Anka Kekez Koštro

Bio: Anka Kekez Koštro is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Public policy & Policy analysis. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 24 citations.

Politics of Decentralization Policy: Explaining the Limited Success of Croatian Case after 2001

Abstract: The Croatian “decentralisation package” from the mid 2001 has shown how multiple pressures for shifting power to the local level might end relatively unsuccessfully. The central government has handed over the control over the entire policy process by shifting responsibilities for certain educational, welfare and health services to the counties and municipalities. A decentralization initiative was excessively marked by the vertical policy dimension, expressed by the top down incentives of the central government to shift the responsibilities to the regional and local level. The central government bodies did not take into account the alternative proposals made by various policy actors ranging from academic institutions, researchers in NGO’s, associations of local government’s organizations etc. All these things have contributed to a relatively negligible influence of horizontal policy dimension on the decentralization outcome. The whole process could be described as centrally controlled decentralization or decentralization from the above. One of the illustrations of such a conclusion is the limited success in decentralizing operating educational costs to the city governments. Only one third of the cities have agreed to take part in the decentralization of educational services. Other two thirds of city governments simply calculated that their fiscal as well as their administrative capacity is insufficient to handle the new decentralized services. Decision “not to implement” adopted by this two thirds of city governments should not be primarily labelled as an implementation deficit, but also as a sign for doubtful legitimacy of the educational policy decentralization from the above. While accessing their own capacities for implementation of new decentralized services as insufficient, these cities have stated the request for more contextualized formulation or re- formulation of the “decentralisation package” in education. Taking into account the fact that “the decentralisation package” in health was concerned only with the counties and not the cities, the limited scope of decentralization is becoming more evident. Moreover, limited scope and success of decentralization policy is even more vivid in social policy which is characterized by parallel, but not coherent, de-concentration, decentralization and devolution processes. Croatian social policy is formulated and implemented in rather fragmented territorial and institutional context with different territorial authorities often intervening in the management, delivery and planning of social services. In the context of institutional pluralisation, users are often in-between, but not in the focus of, fragmented services provided by de-concentrated local state branches, as well as county and local level authorities and their institutions. With limited engagement in the design of social policy decentralization, horizontal actors, primarily NGOs, enter social policy arena in the process of policy implementation. Taking over substitutive instead of complementary role, NGOs often act as substitutive service providers and case managers searching for connections among institutional service providers and complementarities among fragmented decentralized social services. Who decided to run things in this way or who designed the possibilities for decentralization? Public officials in the central government bodies devised their decentralization proposals on the basis of interdepartmental meetings at which assistants of ministers re-calculated in ballpark figures about the precise portions of educational, welfare or health services that might be taken on by counties or cities. The policy experts for decentralization connected with the domestic and international think tanks and NGOs, who had contributed considerable expertise on alternative proposals for decentralization, did not play substantial role in formulating decentralization policy. The Croatian case has confirmed the critical role of evidence-based policy for successful devolution policy in one country. By comparing Hungarian and Slovakian decentralization case some policy scholars showed that the relative success of devolution in Hungary should be credited to the fact that the Hungarian Institute of Public Administration had been prepared a very good policy basis for decentralization during the late 1980s. It appears that the Croatian case is more similar to the Slovakian case, labelled by the missing comprehensive decentralization plan made by think tanks. The only difference was the fact that decision-makers in Croatia were reluctant to put at the agenda the model that has been prepared by various policy experts sitting outside government. This fact is explained in the paper by the limited role of policy analysis in the specific Croatian institutional settings connected with formulating and legitimizing public policy. The basic hypothesis is that limited scope in employing policy analysis is not confined only to the role of horizontal policy actors, but also to the limited role of policy analysis in the work of Croatian policy bureaucracy. In further development of hypothesis, the paper ties the limited role of policy analysis in formulating and legitimizing Croatian “decentralisation package” with evident trends of policy de-legitimization and re-formulation as well as with territorial and institutional services fragmentation, both present in the implementation of decentralized policies.

