The purpose of this paper is to apply Hofstede's value survey in Croatia and examine regional differences in the cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. Based on...

(2010). Corruption and public procurement: example from Croatia. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies: Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 375-397.

This is a conceptual paper that aims to identify relevant approaches for assessing consumer resilience with regard to online privacy violation and to develop a research model suitable for subsequent empirical testing. Based on the relevant literature, we made a synthesis of theoretical approaches to individual resilience from diverse disciplines and in the next step we proposed a set of variables in the model to serve as determinants and behavioral consequences of consumer resilience with regard to online privacy violation. Finally, we offer the developed conceptual model for further scholarly debate and for future empirical verification from the research community.

There is a necessity to balance the need for security and fear about losing privacy, while maintaining this balance is crucial for avoiding erosion of public support for privacy policy. Citizens and consumers' attitudes towards privacy are important for shaping privacy policy, and there is a paucity of research on privacy and data protection issues, especially in less developed countries. This study examines what groups of population with similar attitudes towards privacy, data protection and surveillance exist in Western Balkan countries, and whether they can be differentiated by demographic characteristics and by country of residence. The data is collected by public opinion survey to assess the value privacy may have for citizens and if privacy is recognized as a social and political value. The findings indicate that there are three groups of citizens with similar attitudes: (1) pro-surveillance oriented citizens, (2) citizens concerned about being surveilled and (3) citizens opting for better data protection, which differ in age, education, employment and country of residence. The results show that citizens in Western Balkan countries are not homogeneous in their attitudes, and as a result, governments in those countries should take into consideration local differences when shaping privacy policies. Policy implications are discussed to encourage public debate on contemporary privacy, data protection and surveillance issues in the region.

This article investigates corruption pressures at the sub-national government level by employing a novel approach of empirically assessing the subjective opinions of local councillors about corruption risks they have been exposed to. Based on the large survey data collected in 14 European countries we provide evidence that individual perceptions of corruption risk experienced by local councillors are formed by their personal characteristics, where educational attainment stands as the most significant deterrent to corruption risk. The comparative assessment of non-transition and post-transition countries (PTCs) shows that respondents from PTCs exhibit higher levels of perceived corruption pressures on the local government level (PCL). In non-transition countries, councillors in the local government units with more fiscal power are more exposed to corruption. When government effectiveness is included, the effect of transition process and local fiscal decentralisation loses significance. Government effectiveness appears to be a strong tool to alleviate the corruption pressure at the local government level, in particular for younger councillors in PTCs The findings shed more light on the issues of corruption, which is a striking problem at the sub-national government level in the E.U. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

This paper explores citizens’ privacy concerns and online surveillance perceptions by using the survey data of 2,060 internet users in Croatia. Respondents can be categorised into two groups with significant differences in their perceptions of online surveillance, quality of regulation, trust in institutions, and trust in other people. The more online-privacy concerned group consists of on average less educated, older people, who spend less time online. Also, there are more females in this cluster. The main finding is that internet users who are very concerned about online surveillance tend to have limited trust in both the government and other people and limited faith in the ability of regulation to protect them. More concerned people tend to adopt countersurveillance strategies such as providing false data on the internet.