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POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, POLITICAL PARTIES, AND KEY POLITICAL LEADERS:

System of Government:

Executive: A new constitution was adopted on 22 December 1990. The president is elected for 5-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister, who, in turn, appoints government ministers. Zlatko Matesa was appointed prime minister on 4 November 1995 to replace Nikica Valentic.

Legislature: Croatia has a bicameral parliament, the Sabor, composed of a lower House of Representatives or Zastupnicki Dom and an upper House of Districts or Zupanski Dom. Five members of the upper house are appointed by the president; the remainder of both houses is elected. The most recent upper house election was held on 7 and 21 February 1992. The HDZ of Franjo Tudjman holds 37 (54 percent) of 68 seats. The most recent lower house election was 29 October 1995. Tudjman's HDZ won 75 out of 127 seats, which represented a slight decline to 59.1 percent of the seats, from 61.6 percent (85 out of 138) in 1992. The Council of Europe criticized the 1995 elections for lack of ballot secrecy, and for last-minute changes in the election law reducing Serb representation and creating separate seats for 460,000 Croats residing abroad, most of whom back Franjo Tudjman.

The Judicial System: Still largely inherited from the former Yugoslavia, this includes district, Constitutional, and Supreme Courts. Changes in the method of selecting judges adopted in early 1995 were sharply criticized as compromising the independence of the judiciary.

The Political Parties:

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Founded by Franjo Tudjman in 1988, the HDZ has been the dominant political party since the first multi-party parliamentary election in April and May 1990. The HDZ received 44.8 percent of the popular vote in October 1995, when about two thirds of 3.6 million eligible Croats voted. President Tudjman called the election early, reportedly hoping to capture a parliamentary two-thirds majority because of popular approval of the Summer 1995 surprise recapture of most rebel-Serb occupied territory. His failure to meet that goal has been attributed to some voters dismay with the president's authoritarian manner and privileges accorded the HDZ elite. Secretary General of the HDZ is Zlatko Canjuga.

Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). Founded in 1904, the HSS under Stjepan Radic and Vlatko Macek represented between 80 and 90 percent of the Croatian electorate during the period between World War I and World War II. After the 1941 German invasion, Macek was interned by the Ustashe, then fled Croatia in 1945 when a communist victory appeared inevitable, and died in exile in the United States. In October 1995, an HSS-led coalition captured 18.4 percent of the vote, receiving 16 seats in the lower house. HSS leader is Josip Pankretic. The members of the 1995 coalition included the Istrian Democratic Sabor (IDS), Croatian Peoples Party (HNS), Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU), and the Croatian Party of Slavonia and Baranja (SBHS).

The Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) was the leading opposition party after the 1992 election. In October 1995, it captured 11.6 percent of the vote, down substantially from its 17.3 percent in 1992, and received 12 seats. Its leader is Drazen Budisa.

The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), founded by Dobroslav Paraga, took the name of a Croat nationalist party of the same name founded in the 1850s. Extreme right-wing, it is not ashamed of its Ustasha leanings. It was connected with a black-shirted paramilitary unit, also founded by Paraga, which operated at the beginning of the 1991 war. The party is now split, part led by Ante apic and part by Paraga. It has four seats in the new lower house.

The Croatian People's Party (HNS), founded in 1990, included many of the former communist leaders of the Croatian Spring of the late 1960s. In 1995, the HNS was included in the HSS-lead coalition, with two seats.

The Serbian Peoples Party (SNS) is the party which represents the ethnic Serbs that have chosen to participate in political life in Croatia. The Party's leader is Milan Djukic. It won two seats in the 1995 election.

Social Democratic Action of Croatia (ASH), also mentioned as the League of Social Democrats, was founded by Ante Miko Tripalo in 1994, although Tripalo, leader of the Croatian Communist Party during the Croatian Spring, died 11 December 1995. It has one seat in the new lower house.

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The Economy and the Infrastructure