Croatia’s Difficult Political Trajectory after the Disintegration of Yugoslavia

This paper explores the main reasons for Croatia's laggardness in political and economic reforms after the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991. While Slovenia experienced a relatively smooth economic and political transition thanks to the country's pre-war legacy of legitimate governments, the absence of violent conflict with Serbia, and the presence of institutional reforms even before membership talks with the EU, Croatia faced Tudjman's nationalist and isolationist rule, the war both in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the spread of fear and the exploitation of the media, and, finally, the lack of cooperation of the 2000 government with the ICTY. In other words, all these factors contributed to Croatia's dismal political and economic performance of the 1990s. Croatia's journey towards Europe began only after 2000 when the more EUfriendly Social-Democrats came to power. Nevertheless, problems remain and further reforms are needed if Croatia is to join the EU by 2009