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ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the underlying characteristics of Macedonian illiberal politics during the 11-year rule of the centre-right party VMRO-DPMNE (2006–2017) focusing on two aspects: institutional and symbolic. We argue that the unfair political competition was enabled by the weakness of pre-existing institutions and the population’s clientelist preferences, which were systematically exploited and expanded by VMRO-DPMNE. We also argue that the multi-ethnic character of the country, the disputed Macedonian national identity and the lack of viable international prospects allowed VMRO-DPMNE to construct a strong nationalist narrative that appealed to voters and further isolated the opposition.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. With the help of institutional illiberal politics, we capture the process of creating privileged access over time. Only when the governing elites are successful in achieving such outcome, we can qualify the political regime as competitive authoritarian.
2. Both authors are native Macedonian speakers and in the past have worked in civil society organizations in N. Macedonia. This gives us the advantage to access documents, local media sources and civil society reports in the original language. To counterbalance potential biases, we rely on peer-reviewed international academic sources which analyse various aspects of Macedonian democratization.
3. The only exception to this practice occurred in 2006 when VMRO-DPMNE formed a coalition with the second-highest ranked Albanian party in terms of vote-share Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA). However, this changed following the 2008 snap elections when the ‘unlikely’ VMRO-DPMNE – DUI coalition was formed which lasted until 2016.
4. DUI was formed in 2002, emerging from former members of the National Liberation Army.
5. During the early 1990s the major party representing ethnic Albanians was the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), and later the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) (Crowther Citation2017, 746).
6. This was the case with the early elections in 2008, in 2011 and 2014, while the early elections in 2016 were organized as part of an internationally mediated Przino agreements (elaborated further in the paper).
7. As the agreement negotiations were held in the residence of the EU ambassador of North Macedonia in the Skopje suburb Przino, these agreements became known as the Przino agreements.
8. Mitrinovski v. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: ECHR 30 April 2015.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Borjan Gjuzelov
Borjan Gjuzelov is a PhD candidate at Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom (2016-2020). His main academic and professional interests are related to democratization of post-socialist societies, good governance and informality. He has authored several articles and policy analyses on social capital, anti-corruption and participatory policy-making. Gjuzelov holds an MA in European Studies from the University of Flensburg, Germany, and a BA in Political Studies from the “Ss Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje, Macedonia.
Milka Ivanovska Hadjievska
Milka Ivanovska Hadjievska holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter, UK, and an MA in Political Science from the Central European University, Hungary. She researches the non-profit regulation and internal governance of civil society organisations in Western democracies and different aspects of state-civil society relations in post-communist countries. In the past she has worked as a policy researcher focusing on civil society development, security sector reforms and cultural policies in the Western Balkans.