This book argues that the unresolved stateness in the republics of the former Yugoslavia played a key role in determining the course and dynamics of their turbulent democratic transition. To support this claim, the authors develop a series of causal mechanisms. Subsequently, they analyze to what extent these causal mechanisms could be applied to other cases, like the one of Ukraine’s democratization.
The book presents a theoretical framework, as well as conclusions and arguments that are instrumental for the better understanding of the democratization process in general, which could be useful for other countries to avoid the mistakes that were made in the cases of former Yugoslav republics. It, therefore, is a must-read for researchers and scholars of political science, as well as practitioners and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of democratization, transformation processes, nation-building, and stateness.
Author(s): Filip Milačić
Series: Societies and Political Orders in Transition
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 193
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction
References
2 Democracy: Theoretical and Conceptional Challenges
2.1 New Focus of the Literature
2.2 The Embedded Democracy Concept
2.3 Remaining Structural Conditions for the Development of Democracy
2.4 Measuring the Outcome
References
3 Stateness and Democracy
3.1 What is a Stateness Problem?
3.2 No State, No Democracy Versus No Democracy, No State
3.3 New Theoretical Approach
3.4 Unfavorable Conditions
References
4 Tracing the Process
References
5 Former Yugoslav Republics: Diverging Trajectories
5.1 Similar Initial Conditions, Different Outcomes
References
6 The Group of Less Successful Cases
6.1 Uncompleted Nation and/or State Building
6.2 Democratization Prevented, Democratic Consolidation Slowed Down/halted
6.3 Democratic Backsliding
6.4 Stateness and Five Partial Regimes
6.4.1 Partial Regime: Electoral Regime
6.4.2 Partial Regime: Political Rights
6.4.3 Partial Regime: Civil Rights
6.4.4 Partial Regime: Horizontal Accountability
6.4.5 Partial Regime: Effective Power to Rule
6.5 Stateness and External Conditions
6.5.1 External Condition: Civil Society
6.5.2 External Condition: International and Regional Integration
References
7 The Group of More Successful Cases
7.1 A Democracy Forged in War and Nationalism
7.1.1 Integration Through Ethnicity
7.1.2 The Dominance of Tudjman and the HDZ
7.1.3 The Period of Significant Democratic Progress
7.1.4 A Threat to Democracy: Veto Players as Remnants of the War
7.1.5 A Threat to Democracy: Legacies of the Stateness Problem
7.2 “The “Darling” Among the Yugoslav Successor States”
7.2.1 Rapid Consolidation of Democracy
7.2.2 First Signs of Erosion of Democracy
7.2.3 Democracy Under Attack
7.3 Key Lessons from Former Yugoslavia
References
8 Generalizability of the Theoretical Framework
8.1 Stateness and Democracy in the Former Soviet Union
8.1.1 Ukraine: “Ethnic Ukrainian” Versus “Eastern Slavic”
8.1.2 Moldova: Disagreements Over Both the Territory and National Identity
8.1.3 Georgia: Contested Borders
8.1.4 Armenia: An Open Territory-Related Question
References
9 Conclusion
References
