LOKALNA DEMOKRACIJA 475 County Elections in Croatia: On the Path to Genuine Regional Politics Ivan Koprić * Daria Dubajić** Tijana Vukojičić Tomić*** UDK 352.075.31(497.5) 342.84:352(497.5) Original scientific paper / izvorni znanstveni rad Received / primljeno: 21. 7. 2014. Accepted / prihvaćeno: 17. 4. 2015. Croatian counties were tailored with little consideration for historical, natural, economic, social, and professional criteria. They are rather small in size and population and there are considerable differences between them. Subna- tional electoral system with proportional representation, blocked lists and five per cent threshold causes deperso- * Professor Ivan Koprić, Full Professor and Head of the Chair of Administrative Sci- ence at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia, and president of the Institute of Public Administration (redoviti profesor i predstojnik Katedre za upravnu znanost Pravnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, predsjednik Instituta za javnu upravu iz Zagreba, e-mail:
[email protected]) ** Daria Dubajić, Assistant at the Chair of Administrative Science, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia (asistentica na Katedri za upravnu znanost Pravnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, e-mail:
[email protected]) *** Tijana Vukojičić Tomić, Lecturer at the Chair of Administrative Science, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia (predavačica na Katedri za upravnu znanost Pravnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, e-mail:
[email protected]) PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND COMPARATIVE CROATIAN Koprić, I., D. Dubajić, T. Vukojičić Tomić (2015) County Elections in Croatia ... HKJU – CCPA 15(2): 475–516 476 nalisation of local politics. In addition, only few political parties and their political agendas could be identified as regional. Political arena in the counties is still dominated by national parties and their organizational branches whi- le county elections are highly “nationalized” and subor- dinated to national elections.