INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - CASE OF THE VARAŽDIN COUNTY

Accelerated development of ICT, transport and new media has led to economic globalization and to the interdependence of national economies, where competitiveness becomes a key determinant of economic development, and internalization and liberalization of the enterprise are becoming more important. Influenced by the doctrine of neoliberal capitalism and free market ideology, today most countries are in economic problems, especially a large number of EU countries, therefore, new models of sustainable development are being looked for and the role of the state is being reviewed. The ability of society to build a model that will be based on economic growth and balanced social development, requires an adequate institutional support and active cooperation between entrepreneurs, public administration, educational and research institutions, and the civil sector in shaping public policy. Starting from the theoretical and empirical knowledge about the factors of economic development, author in this work in the example of Varaždin County analyzes the key factors for economic development and indicates the importance of institutional conditions that are in the function of economic growth. In this context, especially significant are interrelationships between the indicators of gross domestic product and the social structure of population, financial operations of entrepreneurs and realized level of entrepreneurship internationalization and competitiveness of the counties. Because of the large number of different variables and interdependent factors that affect economic development, research methodology in this work is based on a combination of multiple number of scientific method, including the application of its own empirical research through surveys. The research results confirm the hypothesis about the relationship between economic development and individual categories in the social structure of population, as well as the impact of institutional support on the competitiveness of the economy and internationalization of entrepreneurship.