Anchored in History: Persistent Political Identities and Stability of Cleavages in Croatia

For more than hundred years Croatian politics was shaped by political identities emerging from conflicts, often violent, over the position of Croatia in wider political communities, exclusive or inclusive definition of national identity and the role religion and tradition play in society. The evolution of these divisions was shaped by historical developments at critical junctures following the emergence of mass politics in Croatia at the beginning of the early 20th century, namely the formation of Yugoslavia, Second World War with post-war establishment of communism, and mass mobilization movement in 1970/1971 which demanded changes in the position of Croatia within Yugoslavia. These critical junctures had a decisive influence on the configuration of actors, their alignments and strength of particular cleavage dimensions in Croatian politics through time. They also enabled political identities on the left and right to survive and maintain their mobilization potential even during communism. In 1990, in the final step of this development, political identities shaped over time structured electoral cleavages and translated into partisan alignments within a new party system. This paper analyses the development of cleavages in Croatia, tracing the existence of contemporary cleavages to historical political divisions shaped at three critical junctures into distinct political identities of left and right. In the first part, the paper outlines historical development of political identities, and how formation of Yugoslavia, Second World War and the establishment of communism and mass movement in 1970/1971 affected alignment of political actors. In the second part, using survey data, the paper links these political identities with contemporary partisan alignments and follows their development since the first elections. More specifically, the paper analyses how importance of historical political identities changed over time, how it resulted in asymmetrical pattern of electoral mobilization as well as partisan alignments and their stability between left and right.