, based on field survey data from 2015 and 2016. Precisely, the first part of the text seeks to show how trust in institutions, as a normative expectation, is conceptually related to protectionism. In addition, based on factor analysis, the protectionist dimension of attitudes is shown and its distribution over the last decade is presented. At the same time, in a kind of research pre-step, the paper analyzes the socio-economic and demographic determinants of such a dimension of attitude. After that, in the central part of the analysis, the negative interrelationship between trust in institutions and protectionism is presented, with the effects of such influence being somewhat more pronounced in the case of trust in implementing institutions. In ...
The author's starting point is Schmitt's definition of the political as the degree of association & dissociation of people. Such a definition of the political results in a dual process: on the one hand, political groupings can be stimulated from all quarters, while on the other, nothing is truly political. The political is a fact that cannot be determined. The author claims that Schmitt's thesis might be defended, provided the distinctiveness of the political is upheld without giving up the definition of the political as a degree of intensity. The author discusses whether the concept of the political can be defined independently of political institutions as well as the forms of control of the political. Adapted from the source document.
Pranje novca, kao jedan od najsofisticiranijih i najtežih oblika organizovanog kriminaliteta, je i međunarodni fenomen jer se odvija i prisutan je, kako u nacionalnim tako i međunarodnim razmjerama. Međunarodni karakter odvijanja pranja novca je jedan od efikasnijih metoda da se prikrije nezakonito porijeklo novca ili bilo kojeg oblika imovine koja je proistekla izvršenjem, uglavnom, teških krivičnih djela.Problematika pranja novca je prisutna u nacionalnim i međunarodnim razmjerama i značajno je izražena u onim društvima gdje perači novca nastoje da legaliziraju kriminalom zarađenu dobit i da tu dobit infiltriraju u privredu i finansijske tokove, s ciljem da kontrolišu određene ekonomske i političke procese. Pranje novca predstavlja međunarodni zločin, zbog čega je međunarodna zajednica odlučila uspostaviti međunarodne standarde, sa zahtjevom da te standarde prihvati što veći broj zemalja svijeta. S obzirom na velike probleme i razne poteškoće na koje nailazi u borbi protiv svih oblika organizovanog kriminaliteta, kroz akcije usmjerene na same izvršioce ovih krivičnih djela, međunarodna zajednica je odlučila da svoju pažnju usmjeri na drugi moment ove borbe: novac, tj. prihod koji nastaje izvršenjem krivičnih djela organizovanog kriminaliteta. Shodno tome, međunarodna zajednica je odlučila da pokuša da udari tamo gdje će kriminalcima nanijeti najveće posljedice, tako što je preduzela velike akcije protiv pranja novca.U borbi protiv pranja novca stvoreni su čitavi institucionalni aparati; zbog njega se pišu nove i nove konvencije, direktive, preporuke; zbog njega se mora često mijenjati krivično zakonodavstvo; zbog pranja novca prestala je postojati tajnost računa I podataka banaka. Ponekad se, u toj borbi žrtvuju i osnovna ljudska prava, jer se praktično vodi rat protiv pranja novca. Obim intervencija, strategija i međunarodnih sporazuma, razrađenih da bi se prekinuli lanci pranja novca, širokog su raspona i veoma usavršeni. Pranje novca je veoma veliki biznis, koji nije lako kontrolisati putem međunarodnih sporazuma. Naravno, sve je to potrebno i neophodno, a drugo je pitanje da li sve te mjere daju uvijek očekivane rezultate tj. da li to ima za rezultat adekvatan broj pravosnažno osuđujućih presuda i adekvatan iznos oduzete imovinske koristi.U tom smislu, u radu sam istražio i dao pregled samo najvažnijih i najrelevantnijih međunarodnih organizacija i institucija u borbi protiv pranja novca kao što su: Organizacija ujedinjenih nacija, Vijeće Evrope, Financial Action Task Force – FATF, Grupa Egmont, Evropska unija, Bazelski komitet za bankarske propise i kontrolu, Međunarodni monetarni fond i Svjetska banka, s napomenom da ću šire obraditi samo neke od njih koje smatram bitnim. --- Money laundering, as one of the most sophisticated and severe forms of organized crime, has a strong international component because it occurs not only within national borders, but goes far beyond. The transnational aspect of money laundering makes it easier to prevent the true source of funds and other property derived from serious criminal activity.Therefore, the problem of money laundering is both, a national as well as an international problem. It is very common in the countries where money launderers attempt to legalize the illegal proceeds and then transfer it into the stream of commerce and finance in order to control certain economic and political processes. Money laundering is an international crime leading the international community to establish common standards that countries around the world should adopt. Having in mind the great difficulties in fighting against organized crime using the traditional methods focused upon the perpetrators, the international community decided to shift its focus towards the other important component of money laundering – the proceeds derived from criminal activity. In that sense, the international community decided to strike where the consequences for money launderers are the most prominent – the money.The prevention of money laundering lead to creation of the whole new set of institutional apparatus; many conventions have been organized, and many articles, directives, recommendations, guidelines were created. The prevention of money laundering has lead to changes in criminal code legislation and dissolution of bank information secrecy. Sometimes, however, this war on money laundering sacrifices some basic human rights. The range of strategies, interventions and international agreements developed to prevent money laundering is broad and very sophisticated. Money laundering is a large business which is not easy to regulate by way of international agreements. Of course, while these agreements and strategies are necessary, the question about their effectiveness, however, still lingers in the background, especially considering the number of final criminal convictions and the amount of illegal proceeds forfeited.In that sense, I provided an overview of the most relevant and the most important international institutions whose job is the prevention of money laundering, namely the UN, Council of Europe, Financial Action Task Force –FATF, Egmont Group, European Union, The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, The International Monetary Fund and World Bank. I would like to mention that I will cover in more detail only those organizations I find the most relevant.
