Čepo, Dario and Kovačić, Marko and Gvozdanović, Anja (2025) Croatia. In: Palgrave handbook on the 2024 European Parliament elections. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 139-153. ISBN 978-3-031-87396-6 (Print), 978-3-031-87397-3 (eBook)
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
IN ENGLISH: European Parliament elections have been mired with low turnouts and protest votes for the last couple of decades. This was especially pronounced in the new member states of Central and Eastern Europe and was linked to gender and age variables. The elections of 2019 bucked that trend, showing the rise in turnout across EU, including Croatia. What is not known is why this upswing in vote happened and how it influenced (or was influenced by) the focus of political parties on specific policies. By analysing the results of 2019 EP elections in Croatia, comparing them to previous national and EP elections, and linking them to the perceptions of citizens towards the European integration, we will answer the following research question: how and why did political parties incorporate gender and youth policies in their electoral programs and activities, and in what way did that influence the higher turnout in Croatia. We used mixed-methods approach, focusing dominantly on interpretative method in order to gain insights from both qualitative and quantitative data on public perception of the EU, voting results in EP and national elections, campaign materials of relevant political parties, and their ideological positions and policy preferences. We concluded that both gender and youth policies influenced how political parties approached 2019 EP elections, especially by putting female and younger candidates on electoral lists, organizing campaigns symbolically depicting these two groups, and promising policies focused on them. Despite 2019 EP elections maintaining their role described by the Second-order Elections Theory, with important influence of protest votes, in Croatia this gender- and youth-based focus allowed for political parties to depict the EU as an important place to contest public policies as well, strengthening the Europe Salience Theory. --------------- IN CROATIAN: Europski parlamentarni izbori posljednjih su desetljeća obilježeni niskom izlaznošću i izraženim protestnim glasovima. Ova je pojava bila osobito naglašena u novim državama članicama Srednje i Istočne Europe, a pritom je bila povezana s varijablama roda i dobi. Ipak, izbori za Europski parlament 2019. godine predstavljali su iznimku od tog trenda, jer je zabilježen porast izlaznosti diljem EU-a, uključujući i Hrvatsku. Ono što ostaje nejasno jest zašto je došlo do tog porasta izlaznosti te na koji je način on bio povezan s fokusom političkih stranaka na specifične javne politike. Analizom rezultata izbora za Europski parlament 2019. u Hrvatskoj, u usporedbi s prethodnim nacionalnim i europskim izborima, te povezivanjem tih rezultata s percepcijama građana o europskoj integraciji, nastojali smo odgovoriti na istraživačko pitanje: na koji su način i zbog kojih razloga političke stranke uvrstile rodne i omladinske politike u svoje izborne programe i aktivnosti te kako je to utjecalo na povećanu izlaznost u Hrvatskoj. Primijenjen je mješoviti metodološki pristup, s naglaskom na interpretativnu metodu, kako bismo dobili uvid u kvalitativne i kvantitativne podatke o percepcijama javnosti prema EU-u, rezultate izbora za Europski parlament i nacionalnih izbora, kampanjske materijale relevantnih političkih stranaka te njihove ideološke pozicije i programske orijentacije. Zaključili smo da su i rodne i omladinske politike oblikovale pristup političkih stranaka izborima 2019., posebice kroz stavljanje žena i mlađih kandidata na izborne liste, organizaciju kampanja koje su simbolički isticale te dvije društvene skupine te obećavanje politika usmjerenih na njih. Unatoč tomu što su izbori 2019. zadržali obilježja opisana u teoriji izbora drugog reda, uz važan utjecaj protestnog glasanja, u hrvatskom je slučaju rodno i dobno usmjerenje omogućilo političkim strankama da predstave EU i kao relevantno mjesto političkog nadmetanja oko javnih politika, čime je ojačana teorija salijentnosti Europe.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Language: English. - Title in Croatian: Hrvatska. - Book editors: Juliet Lodge, Julie Smith, Stergios Fotopoulos. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Croatia, Europe Salience Theory, second-order elections, gender policies, youth policies (Hrvatska, teorija salijentnosti Europe, izbori drugog reda, rodne politike, omladinske politike) |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JA Political science (General) |
| Depositing User: | Karolina |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2025 07:02 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Sep 2025 06:17 |
| URI: | http://idiprints.knjiznica.idi.hr/id/eprint/1230 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
