Democratic Consolidation and Electoral System Change in Croatia: What Is Wrong with the Proportional Representation?
| Author | Dario Nikić Čakar,Goran Čular |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221084856 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221084856
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(4) 564 –577
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299221084856
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Democratic Consolidation
and Electoral System Change
in Croatia: What Is Wrong
with the Proportional
Representation?
Dario Nikić Čakar and Goran Čular
Abstract
This article focuses on the politics of electoral system change and its effects on the process of
democratic consolidation in Croatia. After the first decade of democratisation when electoral rules
were strategically engaged in order to secure one-party domination, the consensual introduction of
proportional representation in 1999 marked the start of the full-scale consolidation of democracy.
However, after only a decade, when faced with strong pressure caused by a deep economic
recession and omnipresent political corruption, democracy in Croatia started to deteriorate,
followed by significantly lower levels of trust in representative institutions and widespread citizen
disaffection with the functioning of democracy. The proportional representation system was
identified as the main cause of the crisis of Croatian democracy, raising strong critical voices asking
for its reform or even replacement. The Croatian case thus shows that the interplay between
electoral institutions and democratic (de)consolidation is far from being straightforward.
Keywords
electoral systems, democratic consolidation, proportional representation, consensus democracy,
Croatia
Accepted: 15 February 2022
Introduction
Electoral systems and their changes are seen as crucial factors behind the course of the
democratisation process, leaving their deep imprint on the performance of political sys-
tems, the manifestation of the popular will, the structure of the party system and the
composition and functioning of the government (Elklit, 1999; Hoffman, 2005; Lewis,
1997). This was particularly evident in the early 1990s when countries in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) started their transition from communism to democracy, and most
Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Corresponding author:
Dario Nikić Čakar, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Lepušićeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Email: dario.nikic@fpzg.hr
1084856PSW0010.1177/14789299221084856Political Studies ReviewNikić Čakar and Čular
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