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Citizenship and Social Welfare in Croatia: Clientelism and the limits of 'Europeanisation'
Paul Stubbs and Sinia Zrinak Edinburgh June 2013

From Regimes to Assemblages

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Emphasis on hybridity, heterogeneity, fluidity, instability and unfinished nature of both citizenship and welfare rarely coherent and unitary regimes Conjunctural analysis /thick contextualisation open to the play of contingency Europeanisation (de-/re-)constructs subjectivities, identities and policy domains No necessary correspondence between legal regulations and lived practices importance of talking back Citizenship and welfare framed by relationality and multiscalarity

Clientelism: Governance, Citizenship and Redistribution

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Political science: clientelism as patronage and exchange Linked to capture of state, public administration, judiciary, mass media, etc., even within formally democratic systems Particularistic governance Exclusivist citizenship Asymmetrical (re-)distribution Kitschelt and Wilkinson: contingent; direct; viable; predictable; compliance; monitoring; enforcement Clientelism within welfare assemblages Southern European and post-communist models

Political Clientelism in Croatia

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Tuman HDZ: authoritarian nationalism and charismatic clientelism state subsidies; public sector jobs; privatisation proceeds Sanader HDZ: modernising, Europeanising and/or rescaling clientelism? Origins in political capitalism (upanov) Sub-national clientelisms: cities, regions, minority parties Enrolment of diaspora and Bosnian Croats Importance of veterans associations

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Social Clientelism in Croatia I

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Thesis of social welfare and radical break too simplistic Centres for Social Work rationing in war conditions: categorical (displaced refugees), symbolic (deserving/ undeserving) and instrumental-particularistic (veze) Bosnian Croats: dual citizenship/residence allows access to welfare benefits and services; Cro budget spending on Cantonal health and education programmes Croatian Serbs: slow removal of de jure obstacles to welfare benefits; de facto obstacles remain; little or no recognition of fluidity of return and settlement

Social Clientelism in Croatia II

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War veterans: symbolic category (0.5 m. on register); partially hidden in constructed categories of benefit recipients Passive, compensational approach not geared to reintegration of ex-combatants Evidence: 2013: new Govt 8,689 pupil-student scholarships cost 5.4m (avge 620); 2012: War pensions (HV) 70,579 beneficiaries (avge 700); 2011: 12,000 disability pensions per 100,000 pop; 138,962/328,018 war-related; 2010: 51.7% of social protection expenditure on sickness/healthcare and disability

Conclusions and Dilemmas

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Does the concept of clientelism help or hinder analysis Problems of statistics/data/evidence hidden as a result of the same processes Relationship between welfare clientelism and residual/ neo-liberal approaches to social policy not clear Role of international actors: EU, World Bank and relationship to economic and financial crisis/austerity/ new European periphery needs more exploration Importance of wider regional/post-Yu context

Thank you for your attention

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pstubbs@eizg.hr sinisa.zrinscak@zg.t-com.hr