Administrative and Territorial Organization of the State as a Tool of Ethnic Politics:The Example of the Republic of Croatia

Authors

  • Mirella Korzeniewska-Wiszniewska Jagiellonian University in Kraków

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.17.2020.68.12

Keywords:

Croatian administration, županjas, kotars, Croatian municipalities, minorities in Croatia, Croatian local government

Abstract

The article focuses on the issue of Croatia’s ethnic policy towards minorities at the level of administrative and territorial organization. It attempts to answer the question whether and to what extent the ethnic and territorial conflict in the 1990s influenced the processes of transformation of the administrative and territorial organization of the state. The Croatian state, given as an example, at the time of declaring its independence in 1991 had to face the threat of territorial disintegration from the Serb minority living in its territory. The Italian minority was also suspected of such tendencies, but it soon turned out that these suspicions were groundless. The Serbian community could, however, threaten the unification of the state, which initially happened as a result of an armed conflict. After its end, fears did not diminish, especially in the face of the changes in territorial borders that took place until the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The threat could be reduced using one of the tools, which was the local government administration and the shape of its territorial units. The Author analyses this issue basing on the projects of Croatian experts dealing with the issues of administrative and territorial organization of the last three decades and at various stages of Croatian statehood, data on demographic changes and laws regulating the functioning of local and regional local governments as well as regulations concerning the position of national minorities in the state.

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Author Biography

  • Mirella Korzeniewska-Wiszniewska, Jagiellonian University in Kraków

    Assistant professor at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. Author, co-author and redactor of the books: Serbian under Slobodan Milošević. Serbian politics towards the breakup of Yugoslavia in 90. of XXth century, WUJ, Cracow 2008; The Serbs as minority in the condition of political transition in post- Yugoslav countries 1995-2016, Księgarnia Akademicka 2017; Orthodoxy versus post- Communism? Belarus, Serbia, Ukraine and the Russkiy Mir, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2016; Macedonia in 20th and 21st century. History, religion, culture, language, law, politics, Księgarnia Akademicka 2014, Cracow 2014; Bosnia and Herzegovina and its political kaleidoscope. General elections 2014: report, Księgarnia Akademicka, Cracow 2015; Central Europe and the Balkans. Historical and political context. Nations, national and religious minorities, WUJ, Kraków 2019. Member of the Commission of Balkan Studies of Polish Academy of Sciences, Associacion Internationale d’ Études du Sud-Est Européen and Central Europe Committee of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Area of scientific interests: the Balkan Penninsula (political transformation, international relations, ethnic problems and issues of regional security).

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Published

19-11-2020

Issue

Section

NATIONAL IDENTITIES, REGIONAL IDENTITIES, ETHNIC IDENTITIES

How to Cite

“Administrative and Territorial Organization of the State As a Tool of Ethnic Politics:The Example of the Republic of Croatia”. 2020. Politeja 17 (5(68): 237-56. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.17.2020.68.12.

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