Abstract:

One of the best established facts of Croatian politics is the geographical divide between the north-west part of the country which votes for left-wing options and the south-east part of the country which votes for right-wing options. Croatia is not an exception in this regard, as many countries in the region and beyond feature a similar geographical clustering of different political identities. What long-term factors can be used to explain this spatial distribution, the division of the country into a "red Croatia" and a "black Croatia"? this article uses a quantitative analysis of municipal data in order to investigate the impact of three groups of factors: (1) the developmental legacy of socialist Yugoslavia as it existed at the time of the country's dissolution, (2) the deep structural, economic and demographic changes that took place since the end of socialist Yugoslavia until today and (3) the long-run legacies of World War II (1941-1945) and the Homeland War (1991-1995).

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