Exiting Lepušićeva? Croatian Comparative Politics and Political Science a Quarter of a Century from the Beginning of Political Transition

The author deals with the state of comparative politics in Croatia, and the state of political science more generally, a quarter of a century after the beginning of political transformation. Selective bias in comparative research and underdevelopment of the discipline are diagnosed as the main causes of its unimpressive status in the International community of political scientists. The first part of the article discusses in more general terms the problem of selective bias as one of the most widespread, but also most dangerous mistakes in comparative research. Natural bias is reflected in the choice of only known and available cases, while unnatural bias involves choice only of the cases that confirm the starting hypotheses and exclude those that question or repudiate the hypotheses. In the second part, the author illustrates the selective bias in research of political transformation and regional comparative politics using Croatia as an example. The main cause of natural bias has to do with the fact that many comparativists are unfamiliar with the language, history and politics of the country. This is largely due to large-nation bias and Reliance on selective historical data. Unnatural bias reflects methodological problems in designing research in comparative politics, most often in emphasizing one set of variables at the expense of another, which affects the results of research. In the concluding part, the article deals with the causes of underdevelopment of comparative politics in Croatia