Unequal Democracies: Croatia

Fewer than one in two Croatians go vote in national elections - the fourth lowest turnout in Europe. Persistent voting abstention undermines Croatian democratic resilience as more and more citizens become estranged from political processes.

In line with general European trends, the Croatian young, less educated and working class are likely to abstain from voting. Croatian non-voters have low political interest but at the same time - in contrast to other countries - are not disproportionally dissatisfied with democracy.
 

Changing Croatian non-voter behaviour requires tackling persistent structural problems. As one incremental measure we recommend discussing to lower the voting age to 16. For parties, we advocate taking lessons from election campaigns across Europe that specifically targeted non-voters. These include: Non-voting campaigns require tailored messaging, campaign activities that go to districts with low turnout and policies that address widespread grievances.