Ovaj rad istražuje mišljenja, stavove i odnose dijela preddiplomskih i diplomskih studenata sveučilišnog studija geografije (PMF, Sveučilište u Zagrebu) prema politici u Hrvatskoj, kako je oni doživljavaju te na koji način komentiraju određene političke događaje. Istraživanje je provedeno u razdoblju od 17. do 22. svibnja 2017. na uzorku od 173 studenta što čini 64 % ukupnog broja studenata geografije na Zagrebačkom sveučilištu. Rezultati ankete pokazuju da studentska populacija, iako predstavlja buduću intelektualnu snagu Hrvatske, nema značajnijeg interesa za politiku te da je njihov angažman, sudjelovanje u političkim strankama kao i uključivanje u političke procese, na vrlo niskoj razini zbog uglavnom visoke razine nepovjerenja prema političarima, političkim institucijama, ali i političkom sustavu općenito. ; This paper examines the opinions, viewpoints and attitudes of a number of undergraduate and graduate university students of geography (Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb) related to Croatian politics, how they experience it and in what manner they comment on certain political events. The research was carried out in the period between 17 and 22 May 2017 on a sample of 173 students which makes 64% of the number of geography students at the University. The survey results show that the student population, although representing Croatia's future intellectual force, shows no significant interest in politics and that their engagement, participation in political parties as well as involvement in political processes are at a very low level mostly due to high level of distrust towards politicians, political institutions but also political system in general.
It is the authors' ambition to answer the following question: to what extend does the political parties of national minorities influence on the cultural autonomy in Serbia. With an intention of answering the research question the author analize the role of minority parties in establishing of National Minorities Councils (NMCs). NMCs are the main institution of cultural autonomy in Serbia. There are twenty three minority groups who have established National Minority Council, there for author of this paper selected two minority groups as case studies: Hungarian and Croats. Political parties of national minorities play a major role in the integration process, their role in the field of political integration is clear, however, the influence of these parties, as the main generators of national minority interests, on cultural autonomy and social integration has not been sufficiently explored. The aim of this paper is to examine the following hypothesis: Cultural autonomy in Serbia is primarily domain, even monopolized by minorities' parties. In order to determine the character of the impact of political parties on the work of NMCs first step will be to distinguish main features of the model of cultural autonomy applied in Serbia. In following will be given a brief overview of minority parties development with special emphasis on their position in political and party system of Serbia. Finally the impact of minority parties on the functioning of NMCs will be presented, through two parameters: participation in elections for NMCS and decision-making process. The first parameter is dedicated to analysis of the results and the subjects of the campaigns. The second parameter relates to the degree of inclusiveness of the decision-making process.
The paper analyses the increasingly acute problem of low voter turnout for the elections for the European Parliament. The author identifies the key determinants of electoral participation, & focuses on how election campaigns affect the electorates' mobilization. By analyzing the results of various polls & by applying Sinnott's model of voter participation to the Slovenian institutional context, the author outlines the key circumstances leading to the disturbingly low voter turnout. The author points out the weaknesses of the institutional preconditions -- in the form of certain awkward electoral institutions, primarily regarding the institutional mobilization marked by half-baked electoral strategies of political parties & the unremarkable & dull campaigns -- that are supposed to increase voter participation. The low level of institutional mobilization has evidently affected the electorate's perceptions of power & trust in political institutions. This is why the institutional incentives for taking a vote have not been sufficient. By way of conclusion the author offers some recommendations concerning how to alter & improve the electoral institutions & the practice of the ED political parties, states & institutions. Tables, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.
