The intention of this paper is to give an insight into governance approaches currently used in
Croatia on regional and local level. The main goal is to assess various models and
approaches within the specific Croatian context, which is a transition and post-war country,
but economically by far ready to enter the European Union.
Models used in the context of regional development in Croatia reach from sector and explicit
socio-economic focus to more spatially and environmentally sensitive approaches, which are
process oriented and rather flexible planning mechanisms. The variety of approaches causes
different processes in understanding and implementation of policies, programmes, or plans.
Several questions, but with focus on institutional capacity in an integrated regional
development context across governance levels and modes, will be targeted by this research:
the level of political evolution to understand institutional inter-relationships, economic
strengths to handle social and environmental aspects, and the applicability of "external"
governance models based on e.g. European programming principles.
Insights will be used from experiences in a number of cases in Croatia, such as the National
Strategy for Regional Development, Regional Operational Programmes, Sustainable Island
Development Programmes, as well as Local Development Programmes.