Transformation and Democratisation in the Balkans

All three countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia) selected for this study are undergoing transformation towards a Western-oriented concept of liberal democracy (or "Europeanisation", standing for a normative "ad hoc acquis democratique"). When building theories of transformation and democratisation, scholars have largely neglected to consider the successor states of Yugoslavia (and their concrete conditions for democratisation). At the same time, regional studies of these countries fail to put their particular assumptions into the context of broad ongoing theoretical debates on transformation and democratisation. Therefore, this project aims to connect these two fields. To achieve this connection between regional analyses and international theories, there must be a study of the conditions that hinder democratisation in these three states. The most important factor affecting democratisation results from the renegotiating of the framework of the nation-state in the 1990s; the resulting violence and wars brought the international community`s unusually strong involvement in the internal development of the region`s countries. Therefore, the second characteristic of the post-Yugoslav transformation process can be regarded as the intensive interaction of internal and external players that resulted in the great importance of "external support" for democratisation. Since 2000, the growing European Union (EU) interest in the region can be viewed as "Europeanisation" of the subject. As a result, the external guidelines and objective demands clashed with the internal players` subjective interests and led to a form of democratisation characterized by overly high expectations, hegemonic interests, deceptive manoeuvring, mutual misperceptions etc., that - as a third regional characteristic - has been hindering the democratisation process. Therefore, the conflict-laden communication process (the subjective dimension of democratisation) will be a focal point in the project`s empirical studies. Exemplary analysis of certain empirical and theoretical fields and the processes of democratic transition in the three countries will result in a general contribution to the ongoing transformation and democratisation theoretical debate. On the other hand, the project will improve insight into the political dynamics in the three countries by producing differentiated guidebooks and proposals for the optimal configuration of measures of external democracy promotion in a crisis- and conflict-ridden environment. This kind of evaluation tailored to the regional preconditions seeks to more adequately take into account the "subjective Europeanisation potential" of the region`s societies.

The project, which started in early 2008, focused on the three former Yugoslav states of Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Serbia. Following research questions were addressed: What is the state of democracy in the three countries under consideration? What are the main differences between the democratization in Eastern Europe after 1989 in general and the democratization in Post-Yugoslav countries in particular and to which degree are those differences relevant to the quality of democracy today? What can we learn by studying the results of the research done by scholars from the region of the Former Yugoslavia? The research went beyond solely analyzing the questions mentioned, but attempted to integrate the assumptions and conclusion of the analysis into the discourses of, and establish dialogue with, international and regional scholars working on the topic. The overall conclusion of the research suggests that the state of democracy in the three countries is much less stable than suggested by the well-known democracy indices (such as from Freedom House and the Bertelsmann Transformation Index). Already the results of the theoretical study and first stage of research suggested that all three countries are dominated by a mere electoral democracy; they all have a developing crisis of democratic representation. In the second phase of research it became clear that this crisis of democracy is mainly based on weak states and institutions and their inability to meet the expectations and above all the social and economic needs of their citizens. A second reason for the crisis is the low degree of citizens` participation and profound frustration with political representatives. The civil societies are profoundly split along ethnic lines and their ability to democratically participate in the development of the country is caricatured by elite behavior and practice. Based on this, the third phase of research has shown that the elites in the region have used the rhetoric of Europe and Europeanization to try to secure their own internal power. In addition, the third phase of research looked at the example of dealing with ethnic diversity in the Western Balkans by putting the overall conclusions in the context of the position of ethnic minorities in the Western Balkans and the specific problems for democratic orders caused by stressing and utilizing ethnic differences in political struggles. In three years of research and constant exchange with international and regional scholars (including the organization of two international scientific conferences in Vienna as well as the participation in many conferences abroad) the subject of research was approached from various theoretical perspectives and methodological angles. Apart from establishing cooperation networks with universities and scholars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia as well as on the international level, the analysis included the results of scholarly debates from the region, expert interviews, focus groups as well as discourse and media analysis. The overall research conclusions were brought together and discussed with colleagues from the scientific community at the final conference of the project held in November 2010 in Vienna.