Mihovil Škarica

Local Public Services and Austerity Measures in Croatia: Adaptations of the Resilient Social Model through the Central-Local Power and Blame Games

An economic crisis hit Croatia in the period 2008–2014, simultaneously with the EU pre-accession process, provoking various austerity measures in the public sector. The influence of the economic crisis on local service delivery in the healthcare, water, and waste sectors is analysed within the neo-institutional theoretical approach. The main Government’s austerity strategy in the three analysed sectors has aimed at efficiency through financial consolidation and institutional rearrangements. A muddling-through adaptation to environmental pressures has enabled the Croatian local governments to remain untouched by structural, territorial, or similar measures. They adapted to the new situation using the welfare needs as a barrier against any serious reform, despite an inclination towards centralization caused by the lack of capacities in the vast majority of them. It is concluded that the concept of resilient local authority opens appropriate research questions in times of crisis and wicked problems that befall local governments.