TOWARDS THE INTERPRETATIVE APPROACH TO POLITICAL CULTURE: HISTORY EDUCATION AS A DEMOCRATIZATION INDICATOR AND THE PRESENTATIONS OF THE YUGOSLAV PAST IN CROATIAN TEXTBOOKS 1991-2007

Based on the interpretative approach to political culture, this study examines how democratic principles and practices are embedded in institutions, espe-cially in those not explicitly defined as parts of the political process, as these can more easily hide democratic flaws not easily measured by formal demo-cratization measures. This research problem is approached by an analysis of the institutional framework of the history education in Croatia in the 1990s and 2000s and an analysis of how the controversial socialist Yugoslavia, as a critical case, was presented in history textbooks. This analysis includes 34 textbooks of 20th-century history that were published between 1991 and 2007 for the use of elementary schools, vocational high schools, and grammar schools. The find-ings are considered as indicators of the development of democratic political culture. The conclusions suggest that, despite the progress in formal democrati-zation measures in the 2000s, based on this critical case, Croatia failed the test of institutionally-embedded democratic assumptions and norms.