Regions and regionalism in "new" European Union member states: the cases of Istria and Pirin Macedonia

Abstract: The research studies regionalism in two sub-national border regions, Istria in Croatia and Pirin Macedonia in Bulgaria, by testing empirically existing theories on regions and regionalism. Identifying two regions where regionalism is likely to be strong, the research seeks to answer the question why comparable initial conditions have led to different levels of regionalism. While Istria has developed strong and stable regionalism with self-governance on political, cultural and economic matters, Pirin Macedonia’s regionalism has been largely limited to expressions of its cultural specificity. Theories on regionalism have been predominantly based on quantitative research of a large number of regions, which has often spanned across continents and time. Few contextual case studies have been carried out, in particular in “new” EU Member States where regionalism is altogether not widespread or at least not well articulated politically. This research provides such a contextual study and empirical backing of theories focusing on the factors leading to regionalism. Its findings indicate that economic and political uncertainly is more conducive for the emergence of regionalism than economic prosperity and political routine, but also that regionalism is more likely to be stable in the long run if it is built on such premises as affluence, cooperation and peaceful tackling of regional issues. Furthermore, at least in the case of “new” EU Member States, regionalism appears to be more about the vested-in interests of regional players than about processes of democratization and improved efficiency. An increased independence on the regional level appears to lead to stronger regionalism only if there is an overlap between political and administrative functions, i.e. if regionalist political actors are successful in establishing control over public institutions.

From Neglect to Selective Engagement: The EU Approach to Rural Development in the Arab Mediterranean after the Arab Uprisings

Abstract: After the Arab uprisings, the EU designed a new regional programme for the development of the agricultural sector of the European Neighbourhood Policy partners. The European Neighbourhood Programme...

Influence of Institutions and Actors on the Reform of Implementation Management : A Comparative Analysis of Social Services in Croatia

Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to describe and explain the variation in the reform of implementation management in Croatia by looking at various soci

Ekonomska uspješnost gradova u hrvatskoj - statistička analiza

Abstract: This paper presents a statistical analysis of fundamental economic (municipal and firm level) indicators of Croatian cities. The analysis is conducted on a sample of 91 cities, whereby the emphasis is being placed both on fiscal position of individual municipal administrations and business results of entrepreneurs doing business in those municipalities. The focus is also placed on differences in economic indicators stemming from size of the cities, the distribution of the cities in larger regional units and dominant political party in a city. The analysis applies Leven test for homogeneity of variance, ANOVA, and Sheffe post hoc-test. The results suggest that there are statistically significant differences in municipal economic indicators, where the most persistent differentiation stems from differences in the share of tax revenues in total revenues. Other detected differences are related to small and big cities, and between cities in Northwest and Continental Croatia when compared to the rest of the country.

The Inquiry into the Economic Life of Croatian Municipalities

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the main determinants of the economic life in Croatian municipalities. For that purpose, we collected data related to the municipal budgets and business results of entrepreneurs registered in 427 municipalities during 2007-2011 period. In order to determine and study the variations in municipal economic outcomes related to the size of municipalities, their administrative status (municipalities belonging to the areas of state national concern, hill and mountain areas, and island areas), their geographic location and dominant political party in the municipality, we apply multivariate statistics methods (Levene’s test of variance homogeneity, ANOVA, and Sheffe post-hoc test). The results suggest that size of the municipalities explains the variation related to municipal fiscal capacity and average net earnings of inhabitants living in municipalities. The political affiliation of a mayor is related to the differences in the relative amount of aid granted from the central government budget, fiscal capacity and indebtness, while the differences in administrative status of municipalities account for discrepancies observed in employment, average net earnings, indebtedness, central government aid, and expenditures for social protection. The basic conclusion of research is that Croatian municipalities differ significantly in the majority of the analyzed economic determinants and that current administrative status should be subject to the general local government reform, not only in special status and number of local units but also in fiscal equalization process.