Informal ties to political elites and path dependency in the Croatian agro sector: a study of the corruption scandals of Agrokombinat and Agrokor

ABSTRACT This research is a case study that explores and compares two Croatian corruption scandals, the Agrokombinat scandal from the 1970s, and the Agrokor scandal from the 2010s. These two companies are linked to one another: Agrokombinat served as a model for Agrokor, and the main protagonists of the two scandals, the two top managers of the companies, were father and son. The research aims to answer the following: what differences and similarities can be observed in the alleged abuses committed by the two managers and in their relations to the political elites? Can we identify patterns of path dependence on the example of two related companies? We aim to answer these questions by analyzing both archival sources of internal Communist Party documents, from the Croatian State Archive, and the public corruption narrativizations of the scandals from the media. More generally, we also aim to show the importance of learning the lessons from (business) history when operating in societies afflicted by political instability and informal practices.