Direct Democracy in Croatia

Author discusses forms of direct democracy envisaged by the Croatian Constitution of 1990 which defined Croatia as semi-presidential republic, before constitutional ammendment of 1997.Article describes normative regulation of referenda and speculates about reasons for their absence.One of the main reasons seems to be specific institutional framework and political consensus existing among the Parliament, the Government and the President of the Republic which is of dynamic nature.Referendum, having a gridlock breaking capacity offers a solution in form of recourse to the People upon initiative of the President of the Republic, or of the Parliament in absence of political consensus.However, due to existance of such consensus, referenda never took place in Croatia.Author also discusses citizens' right to petition the government in light of an important decision of Croatian Constitutional Court.