Economy and Ideology: Preferences of Croatian Voters

Postoji duga povijest sociološkog proučavanja ideologije i ekonomije, od samog početka pojam ideologije je izrazito kontroverzan te postoji općeniti dojam da ideologije ne zastupaju istinske spoznaje o društvu. Moderna politika može se ispravno razumjeti samo pozivanjem na velike ideološke pokrete kao što su konzervativizam, liberalizam, socijalizam, fašizam. U kontekstu političke filozofije uvijek je bilo dominantno gledište da ideologija samo prikriva borbu za moć. Na primjeru Hrvatske možemo vidjeti ostatke bivšeg socijalističkog sustava koji se miješaju sa neoliberalnim kapitalizmom, tranzicija između ta dva sustava bila je turbulentna i popraćena loše provedenom privatizacijom državne imovine. 30 godina nakon, postavlja se pitanje što o svemu tome misle hrvatski glasači? Nakon tranzicije kako gledaju na važnost ekonomskih i ideoloških pitanja i po čemu vrednuju političare? Ovaj rad bavi se proučavanjem utjecaja ideologije i ekonomije na glasačku odluku hrvatskih građana, te općenito ispitivanjem političkih preferencija i stavova građana Hrvatske. Istraživanje je provedeno online upitnikom na uzorku od 226 studenata Splitskog sveučilišta. Dobiveni rezultati pokazali su kako većina hrvatskih građana stavlja veću važnost na ekonomska pitanja naspram ideoloških, te da političare većinom procjenjuju prema vlastitom istraživanju. Također je uočeno da vjerska pripadnost ima utjecaj na političku orijentaciju, sudionici kršćanske vjeroispovijesti većinom su bili desne političke orijentacije.There is a long history of sociological study of ideology and economics, from the very beginning the concept of ideology has been extremely controversial and there is a general impression that ideologies do not represent true knowledge about society. Modern politics can be properly understood only by invoking great ideological movements such as conservatism, liberalism, socialism, fascism. In the context of political philosophy, there has always been a dominant view that ideology only conceals the struggle for power. On the example of Croatia we can see the remnants of the former socialist system mixed with neoliberal capitalism, the transition between the two systems was turbulent and accompanied by poorly implemented privatization of state property. 30 years later, the question arises, what do Croatian voters think about all this? After the transition, how do they view the importance of economic and ideological issues and how do they value politicians? This paper deals with the study of the influence of ideology and economics on the voting decision of Croatian citizens, and in general with the examination of political preferences and attitudes of Croatian citizens. The research was conducted with an online questionnaire on a sample of 226 students from the University of Split. The obtained results showed that the majority of Croatian citizens place more importance on economic issues than ideological ones, and that they mostly judge politicians according to their own research. It was also noted that religious affiliation has an impact on political orientation, members of the Christian faith were mostly of right-wing political orientation