1) The document discusses theories of path dependence, social capital, and civil society and how they relate to Croatia. 2) It hypothesizes that while these theories can help explain behavior, they may exhibit circular properties with each other and have the potential to be detrimental in Croatia due to "lock-in" effects. 3) Test results on Croatia did not support theories that higher social capital and civil society necessarily lead to better governance, and instead indicated that tradition could delay modernization and democratic reforms.