Loyalty, Voice or Exit: Electoral Participation and Support for New Parties in Croatia

Sa？etak The author analyses changes in electoral behaviour and electoral participation which took place in the 2015. and 2016. parliamentary elections in Croatia. In these elections both support for new parties and electoral abstention simultaneously reached their highest level so far. The author starts from the assumption that electorates of new parties and abstainers are very similar in their evaluations of political system and political elites’ performance, but that they differ in perception of their ability to influence politics through electoral participation. At the same time, voters of old and new parties are similar with respect to perception of their ability to influence politics, but they differ in their identification with predominant ideological cleavages, and their attitudes toward political system and political elites. The author tests these propositions using data from electoral surveys conducted after the 2015. and 2016. elections. Results of the analysis support principal expectations of the paper about differences between voters of old and new parties and electoral abstainers