Suchergebnisse

This paper argues that the post-communist and post-conflict transition of the Balkans requires a methodological shift in line with globalization, which shapes politcal and economic transformation from within through transnational networks. As a specially tailored mechanism leading to the accession of the Balkans into the European Union, the Stabilization and Association Process (SAp) sets the framework for political and economic transformation of the region. The paper posits that the weakness of the EU's approach derives from the fact that it is informed by the dominant transition paradigm, which marginalizes the impact of globalization, and specifically the role of transnational actors. The paper provides a critique of the transition literature and its explanatory potential to account for the post-conflict and post-communist transition in the Balkans. It goes on to examine the Balkan transnational space and the role of transnational actors in the process of transition as an important additional explanation, while taking into account a double legacy: the domestic legacy, inherited from communism, and the transnational and post-communist legacy acquired during the conflict. It advances an argument that a weak state offers us a conceptual nexus for the study of democratic transition in the Balkans in the global age. We demonstrate that transnational networks benefit from a weak state and perpetuate the very weakness that sustains them. At the same time, these networks exploit multi-ethnicity and stir ethnic tensions, lest stabilization should limit their scope for action. As a result, state- and nation building appear as mutually enfeebling rather than reinforcing, thus subverting the existing EU mechanisms. (Ethnopolitics)

"This article revises the conventional approach to welfare state development in the post-communist world,
according to which the main challenge for the Eastern European states is to catch up with Western European
welfare regimes. The article argues that adjustment to the new social risks and volatile markets is more
important today than the catching-up scenario. Based on social and labour market statistics for Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania, the article analyses how the Baltic States are coping with this adjustment challenge.
Adaptation to the post-modern conditions can be regarded as successful if the stability of welfare spending
is accompanied by the expanding and flexible employment and by the stable or decreasing level of poverty.
The findings suggest that the opportunities to increase the flexibility and equality of the labour market
provided by the breakdown of the communist regime were not used. Instead, the Baltic welfare states
continue to focus on protecting against the old social risks by combining neoliberal and post-communist
principles. Poor performance in meeting new social risks poses a greater challenge for the post-communist
welfare states than their lag in terms of gross welfare expenditure." (author's abstract)