Abstract
In the early 1990s, the ruling HDZ and HZDS dominated public discourse and used it as a way of stamping out dissent, while at the same time gaining strong support in elections. However, as the decade progressed, the opposition elites began to grow wiser, as they learned from their earlier mistakes and started to cooperate. This was true not only of the political opposition, but also of civil society organizations, including civic groups and the media. The media were especially important in turning people away from the ruling parties, as they continued to dig up scandals. Nonetheless, although general dissatisfaction was growing among Slovak and Croatian citizens during the second half of the 1990s, the magnitude of public protest was often disappointingly low,1 with passivity and distrust prevailing. The public mood was often characterized by a feeling of helplessness in the ability to affect government policies, thereby reinforcing the political culture of alienation that was inherited from the communist regime.2
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Notes
This seems in line with the conclusions of Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik, according to whom levels of discontent are unrelated to the magnitude of protest. See Ekiert and Kubik, “Contentious Politics in New Democracies,” World Politics 50, no. 4 (1998): 547–581.
For the case of Croatia, see Pavle Novosel, “Croatian Political Culture in Times of Great Expectations,” in Political Culture in East Central Europe, ed. Fritz Plasser and Andreas Pribersky (Aldershot, UK: Avebury, 1996), 109–110.
On the importance of such an approach, see E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 11.
For more on this concept, see Milada Anna Vachudova, Europe Undivided: Democracy, Leverage and Integration After Communism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
John D. Nagle and Alison Mahr, Democracy and Democratization: Post-Communist Europe in Comparative Perspective (London: Sage, 1999), 79.
See Dubravka Ugresic, “The Culture of Lies,” Index on Censorship 1, no. 2 (1994): 31.
Jovan Miric, “Fascinacija drzavom i (ne)mogucnost oporbe,” Politicka misao 33, no. 1 (1996): 93–109.
Ivan Siber, “Structuring the Croatian Party Scene,” Politicka misao 30, no. 2 (1993): 111–129.
See Grigorij Meseznikov and Martin Butora, eds., Slovenske referendum ‘87: Zrod, priebeh, dosledky (Bratislava: Institut pre verejne otazky, 1997).
Zora Butorova “Public Opinion,” in Global Report on Slovakia: Comprehensive Analyses From 1995 and Trends From 1996, ed. Martin Butora and Peter Huncik (Bratislava: Sandor Marai Foundation, 1997), 271–272.
See Zora Butorova, “Development of Public Opinion: From Discontent to the Support of Political Change,” in The 1998 Parliamentary Elections and Democratic Rebirth in Slovakia, ed. Martin Butora, Grigorij Meseznikov, Zora Butorova, and Sharon Fisher (Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 1999).
See, for example, the public opinion poll in Inge Perko Separovic, “Politika Sabora u zastiti okolisa,” in Hrvatska politika 1990–2000, ed. Mirjana Kasapovic (Zagreb: Hrvatska politologija, 2001), 182.
For more on the attitudes of Slovak youth, see Olga Gyarfasova, Miroslav Kuska, and Marian Velsic, “First-time Voters and the 1998 Elections,” in Butora et al. (1999), 233–243.
Zora Butorova, Olga Gyarfasova, and Martin Butora, “Divaci, posluchaci, citatelia,” in Slovensko pred volbami: Ludia—Nazory—Suvislosti, ed. Zora Butorova (Bratislava: Institut pre verejne otazky, 1998), 67.
Zrinjka Perusko Culek, Demokracija i mediji (Zagreb: Barbat, 1999), 152–153.
Biljana Tatomir, “Croatian Government Calls Certain Media ‘Enemies of the State,’” Transition 2, no. 21 (1996): 24.
Karol Wolf, Podruhe a naposled aneb Mirove deleni Ceskoslovenska (Prague: G plus G, 1998), 60.
See Mark Thompson, Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (London: Article 19, 1994), 130–200.
Martin Butora, Katarina Kostalova, Pavol Demes, and Zora Butorova, “Nonprofit Sector and Volunteerism in Slovakia,” in Butora and Huncik (1997), 225.
See Sharon Fisher, “Contentious Politics in Croatia: The War Veterans’ Movement,” in Uncivil Society? Contentious Politics in Post-Communist Europe, ed. Petr Kopecky and Cas Mudde (London: Routledge, 2003), 74–92.
See Paul Stubbs, “New Times?: Towards a Political Economy of ‘Civil Society’ in Contemporary Croatia,” Narodna umjetnost 38, no. 1 (2001): 89–103.
For more details of the Croatian campaign, see Sharon Fisher and Biljana Bijelic, “Glas 99: Civil Society Preparing the Ground for Post-Tudjman Croatia,” in Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. Pavol Demes and Joerg Forbrig (Bratislava: Kalligram, forthcoming in 2006).
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© 2006 Sharon Fisher
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Fisher, S. (2006). The Growth of Democratic Civil Society. In: Political Change in Post-Communist Slovakia and Croatia: From Nationalist to Europeanist. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230600881_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230600881_6
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