(Re)Entering Europe: The Post-communist Transition of Croatian Political Culture

In the past two decades, Croatian political institutions have been through a whirlwind of change, from wartime politics, to international isolation, to gradual democratization and, most recently, to pending European Union membership. This paper examines the trends in the development of political culture over this twenty-year period, drawing an important distinction between democratic institution building and liberalization. At the core of the paper are the following questions: to what extent can changing political culture explain institutional change (and vice versa)? Is political culture determined by, and perhaps held prisoner to, history or is it easily mutable? Drawing from the Croatian experience, in which history alone is no forecast, the paper will conclude by attempting to draw lessons for other countries seeking to democratize their political culture.