Policy Analysis and Croatian Public Administration: The Problem of Formulating Public Policy

The paper considers the role of policy analysis tools in preparing decisions within the Croatian public administration system, concentrating on the specific phase of adoption or formulation of public policy. The starting argument in the paper is that the application of policy analysis is fairly limited in the Croatian public sector. Policy science in Croatia is mostly confined to the analysis of policy, and not to the analysis for policy. The analysis for policy, including systematic comparison of options, collecting information for policy or policy advocacy, has just started to be applied in public administration structures. The failure in applying policy analysis is shown by the institutional deficiencies in running vertical and horizontal coordination, and by the failure in introducing a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) tool kit into the Croatian system of public administration.