Is Croatian Democratic Union left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Croatian Democratic Union scores +05 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +06. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Croatian Democratic Union authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Croatian Democratic Union scores +04. Alternates in and out of government; several of its leaders have been convicted of corruption.

Atlas / Organisations / Croatian Democratic Union

Croatian Democratic Union

HDZ · 1989– · Croatia · National Conservative · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

+05ECmarket

+06CUtraditional

+04AUmonist

+03SCcentral

+05IDascriptive

−03CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

The party of Croatian independence, dominant since, combining Catholic national identity with EU membership.

Economic model

Tourism-led, EU structural funds, privatisation, shipyard restructuring.

Organisation of powers

Alternates in and out of government; several of its leaders have been convicted of corruption.

Check a claim about Croatian Democratic Union. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +05

Coded +5: tourism, EU funds and privatisation.

Documented act or statuteCroatia adopted the euro and joined Schengen in 2023.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: Catholic national identity in education and public life.

Documented act or statuteA 2013 referendum defined marriage constitutionally as between a man and a woman.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +04

Coded +4: alternation in government with repeated corruption convictions.

Documented act or statuteA former prime minister was convicted and imprisoned for corruption in 2012.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +03

Coded +3: a unitary state within the EU.

Documented act or statuteCounties have limited fiscal autonomy.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +05

Coded +5: a Croatian national community with diaspora voting rights.

Documented act or statuteDiaspora voters elect reserved parliamentary seats.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −03

Coded −3: the independence party, now an ordinary governing party.

Documented act or statuteHas alternated in and out of office since 2000.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Croatia

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Croatian Democratic Union. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/hdz/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.