Lessons from “Post-Yugoslav” Democratization
Functional Problems of Stateness and the Limits of Democracy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12148679 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vedran Džihić (University of Vienna, corresponding author), Dieter Segert (0000-0001-8167-1559, University of Vienna) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 239-253 |
| Publication date | 2011-05-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | East European Politics and Societies and Cultures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0888-3254 • E-ISSN: 1533-8371 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0888325411406436 |
| OpenAlex | W1983726332 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 2 |
State weakness is one of the main obstacles for democratic stability. Yet under certain circumstances even a mere electoral democracy may gain stable support from the citizenry. Mere electoral democracy is best understood as a regime of elite governance endowed by a certain support from the citizens but without any ambition of the ruling elite to increase the quality of democratic rule. This article explores the historical reasons of this specific type of political regime in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. Departing from the empirical examples from the Western Balkans, the article comes to some rather general conclusions about the concept and sequence of democratization: Conducting elections too early may produce serious challenges to sustainable democratization. The general population’s primary interest mostly lies in the stabilization of state apparatus and its ability to produce common goods rather than in the fast establishment of electoral democracy and formal democratic institutions. For a better understanding of the real level of specific course and paths of democratic “consolidation,” the democracy rankings like Nations in Transit and Bertelsmann should focus on in-depth analyses of the main actors’ political and economic practices
Democracy · Democratic consolidation · Democratization · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Elite · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · State (computer science · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Turkey's Politics and Society
A painful break or agony without end? The stateness problem and its influence on democratization in Croatia and Serbia
A critical assessment of the transformative power of EU reforms on reducing corruption in the Balkans
Constrained Democracy
The banning of political parties in post-Yugoslav states. Croatian and Serbian experience in using militant democracy
Navigating Crisis Responses
Shifts in Support for Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Western Balkans
Back to Competitive Authoritarianism? Democratic Backsliding in Vučić’s Serbia
To History or to Hollywood? Monuments to Foreign Celebrities in Twenty-First Century Balkans
Welfare and Democratization – Comparing C roatia, S erbia and M acedonia
Democratization via aid? The European Union’s democracy promotion in the Western Balkans 1994–2010
Stateness and democratic backsliding in the former Yugoslavia
Patterns of competitive authoritarianism in the Western Balkans
Dead letters on a page? Civic agency and inclusive governance in neopatrimonialism
Conflicts of preferences and domestic constraints
Risk and liberal peace
The dynamics of donor and domestic elite interaction in Mozambique
Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation
| Citations per year | 1.21 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |