Suchergebnisse

This paper considers democratization process in the Western Balkans and the influence of the European Union on this process. After the fall of communism European Union has been deeply involved in the transformation of the post-communist societies in the Eastern Europe. The lack of democratic tradition, complexity of democratic process, weak institutions and weak civil society have been among the main obstacles for quick transition. Yet many authors have argued that the EU membership has been one of the most important foreign policy goals of the post-socialist governments and a foreign policy tool of European Union. The EU has been using a leverage of prospect of EU membership and EU conditionality for implementing certain policies, hence trying to encourage the democratization process. This paper compares a democratization process in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with one in the Western Balkans, and looks at EU conditionality and its impact on the democratization process of the Western Balkan states. We argue that the prospect of EU membership has influenced democratization in the Western Balkans to some extent, but the implementation of reforms has been superficial in some policy areas due to ostensible compliance with EU rules of the political elites.

This paper addresses the influence of the economic crisis on national identity in Slovenia. It first analyzes the creation of the contemporary national identity following independence in 1991 that was established in relation to a negatively perceived Balkan identity, which represented "the Other," and in relation to a "superior" European identity that Slovenia aspired to. With the economic crisis, the dark corners of Slovenia's "successful" post-socialist transition to democracy came to light. Massive layoffs of workers and the bankruptcies of once-solid companies engendered disdain for the political elites and sympathy for marginalized groups. The public blamed the elites for the country's social and economic backsliding, and massive public protests arose in 2012. The aftermath of the protests was a growing need among the people for a new social paradigm toward solidarity. We show that in Slovenia the times of crisis were not times of growing nationalism and exclusion as social theory presupposes but, quite the contrary, they were times of growing solidarity among citizens and with the "Balkan Other."