Institutionalization of a Charismatic Movement Party: The Case of the Croatian Democratic Union

The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) emerged during Croatian transition as the leader of the Croatian national uprising in the then Socialist Yugoslavia. In the first ten years it was dominated by the party founding father Franjo Tuđman. In early years the party had around 400 000 members, the number that placed it in the very top of the CEE parties. After the death of the first leader and loss of the first elections in 2000, the party passed through tough time, but survived as the main opposition party and maintained the bulk of its supporters. It transformed from a dominant party to a party that, together with its main rival Socio-Democratic Party, constitutes the core of the Croatian party system. The aim of the paper is explore the conditions that were conducive to the survival of a charismatic party after the loss of its founder. Starting from Weber (1919), Panebianco (1988) and Kitschelt (2006), the paper analyses the process of routinization or institutionalization of charisma and all the organizational, ideological and electoral consequences of it for the present party. In this vein, the paper deals with organizational development and a specific internal structure of the party, party membership and incentives to members to stay loyal to the party, the role of party ideological shifts in attempt to apply catch-all strategy. The main finding is that due to specific conditions of the cleavage based politics in the early stage of development as well as clienteistic linkages developed in the later stages, the party itself becomes by time more important to its members and voters than the party ideology and party leadership. Croatian Democratic Union represents a successful case of institutionalization of a charismatic and movement party with clear signs of initial phases of party development present in its todays organization.