CROATIA’S CAPTURED PLACES Research report Case Studies on the Quality of Local Governance in Croatia CROATIA’S CAPTURED PLACES Research report Case Studies on the Quality of Local Governance in Croatia Authors: Dražen Hoffmann, Nives Miošić-Lisjak, Duje Prkut, Dragan Zelić - GONG Paul Stubbs, PhD - The Institute of Economics, Zagreb Berto Šalaj, PhD - Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb University Siniša Zrinščak, PhD - Faculty of Law, Zagreb University Zagreb, February 2017. Publisher: GONG For the publisher: Jelena Berković Reviewers: Tea Škokić, PhD, Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb Eric Gordy, PhD, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London Photography author: Jadran Boban ISBN: 978-953-7960-06-3 Table of Contents 0. Executive Summary 5 1. Introduction 9 2. Key Concepts 12 2.1 Local State 13 2.2 State Capture 14 2.3 Informal practices 15 2.4 Power networks 16 3. Methodology 18 4. Local State Capture in Croatian Practice 24 4.1 Elements of the Institutional and Legal Frameworks 25 The County of Istria 27 1. Political Context in the County of Istria 28 2. Formal Mechanism of Local State Capture in the County of Istria 30 3. Informal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the County of Istria 36 4. Ensuring Voter Support in the County of Istria 39 5. Factors Contributing to IDS’ Continuous Governance in the County of Istria 41 The City of Zagreb 48 1. Political Context in the City of Zagreb 49 2. Formal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Zagreb 51 3. Informal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Zagreb 60 4. Ensuring Voter Support in the City of Zagreb 64 5. Factors Contributing to Bandić’s Continuous Governance in the City of Zagreb 67 The City of Dubrovnik 71 1. Political Context in the City of Dubrovnik 72 2. Formal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Dubrovnik 78 3. Informal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Dubrovnik 84 4. Ensuring Voter Support in the City of Dubrovnik 87 5. Factors Contributing to Vlahušić’s Continuous Governance in the City of Dubrovnik 89 The City of Slavonski Brod 93 1. Political Context in the City of Slavonski Brod 94 2. Formal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Slavonski Brod 97 3. Informal Mechanisms of Local State Capture in the City of Slavonski Brod 105 4. Ensuring Voter Support in the City of Slavonski Brod 107 5. Factors Contributing to Duspara’s Continuous Governance in the City of Slavonski Brod 110 Conclusions and Recommendations 113 Appendix 1 – Descriptions of interviewees 120 Bibliography 123 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The research Croatia’s Captured Places was focused on actors and mechanisms of governance in which a system or parts of a system are appropriated by powerful individuals, groups or networks to favour their own interests in four local and regional government units in Croatia (Dubrovnik, Slavon- ski Brod, Zagreb and the County of Istria). Furthermore, we were interested in whether citizens of these communities were aware of such practices and their attitudes towards them. On the basis of, for the most part, already publicly available information, validated by means of a combi- nation of qualitative research methods, we confirmed the presence of capture practices in each of the localities, albeit on a different scale, and adapted to local political contexts as well as to the nature and quantity of resources available. Furthermore, the hypothesis on the astuteness of actors in combining formal rules and informal practices in order to achieve particularistic interests was confirmed. Although the study was primarily focused on actors and mechanisms of capture identified in the locali- ties, and not with the direct, specific, effects of capture, the analysis suggests that capture produces numerous negative outcomes. These range from creating new or widening existing inequalities (access to jobs, access to business opportunities, possibilities of self-actualization), through generating a sense of inability and pointlessness of public action all the way to political apathy and disinterest in politics on the part of citizens. On their own, each of these elements has a nega- tive effect on the political and social development of local communities, while their combined effects are seriously detrimental to the further development of democracy.1 The study identified several policy areas “conducive” to capture in all chosen localities: (1) employ- ment/appointments; (2) communal construction works (3) spatial planning; and (4) social policy mea- sures. Each of them has specific, multiple functions that enable or perpetuate capture, as shown in the Table below: FUNCTIONS expanding exerting increasing resource increasing gaining the MECHANISMS networks control quantity distribution chances political over and value of re-election support of networks other political options employment/appointments X X X X X communal construction works X X X X spatial planning X X social policy measures X X Furthermore, the study revealed that capture practices are enabled and supported by existing legal and institutional frameworks, and that they are developed in interaction between our identified agents of capture and the leading national parties (HDZ and SDP). This allows us to form a hypothe- sis that the practices identified in the four case studies are occurring nationwide. Namely, the formal aspects of governance, i.e. the existing laws can become enablers which contribute to the further 1 Despite their obvious deficiencies, these informal practices may certainly also produce positive effects, especially if formal procedures and practices substantially restrict the functioning of the system, or make it impossible. However, this aspect of informal practices was not addressed in this analysis. 