Croatia

Abstract

Since its inception in 1990, the Croatian constitution has been amended six times. While constitutional politics served the purpose of maintaining autocratic rule in the 1990s, it subsequently served the purpose of adapting Croatia’s fundamental law in order to mark the country’s democratic restart and institutionalize the European Union. Overall, constitutional amendments have been sporadic rather than frequent and have more or less been the domain of the political leadership, which was willing to compromise on most of the issues for which changes were suggested. The most recent efforts to reform the constitution did, however, originate from a popular initiative and could potentially be a sign of the realm of constitutional politics opening up to a broader sphere of actors.

Appendix: Constitutional Politics in Croatia 1990–2014

Dates of amendment and implementation	Articles	Constitutional subfields	Short analysis of the reform process
12/12/1997/ 12/15/1997	Preamble, Art. 2, 5, 7–9, 14–15, 17, 32–33, 35–37, 43–45, 47, 49–50, 52–53, 57, 59, 61–63, 68–76, 78–80, 84, 86, 92–93, 97–98, 100–101, 103, 110–111, 119–121, 123, 125, 129–130, 133–136, 139–142	• Preamble and basic provisions • Human and civil rights • Executive • Foreign policy • Final provisions • Editorial changes	• Regular amendment initiated by president (final vote: 115-to-1 majority with 2 abstentions) • Total number of deputies: 127 • Main actors: president
11/24/1999/ unclear	Art. 97	• Executive	• Regular amendment due to Tuđman falling terminally ill • Amendment passed with votes from governing party and small opposition parties • Total number of deputies: 127 • Main actors: members of the HDZ
11/09/2000	Art. 2–4, 6–7, 13, 15–17, 29, 31, 38, 42–43, 53, 66, 71, 73, 76–78, 80, 83, 86–90, 92, 94, 96–105, 105a (inserted), 106, 108–114, 116–118, 120, 122–126, 129–140	• Preamble and basic principles • Human and civil rights • Executive • Legislative • Executive-legislative relations • Judiciary • Constitutional Court • Local self-administration • Foreign policy • Military • Editorial changes	• Regular amendment passed with votes from coalition and small opposition parties (final vote: 106-to-35 majority) • Total number of deputies: 151 • Main actors: president, government, governing majority in parliament
03/28/2001	Preamble, Art. 7, 14, 17, 26–27, 32, 35, 42–43, 45–47, 49, 53, 57–58, 69–75, 77–88, 91–92, 96, 98–101, 103–104, 109–116, 118–119, 121, 123–126, 128–132, 138–147	• Human and civil rights • Legislature • Executive-legislative relations • Judiciary • Final provisions • Editorial changes	• Regular amendment passed with votes from coalition and small opposition parties (final vote: 103-to-25 majority without abstentions) • Total number of deputies: 151 • Main actors: president, government, governing majority in parliament
06/16/2010 (partly 07/01/2013)	Preamble, Art. 5, 7, 9, 31, 38, 45, 53–54, 58, 65–66, 83, 87, 91, 93, 107, 118–119, 121–126, 133, 135, 142–146, 151–152	• Preamble and basic principles • Human and civil rights • Executive • Legislature • Judiciary • Local self-administration • Control/oversight agencies • EU membership • Editorial changes	• Regular amendment passed with votes from all political parties • Joint elaboration of reform draft by means of an inter-party working group (final vote: 33-to-4 majority with 1 abstention) • Total number of deputies: 153 • Main actors: government, parliament
12/01/2013/ unclear	Art. 62	• Human and civil rights	• Constitutional amendment referendum initiated by citizen’s group “In the Name of the Family” (final vote: 65.9 % “yes”, 37.90 % of the electorate took part) • Main actors: citizens’ initiative, government, parliament, constitutional court