Long Arm of History Refuses to Release its Grip – Second World War, Fascism, Communism and How They Still Shape Political Attitudes and Behaviour in Croatia

Second World War in Croatia was a civil war combined with fascist and communist revolutions, interethnic conflict and war of liberation, all in one. It destroyed all pre-war political organizations leaving communist party and catholic church as the only organizations with mobilization potential. The war also ended after a brutal slaughter, leaving deeply divided society, which was left to deal with the past only through narratives advanced by the communist regime, which also dealt brutally with all their war enemies and other potential opponents. Communism froze divisions shaped by war, and by doing so it also created unofficial, but equally widespread, nationalist narrative of history used only in the private sphere and occasionally hinted at by the catholic church. These narratives existed in their separate worlds between 1945 and 1990 shaping two separate political identities on the left and right. In 1990s, with the fall of communism these political identities were unfrozen and swiftly translated into political attitudes and behaviour, as well as political organizations, forming a sharp and deep cleavage affecting voting behaviour, attitudes toward democracy and societal values, as well as functioning of democratic institutions. The paper traces the development of these political identities through historical junctures of war and communist period and follows by analysing their impact on shaping of political attitudes and behaviour in the post-communist period. It also investigates whether recent economic crisis, as a new critical juncture, and demographic replacement of older cohorts with younger cohorts socialized after the fall of communism reduced the importance of left and right political identities on the shaping of political attitudes, behaviour and values.