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY development and sustainability of informal practices and in the end contribute to capture and serve to undermine the declared purposes of measures proposed to safeguard consolidated democracy. In terms of shared elements across the four localities, the study has identified the invisible hand of the political market in all localities, although the modalities of “political trading” between local and national levels are highly contextualised. Other shared elements fall under the heading of captured control mechanisms – political opposition, media and civil society – where weaknesses of the opposition are again locally highly context specific. As regards the local media, they are financially dependent on local authorities, which constrains almost entirely any type of criticism, and consequential- ly impedes their working in the public interest. The situation is similar with civil society, which tends to be weak at local level, and in the rare instances when civil society acts as a corrective of local state authori- ties, CSOs face public defamation and “disciplinary” measures – including the withdrawal of funding and/or working space. Since many of the identified practices do not represent a breach of legal norms, this, at least in part, explains the lack of serious and systemic attempts to restructure the country territorially. Namely, an “enabling” legal environment may be interpreted as a means to maintain the status quo, which facilitates power networks’ maintaining their position and status, thus increasing the amount of resources at their disposal. The power of the network largely stems from the value of the resources controlled, while the potential to increase that value in the future is a powerful motivation to uphold the status quo. The short-term positive effects of sets of policy measures do not decrease the longer-term negative effects of local state capture on the part of power networks, especially if they are analysed from the perspective of their function – ensuring re-election of those who make sure that particularistic interests are satisfied. Regarding citizens, the research showed that a significant part of them are aware of the mechanisms leading to capture, but that they consider them to be part of the “normal” and sometimes even “expected” behaviour of politicians. Namely, the starting point for most citizens is that politicians are corrupt. Thus, given that their integrity is not the differentia specifica on the basis of which they can make political choices, they seek an alternative point of difference between candidates. In our cases, citizens in elections opted for powerful, charismatic leaders with strong political instincts who build their image as “benefactors”. Those citizens that vote for current political leaders in our localities offer interesting rationalizations of their choices: from “they are all the same, so we elect our own” (Istria), through “they all steal, but the mayor at least does something” (Zagreb) to accusations of smear campaigns on the part of their political opponents (Dubrovnik and Slavonski Brod). Since the dominant position is that political corruption is the starting point of Croatian politics, then voting for a “benefactor” creating multiple patron-client relationships is not a problem. It is precisely in the latter where the biggest danger to democracy lies – failure to “punish” the lack of political accountability in elections means that the key mechanism of representative democracy has been lost – the control and eventual political “punishment” of the governing by the governed, i.e. citizens. The lack of interest in politics and voter apathy suit power networks, since the lower the turnout at elections the higher their chances of electoral success. Electoral success, in turn, ensures the mainte- nance and spreading of the network. What also contributes are the decisions of parts of the judicial system, which by making contradictory decisions in cases of prosecuting political corruption, with many acquittals often on ‘technical’ grounds, additionally confuses citizens and undermines their trust in the system, further increasing the political apathy of voters. Thus, an important empirical question for 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY further research would be the role of the judiciary, including lawyers, and the level of their involvement in networks producing capture.