Abstract
This paper examines how the proposed conceptualization of Croatia’ s regional economic development, Koncepcija regionalnong gospodarskog razvitka Republike Hrvatske (1999), addresses the challenges of Croatia’ s uneven economic development. While the problems of Croatia’ s lagging regions have been addressed, the conceptualization contains controversies regarding what should be the guiding principles of regional policy -- targeted or balanced regional economic development. The proposed conceptualization represents a mixture of neoliberal thinking about the key actors in regional economic development, principles of European Union regionalism and the socialist-era legacies. Consequently, it lacks clarity in several key aspects. A specific challenge is the existing multiciplicity of regional and socials interests as well as the limitations of regional economic development based on rigid administrative-territorial units.
Highlights
Concern with differential regional growth rates is not a new phenomenon, the regional debates are considerably more robust since the 1990s
The process of sub-national region-building is driven in part by optimism about the superior ability of regional and local governments to more successfully address regional differential growth rates in an increasingly globally-oriented world than central governments. This trend is evident in a wide range of countries, from industrial powers like Britain to newly industrialized countries such as South Korea and to developing countries including Nicaragua and former Soviet-sphere nations. Underneath these contradictory trends is a third trend, characterized with a resurgence of interest in regional solutions in which the metropolitan region – “city-state” – is considered the primary building block of the economy (Storper 1997, Scott 1998 cited in Markusen 2002)
Among the most serious is the overall weak financial situation of municipalities with limited local budgets coupled with the lack of experienced staff, lack of experience with regional development thinking within municipalities as well as the lack of risk capital and local private co-financing (Regional Development in Slovenia 2004)
Summary
Polarization of Regional Economic Development in Croatia: Trends and Challenges in a New Geographic Reality*. This paper examines how the proposed conceptualization of Croatia’s regional economic development, Koncepcija regionalnong gospodarskog razvitka Republike Hrvatske (1999), addresses the challenges of Croatia’s uneven economic development. The proposed conceptualization represents a mixture of neoliberal thinking about the key actors in regional economic development, principles of European Union regionalism and the socialist-era legacies. It lacks clarity in several key aspects. Polarizacija regionalnog ekonomskog razvoja u Hrvatskoj: tredovi i izazovi nove geografske realnosti. Iako polazi od postojeće prostorne stvarnosti, određene izrazitim jazom između polova polariziranog razvoja i ruralne periferije, predloženom koncepcijom nije izrijekom definiran vodeći princip – ciljani razvoj ili usklađeni regionalni razvoj. Ključne riječi: polarizacija regionalnog ekonomskog razvoja, ciljani gospodarski razvoj, uravnoteženi regionalni gospodarski razvoj, Hrvatska
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