Welfare State Transformation in the Yugoslav Successor States: From Social to Unequal by Marija Stambolieva

Author:Marija Stambolieva [Stambolieva, Marija]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, European, Social Services & Welfare, Political Science, World
ISBN: 9781134758685
Google: oV8RDAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 30080836
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Agency and Cleavage Structures: Accommodating Approach

Accommodating the needs and demands of different social groups has become a feature of Croatian social policy-making. The inherited structure of the welfare system was generally retained and adjusted to the new, mainly war-related circumstances. Croatian governments juggled their agendas with domestic actors’ demands and international pressures. Reforms driven by international actors in line with the dominant neoliberal logic offset the conservative and clientelist mindset that was prevalent on the Croatian political scene. The EU accession process had an empowering effect on domestic social groups. Although the EU has rather limited competences in the area of social policy, its political reform agenda facilitated the opening up of democratic space that different groups used to voice their viewpoints. The relationship between the political and other social actors was contentious; however, the democratizing environment propelled the demands of the social groups, which consisted mainly of retaining their rights and benefits, onto the government agenda. The opportunity served to reconcile opposing views and to accommodate interests rather than facilitate constructing a new agreement on the future social-policy model.

The Croatian party system has predominantly reflected the territorial-cultural cleavages in society. The conflicting nature of Yugoslavia’s break-up brought to light latent dividing lines regarding the interpretation of history. These dividing lines had roots in the Second World War and the family relations with either the communist-led partisans or the supporters of the Axis-affiliated Independent State of Croatia (Šiber 1997). The Croatian Spring of 1971, which advocated for more independence of the Croatian republic, jeopardized the Yugoslav project, and, albeit tamed by the political leadership of the federation, paved the way for Yugoslavia’s dissolution. The window of opportunity created at the onset of the 1990s was used by HDZ to successfully monopolize the political scene through its exclusive understanding of Croatian nationalism. In the context of war, the electorate of the left-oriented block fell apart, whereas SDP as communist successors also chose not to pursue the values on the other side of the spectrum (Zakošek 2002: 91). Thus, the whole first decade was dominated by the rightist ideas of centralism, ethnic- and religious-based national identity and traditionalism.

At the beginning of the second transitional decade, although it was expected that socio-economic cleavages would gain salience, they have not been reflected in political party competition. This can be explained through the fact that first, cultural cleavages continued to exist (Henjak 2005; Bagić 2007) and second, voter’s attitudes towards socio-economic issues have been structured by their party affiliations (Henjak 2007; Dolenec 2012). Thus, the supporters of a certain party have been prone to adopting its socio-economic stance rather than shaping it. Evidence has suggested that HDZ supporters have been more resilient, whereas support for SDP has been more volatile (Henjak 2007). For example, when disappointment with the privatization process and the demands for redistribution, which was part of SDP’s pre-electoral promise, failed to translate into concrete policy, voters punished that. “Why did we lose? Because expectations of us were enormous. […] We did not

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