“Economic transformation and democratization in the Balkans”, in: G. Pridham and T. Gallagher (eds.) Experimenting with Democracy: Regime Change in the Balkans, London: Routledge, pp. 132-51. (original) (raw)
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The article explores the role of political parties in hybrid regimes in the Western Balkans. The Western Balkans have been marked by considerable variations in democracy ratings over the past decades, altogether informed by the number of government turnovers and degree of political consolidation since the 1990s. Yet all countries in the region feature deeply entrenched political parties, that draw on either their socialist legacies, anti-communist profile, or the representation of a particular demographic, as well as their control over state institutions. Rather than differentiating between democratic and authoritarian systems in the region, the article stresses their commonalities. It understands parties and their extended networks as the central gatekeepers that mediate citizens’ access to economic and societal resources, effectively reversing the accountability between parties and voters. The article categorises party systems along two axes, based on the criteria of competitivene...
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This paper aims to accomplish two goals. First, to present recent empirical evidence to the claim that Serbia is on the path towards embracing a more radical version of electoral authoritarianism. This is accomplished by examining most recent illiberal politics aimed at controlling electoral processes and the media sphere, and extracting public funds for partisan purposes. I claim that the incomplete design of democratic institutions in Serbia set up between 2001 and 2012 is primarily responsible for the democratic decline. The second goal is more general and aims to emphasise the importance of extracting public funds for hybrid regimes. Extractive institutions matter because they directly impact other critical segments of electoral authoritarianism (notably, elections and media freedom), but also because they explain the type of leadership they promote in politics. If public resources remain without proper institutional oversight and are simply 'up for grabs,' this will attract leaders more willing to dismantle democratic institutions and violate democratic procedures. Serbia serves as a good and current example of this linkage.
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The Balkan political culture is the biggest problem in the democratization of South Eastern Europe. The basic characteristics of this culture, such as hostility, distrust, alienation and lack of consensus, are the main obstacles to democratization in this part of the world. The Balkan political culture was created as an expression of a specific development of the region through the history. High level of poverty also slows the internalization of democratic values and norms. However, these two main characteristics are not the only problem in the process of democratization of the Balkans. According to Lucian Pye political leaders also have an impact on the democratization in transitional countries. The most important question is: Are political leaders oriented to private interests or national development? The answer to this question is important for the development of democracy, Pye believes. Unfortunately, a number of corruption scandals in the Balkan states confirms that the private...
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Balkan countries are undergoing a system transformation process structured by democracy and free market economy of the neoliberal model, large outside snowball driven accompanied by the spirit of triumphalism of freedom over slavery, of democracy over totalitarianism, and of free market (of neoliberal model) over socialism. The primary concern appears transformation as an act, with less attention paid to the quality, the substance and even less to the outputs of it. As the transformation enters into its third decade, on the horizon still appears a wide gap between the expectations and the fruits of transformation tasted by citizens. Obviously, each Balkan country concerned here has its own peculiarities, from where can be drawn the explanation for the development of this gap. However, the paper argues that among the major explanations of generalisability value, is the incompatibility of simultaneity of democracy and neoliberalism during system transformation. Neoliberalism is challe...
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