The First Elections—1990 in Croatia and 1992 in Slovakia

Abstract

This chapter studies the emergence of “Nationalist” parties in Croatia and Slovakia and their entry into government through elections in 1990 and 1992, respectively. After putting the elections in their historical contexts (chiefly, the political maneuverings and interethnic tensions in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia), the chapter looks at the founding of the HDZ and HZDS and the discourse they used during their first election campaigns, particularly concerning the concept of the nation and the nation’s prospects for full development. In doing so, it focuses on three major questions: how “Nationalist” elite groups emerged, how certain policies and strategies affected the formation or persistence of such groups, and how elites managed to mobilize the population on the basis of national interests. Given that the victory of parties other than the HDZ and HZDS could have drastically changed the Croatian and Slovak nations’ future prospects, it is especially important to determine the major points of conflict between these two parties and their competitors. Moreover, the interaction between the political elite and the popular political culture is another key point of analysis: politicians must be sensitive to national traditions and to the prevailing public mood. Were elites consciously manipulating the masses, or were they simply responding to pressure from grass-roots nationalist movements?