Naser Biljali - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Naser Biljali
From 'ethnic conflict'… …to rational consensus … to ethnicization of politics … and impediment of... more From 'ethnic conflict'… …to rational consensus … to ethnicization of politics … and impediment of politics …to radical democracy? The Dialectics of interethnic relations: antagonism, consensus, and agonism Antagonism Consensus without politics The outcome of denying politics Agonistic politics as an alternative to antagonism and consensus Conclusion Abstract: A decade since international actors engaged in peace-building and statebuilding processes in Kosovo, tensions still prevail between the two main ethnic groups, the Albanian majority and the Serb minority, in the country. After failing to build a rational consensus in a deeply divided Kosovo society, international actors have shifted the focus towards legalising the ethnic divisions by creating or allowing for state institutions to function on the grounds of ethnicity, thus perpetuating ethnic antagonisms. The technocratic approach of international statebuilding in Kosovo is sceptical about the domestic political process and sees it as damaging to the plans for Kosovo. However, as an outcome of impeding the political process, antagonisms take more radical forms and the formation of new political identities that overcome ethnicity, is prevented. This study considers pluralist democracy and politics of inclusion as a strategy for allowing communities to articulate and debate their political values and aspirations at a national level. Pluralist democracy would facilitate agonistic relations in which conflict is characterised by a struggle between political adversaries whose existence is legitimate and must be tolerated, thus replacing actual antagonistic relations between enemies seeking to eliminate each-other. Nevertheless, a consensus about certain rules of 'the game' regarding the space and the context in
From 'ethnic conflict'… …to rational consensus … to ethnicization of politics … and impediment of... more From 'ethnic conflict'… …to rational consensus … to ethnicization of politics … and impediment of politics …to radical democracy? The Dialectics of interethnic relations: antagonism, consensus, and agonism Antagonism Consensus without politics The outcome of denying politics Agonistic politics as an alternative to antagonism and consensus Conclusion Abstract: A decade since international actors engaged in peace-building and statebuilding processes in Kosovo, tensions still prevail between the two main ethnic groups, the Albanian majority and the Serb minority, in the country. After failing to build a rational consensus in a deeply divided Kosovo society, international actors have shifted the focus towards legalising the ethnic divisions by creating or allowing for state institutions to function on the grounds of ethnicity, thus perpetuating ethnic antagonisms. The technocratic approach of international statebuilding in Kosovo is sceptical about the domestic political process and sees it as damaging to the plans for Kosovo. However, as an outcome of impeding the political process, antagonisms take more radical forms and the formation of new political identities that overcome ethnicity, is prevented. This study considers pluralist democracy and politics of inclusion as a strategy for allowing communities to articulate and debate their political values and aspirations at a national level. Pluralist democracy would facilitate agonistic relations in which conflict is characterised by a struggle between political adversaries whose existence is legitimate and must be tolerated, thus replacing actual antagonistic relations between enemies seeking to eliminate each-other. Nevertheless, a consensus about certain rules of 'the game' regarding the space and the context in