Croatia was part of a Communist, one-party system from the mid-1940’s until 1990. Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence in June 1991. Croatia is a parliamentary democracy, consisting of three branches of government: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. An important fact about Croatian governmental policy is that the voting age is 16 for those who are employed; otherwise, it is 18. Croatian law permits ethnic Croats who live outside of Croatia to vote in Croatian elections, even if they have never lived in Croatia and are citizens of other countries.

The executive branch consists of the president of the republic, who is head of state and has a substantial amount of power over governmental functions. The president is also the commander in chief of the armed forces. The president appoints a prime minister and a council of ministers, and is directly elected. He serves a five-year term, and may not be elected to serve more than two terms as president. For a complete list of government office and ministries, click here.

The legislative branch is a bicameral parliament, (The Sabor) which includes a lower house of representatives who are elected by the people, with 127 seats, (Zastupnicki Dom) and an upper-house of districts which consists of 68 seats. (Zupanski Dom). If of the 127 members directly elected to the lower house, the representatives do not include the minority communities, then there are provisions for adding additional members, so that all groups are represented fairly. These minority groups would include the minorities found in Croatia, which are Serbs, Bosniaks, Hungarians, Slovenes, Czechs, Albanians, Montenegrins, and Romas. Of the 68 members in the upper house, there are three from each of the country’s 21 counties. The president appoints five of the upper house members, and the people directly elect the remaining 63 positions. The members of both the lower and upper houses serve four-year terms. The lower house adopts all laws, and the upper house may only propose or request reconsideration of laws. The current distribution of seats by party in the parliament is as follows:

- SDP/HSLS coalition (Social Democratic Party/Croatian Social Liberal Party) will hold 71 seats
- HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) will hold 46 seats, including the six seats representing Croatian citizens living abroad
- HSS/HNS/LS/IDS coalition (Croatian Peasant’s Party/Croatian People’s Party/Liberal Party/Istrian Democratic Party) will hold 24 seats
- HSP/HKDU coalition (Croatian Party of Rights/Croatian Christian Democratic Union) will hold five seats
- Ethnic minorities will hold five seats

The judicial system in Croatia is inherited from the former Yugoslavia, and includes district, constitutional, and supreme courts. Croatia has a system of trial and appeals courts, headed by the Supreme Court of Croatia. Judges are appointed by a High Judiciary Council, elected by the lower house of representatives, and nominated by the Chamber of Counties. Once appointed, a judge serves for life unless he or she resigns or is removed from office by the High Judiciary Council. Constitutional issues are decided by a separate Constitutional Court, composed of eleven judges who are elected for eight-year terms by the lower house and are nominated by the Chamber of Counties. .

Currently the president of Croatia is Stepjan Mesic. During the communist period, Mesic was a member of Parliament in Croatia and was sentenced to one year in prison for his actions in advocating equaltiy for Croatia within Yugoslavia during the"Croatian Spring." In the early 1990's, he entered the HDZ / Croatian Democratic Union. After joining the party, he continued climbing the ladder within his political party. Following the first free elections in Croatia, Mesic was appoionted Secretary of the HDZ and, later, Chairman of the Executive Committee. He held the position of Croatia’s member in the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He remained in this position until December of 1991. Franjo Tudjman died of cancer in December 1999, but was the elected president who pulled Croatia away from Yugoslavia in 1991. Tudjman served from 1990-1999, and during this time won Croatia her freedom and independence as a nation. Parliamentary speaker Vlatko Pavletic, who served as interim president until an election in February 2000, succeeded him. The current Prime Minister is Ivica Racan of the Socialist Democratic Party, The Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs is Tonino Picula also of the Socialist Democratic Party.