Government Stability and Coalition Conflict Management in Croatia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the stability of coalition governments in Croatia in the period 2000–2020, starting with the premise that cabinet instability is influenced by the limited scope of coalition agreements and ineffective conflict resolution mechanisms. The paper first analyses coalition agreements with regard to their scope and content, and goes on to explore the actual processes of coalition governance that occur within the “black box” by identifying the most common conflicts and the mechanisms which are used to resolve these. The analysis uses original empirical data collected through interviews with former members of coalition governments, as well as coalition agreements, government programmes, the archives of two daily newspapers, and archival databases of the government and parliament. Research results have led to the main conclusion that due to