Original scientific paper
Choosing Political Institutions in Postsocialism and the Formation of the Croatian Political System
Nenad Zakošek
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author situates the question of choosing fundamental political institutions in postsocialism - above all the electoral system and the presidential or parliamentary system of rule - within the context of three types of discussions in political science: the comparative analysis of political system and institutions, the discussion about the "transition" of authoritarian/totalitarian systems to democracy and the analysis of regional patterns of politics and political systems. The main thesis is that in choosing political institutions in postsocialism it is necesarry to respect the essential features of political space of East European socities. The most important among these features are lack of tradition of institutional conflict resolution, weakness of intermediary political and interest organizations, disproportional influence of political radicalism among political elites and voters, insufficient efficieny of the government and administration. The author demonstrates that the political space of Croatia is also essentially characterized by these features and that their negative effects in Croatia have been reinforced by the inadequate choice of plurality electoral system and presidential system of rule.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
112398
URI
Publication date:
1.9.1992.
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