U članku razmatramo pitanje političke potpore u Hrvatskoj koja se odnosi na povjerenje i legitimitet spram autoriteta i institucija koje postoje u političkome sustavu. Dosadašnja istraživanja koja su se provodila u Hrvatskoj govore o relativno niskoj razini povjerenja u političke autoritete i institucije. U radu polazimo od Eastonovih dimenzija političke potpore: potpora autoritetu, potpora institucijama, potpora demokraciji i potpora zajednici. Svi ti oblici političke potpore subjektivne su orijentacije građana prema jedinicama političkog sustava. Odnos građana prema jedinicama političkog sustava otvara, s druge strane, pitanje građanstva. Na temelju različitih modela građanstva razmatramo odnos elemenata političkog sustava i različitih dimenzija političke potpore u specifičnom kontekstu jadranskih županija. Rezultati do kojih smo došli upućuju na to da se razina potpore povećava od nižih, specifičnih oblika potpore (potpora autoritetima i potpora institucijama), gdje je ona relativno niska, prema višim, difuznim oblicima potpore (potpora zajednici). U pozadini političke potpore, naročito potpore demokraciji, jesu performanse političkog sustava, odnosno potpora je više instrumentalno nego intrinzično utemeljena.The article is dealing with the issue of political support in Croatia, related to the issues of trust and legitimacy towards authority and institutions, as the elements of the political system. Previous research conducted in Croatia evidences a relatively low level of trust in the political authorities and institutions. In this paper we go by Easton’s dimensions of political support: authority support, support to institutions, support to democracy and support to community. All these forms of political support represent the subjective orientations of citizens towards the units of the political system. On the other hand, orientation and relationship of citizens towards the units of the political systems poses the question of citizenship. The paper is exploring the relation of subjective orientations of citizens towards the political systems units and different dimensions of political support in the specific context of Adriatic regions of Croatia, on the basis of the established models of citizenship developed by various authors. The results point out that the level of support rises as we go from the lower, specific types of support (support to authorities and support to institutions) towards higher, diffuse modes of support (support to community). In the background of the political support, especially “support to democracy”, there are performances of the political system. In other words, political support is more instrumentally then intrinsically founded
