Soft competitive authoritarianism and negative stability in Kosovo: statebuilding from UNMIK to EULEX and beyond

ABSTRACT

After 1999, democratization, normalization and Europeanization were the key processes through which Kosovo’s final political status was expected to take shape. All three processes, however, were guided by the stability paradigm. Though Kosovo cannot be categorized as a typical authoritarian state, its political leaders have openly displayed illiberal tendencies, governing in an unaccountable manner and utilizing public assets for their private gain. In the period from 1999 to 2008, while UNMIK’s approach was based on maintaining stability instead of democratization, a soft competitive authoritarianism began to emerge incrementally. In its first decade of independence, Kosovo’s statehood remained internationally disputed, whereas its governance culture was characterized by a lack of internal accountability, which is a key component of the soft competitive authoritarianism in the country. Thus, the negative trajectory of political developments did not change even after the deployment of EULEX and the 2008 declaration of independence. This article analyses the development of authoritarian and illiberal tendencies in Kosovo and suggests that the democratization and Europeanization discourses served to conceal soft competitive authoritarian practices in Kosovo.

KEYWORDS:

• Kosovo
• UNMIK
• EULEX
• democratization
• statebuilding
• illiberal politics
• competitive authoritarianism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Balkan Contact Group was established in London on 25 April 1994 and composed of: United States of America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Russian Federation. The aim of the Balkan Contact Group was to create a coordinated Balkan policy for the states represented in this forum.

2. United Nations Security Council (UNSC). 1999. Resolution 1244 (1999). https://undocs.org/S/RES/1244(1999).

3. Partia Demokratike e Kosovës (PDK).

4. Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës (UÇK).

5. Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës (LDK).

6. Aleanca për Ardhmërinë e Kosovës (AAK).

7. Shërbimi Informativ i Kosovës (SHIK).

8. NISMA për Kosovën.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adem Beha

Adem Beha holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from South East European University. He has served as a consultant, trainer, and researcher with various domestic and international civil society organizations, including the Kosovo Institute of Peace, Centre for Political Courage, and Peace Berghof Foundation. His research interests and expertise include state- and peacebuilding studies, political parties, and minority rights. He has published his work in Nationality Papers, Journal of Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development, Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security, and Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Currently, he is Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Prishtina.

Arben Hajrullahu

Arben Hajrullahu studied Political Science (primary discipline), South East European History, Comparative Public Law, Public and Communications Sciences and German at the Universities of Prishtina (1994), Graz (1995–9), Vienna (2000–5) and Huddersfield (2002). He worked at the Centre for Southeast European Studies in Graz, at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs in Vienna, and at the European Academy of Bolzano. During the academic year 2007–8 he was a Humphrey Fulbright Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. In 2009 he founded the Centre for Political Courage.