Structuring the Croatian Party Scene

In this article we started from the assumption that processes of profiling and constituting the political scene of Croatia are at work and that, in spite of the inexistence of many conditions necessary for clear links between party programmes and social interests we can already talk about a configuration that corresponds with party profiles in countries of a developed parliamentary democracy. Our study showed two essential characteristics: first, a pronounced unambigousness, consistency and compatibility of the criteria applied to analyze the party scene; and second, a pronounced affinity among the electorates of specific groups or parties

Interest in Elections and Electoral Participation

The author stresses that participation has an intrinsic value for the citizens. In addition, it is also important as a means of civic education, a process in which citizens learn civic values. A comparison of electoral participation in democratic polities shows great differences among them. The author argues that the level of voter turnout depends on a number of factors, such as the features of electoral law, the characteristics of social situation, voters’ motivation and political mobilization. Electoral law influences electoral participation in two ways: directly through legal provisions regulating the voting procedure and indirectly through basic characteristics of the electoral system, which more or less motivate the voters. The features of social situation that have an impact on voter turnout include importance of elections, voters’ emotional involvement and uncertainty of electoral outcome. Voters’ motivation depends on the type of individual involvement in politics, which ranges from a minority of political activists to a majority of political spectators, whose involvement is confined to voting, and a large number of apathetic citizens, who don’t care for politics at all. Electoral campaigns can be considered mainly as an instrument to mobilize the supporters of political parties, not the apathetic. In the second part of the article the author looks more closely into features of electoral participation or abstention in Croatia, based on empirical survey data from 1990 to 2003. His findings show that mainly two factors are important for the level of participation: the individual feeling of either helplessness or positive impact in politics and the sense of political responsibility. Unlike in most other democracies, socio-economic status doesn’t have a significant impact on participation in Croatia

War and the Changes in Social Distance Toward the Ethnic Minorities in Croatia

The author analyses two basic issues: First, has the attitude toward the members of the ethnic minorities in Croatia changed in view of the war — and to what extent; and second, to what extent the attitude toward the minorities is the variable of the “ideological” rift in the electoral bodies of political parties. By comparing the data on the social distance before 1990 and after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, and focusing on the study carried out in 1997, three conclusions have been made: 1. The war has brought about certain changes in the attitude toward the minority ethnic groups. These changes are not solely Serb-oriented (with whom the majority group — Croats — was at war with); a generally negative attitude toward other ethnic minority groups has been on the rise; 2. The results of the 1997 study have shown that the social distance is not a universal phenomenon and that there are two types of this distance: political and traditional/ cultural; 3. There are significant differences in the social distance toward the minorities among the voters of certain political parties; it is considerably smaller with the sympathisers of the “leftist” parties than with those of the “rightist” parties

YOUNG PEOPLE AND HISTORY. HISTORICAL AWARENESS AND THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS HISTORY

Iz opsežnog komparativnog istraživanja provedenog u 27 europskih zemalja o odnosu mladih i povijesti izdvojene su varijable koje propituju odnos prema učenju povijesti i uzrocima povijesnih promjena, te odnos prema naciji i religiji. Rezultati (dobiveni na uzorku od 1025 učenika prvog razreda srednjih škola u Hrvatskoj) pokazuju da odnos mladih prema povijesti nije bitno drukčiji nego u drugim europskim zemljama, uz povećani senzibilitet mladih za probleme svoje zemlje, nacionalne zajednice i religije. U formiranju stava prema povijesti dominiraju oni činitelji koji djeluju homogenizirajuće na cjelini životnog prostora mladih.From an extensive comparative study conducted in 27 European countries about the attitude of young people towards history, the winnowed variables show the attitude towards history and the causes of historical changes as well as the attitude towards nation and religion. The results (obtained from a sample including 1,025 Croatian high-school first-graders) show that the attitudes of young people towards history do not significantly differ from those in other European countries. However, the interest of young people for national problems, national communities and religions has increased. The attitude towards history is shaped by the factors that homogenize the living space of young people

Image of Croatian Political Parties

Primjenom metode pripisivanja atributa istraživan je image političkih stranaka zastupljenih u hrvatskom Saboru. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku studenata Zagrebačkog sveučilišta. Ustanovljena je određenost imagea, njegov sadržaj i pozitivnost. Primjenom postupka faktorske analize nađene su četiri dimenzije od kojih se prva, najznačajnija, odnosi na problem imagea demokratskog djelovanja stranaka, dok ostale tri ukazuju na programske orijentacije - socijalnu, tradicionalnu i nacionalno-državotvornu. Političke stranke se međusobno značajno razlikuju po položaju na pojedinoj dimenziji.Using the method of assigning attributes, the image of political parties represented in the Croatian parliament was researched. This research was conducted on a sample of Zagreb University\u27s students. The image was determined, as was with its associations, and positiveness. Through factor analysis four dimensions were found, in which the first and most important is related to the image of democratic activity of the party, while the other three are indicative of political platforms - social, traditional and natio-building. The political parties were found to differ significantly according to their position on each dimension