This text provides an overview of the history of attempts to introduce participatory development planning on the Croatian islands. Within the study of islands, there has been little attention to islands in countries undergoing post-socialist transition. Similarly, within the study of post-socialist strategic development planning, there has been almost no attention to islands. This study addresses both the resilience of islands and their heightened susceptibility to change, borrowing a periodisation from political economies of contemporary Croatia which emphasise the signifi cance of multiple transitions. The text explores island development within socialist Yugoslavia, with islands subsumed within wider processes of industrialisation, urbanisation and, later, coastal tourism. As Croatia's independence was inextricably linked to war, a crisis-induced authoritarian centralism also mitigated against islanders becoming development subjects. The post-war picture, marked as it is by a slow process of integration into EU norms and practices, shows the gap between the legislative rhetoric and the on the ground practice of participatory development planning. The text concludes that, thus far, only the top down element of strategic planning in terms of island development has been implemented, and this itself in a distorted, contradictory, and highly inconsistent, way.

We may be on the cusp of a renaissance in small island living.The slow but steady decline that characterised much of the industrial age seems to have been halted in some islands and in some countries -including Ireland and Croatia -and even reversed in some places (the Aran Islands). Using a broad sweep this exploratory article explains the broad historical phenomenon of small island youth outmigration, population decline or resettlement; and how this is being replaced with a newfound value in 'splendid isolation' that, however, boasts elements of connectivity (including access to the World Wide Web).

The socioeconomic history of the Croatian islands is viewed in the paper as a nonlinear narrative of various uninvited but irresistible disembarkations. In spite of the socialist self-management system that the Croatian island communities had been a part of for almost half a century, stakeholder participation was proposed only recently. It was institutionalized in 1997 when the National Island Development Programme was passed by the Croatian Parliament and the Island Development Centre established in the ministry of development. The Island Law and some necessary bye-laws were passed in the period 1999-2002, creating conditions for the preparation of Sustainable Island Development Programmes for each and every inhabited island and securing a special line item for islands in the national budget. This constituted a rather peculiar 'top-down meets bottomup' form of island development management. The text examines the actual implementation of the island development management scheme. Participation in island development management is addressed as a specific topic within the study of local development planning in a post-communist transition context. It is shown how the Croatian practice of central financing has acted as a disincentive for island administrations to increase their own development management capacity. Despite certain gains the complex relationships between political competencies, institutional capacities, and socio-cultural forces continue to work against participatory planning.

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Donošenjem Zakona o potvrđivanju Protokola o integralnom upravljanju obalnim područjem (IUOP) Hrvatska se obvezala da u svojem obalnom području objedini prostorno i gospodarsko planiranje i zaštitu okoliša, prirode i kulturne baštine. U radu je analizirana dosadašnja provedba Protokola i ispitano postojanje dostatnih stručnih i institucionalnih kapaciteta i političke volje za provedbu. Autori uočavaju da dvije godine nakon ratifikacije odredbe ključnih zakona koji pokrivaju prostorno uređenje i gradnju, pomorsko dobro, pomorstvo, ribarstvo i zaštitu okoliša još nisu usklađene s odredbama Protokola. Jedan od najvećih istraživačkih izazova jest formuliranje inovativnog okvira pokazatelja za praćenje i vrednovanje IUOP-a. Autori predlažu skup od petnaest pokazatelja za praćenje razvoja u obalnim županijama Hrvatske.Ključne riječi: integralno upravljanje obalnim područjem, Protokol, ekonomski profil, pokazatelji Željka Kordej-De Villa, Ekonomski institut,