In the paper the author analyses the changes in Croatian society caused by socialist, transitional and neo-liberal periods. The main change is in the deregulation of the State’s role and the introduction of the market economy as well as different actors into the game. The spatial changes concern structural rather than numerical content. Many small villages have become even smaller while big cities have grown, but more in their surroundings than in themselves. That is a feature of third and fore urbanizations. Croatia’s settlement structure is “mildly” pyramidal with Zagreb at the top of the pyramid; it is the biggest, the best equipped in the technical and social sense, and has the most heterogeneous social structure. Yet those factors do not reduce its problems – largely the huge social inequalities between the very rich and the very poor, in this case in spatial terms. Only fore macro regional centres have developmental capabilities, while middle and small towns and villages do not have them. That is mostly due to political and economic decisions which favour big settlements and not smaller ones. These conclusions have been reached on the basis of several IDIZ sociological research projects.