State-Building and Europeanization in the Western Balkans

ABSTRACT.The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of Western Balkans' sustained contribution towards peace and stability, civil society as an alternative to an institutional route for building and restoring cross-ethnic trust and coexistence in the aftermath of totalitarian regime and armed conflict, the formal adoption of power-sharing arrangements, and impunity in relation to violence against women. My paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence on the EU's approach towards ethnicity in the Western Balkans, the complexity of transformation in states and communities emerging from the illiberal regime and conflict, social and economic aspects of Macedonian society, and the impact of the armed conflict on the fabric of society.JEL Codes: A13, H7, N4Keywords: Western Balkans; Europeanization; state-building; society; democracy1. IntroductionThis paper aims to analyze and discuss the implementation of the strategies the EU has applied in the Western Balkans, the strategies that the EU has used for democracy promotion efforts in the Western Balkans states, the differential impact of the EU in the Western Balkans, and the Western Balkans' attempts to build strong central state institutions. I am specifically interested in how previous research investigated the ethnic reconfiguration of the Western Balkans, the relation between peace-building and democratization, cases of gross human rights violations committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the roles that ethnic identity and labor force integration may play in economic development in Macedonia.2. State-building, Democratization and Post-conflict Reconstruction in the Western BalkansDemocracy matters for the Europeanization of the Western Balkans. The protection of minority rights and the regional cooperation with neighbors (Hunter, 2013a) is costly for countries whose borders are contested and ethnic identities clash. Consolidated statehood is a precondition for becoming a member of the EU, as limited statehood (Kunnanatt, 2013) mitigates the transformative power of the EU accession process. Limited statehood is a major impediment for the successful Europeanization of the Western Balkans. Sizeable and credible rewards by the EU coupled with substantial amounts of financial and technical assistance (Nicolaescu, 2013a) may promote Europeanization in weak states. Conditionality and capacity-building (Prager, 2013) are powerful means to bring about formal institutional change. The EU has contributed to the overall stability of the Western Balkans, and has helped to accelerate and lock-in domestic change in consolidating democracies by empowering liberal reform coalitions that support EU integration. EU pressure for adaptation and capacity-building mostly results in formal institutional change. Consolidated statehood is as important as democracy to make Europeanization work. The EU has developed a comprehensive approach for democracy promotion. (Borzel, 2013)In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia governments and parliaments are eager to fulfill the standards set by the EU when it comes to reforms of legislation, whereas the implementation of laws is still deficient. Authorities have to cope with the highly sensitive task of return and reintegration of refugees and displaced persons. Solutions for these people depend on crossborder cooperation. The societies face unresolved conflicts either at a local or cross-border level, although to different degrees, and are marked by antagonisms that have developed or deepened in postwar situations. Reconciliation is a necessary requirement for lasting peace, describing a process aimed at building relationships between individuals, groups and societies. Societies that have gone through a process of ethno-political conflict are marked by a loss of trust, inter-generational transmission of trauma and grievances (Bacalu, 2013), negative interdependence and polarization. …