The new institutionalism in the context of Kosovo's transition: regulatory institutions in contested states

Abstract

This article explores the new institutionalist literature in political economy in the context of Kosovo's contested statehood, focusing on institutional arbitrage and legitimacy. This article considers both the consequences of institutions for actors' behaviour and the norms that shape this, as well as the factors determining the legitimacy of institutions. In doing so, it combines the new institutionalist theory with documentary and interview material collected during research on energy regulation in one contested state, Kosovo. Rather than singling out one particular variety of “new institutionalism”, the article attempts to blend insights from historical (or “political”), rational choice, and sociological institutionalism.

Keywords:

• institutions
• contested states
• Kosovo

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Luca Uberti and Nicolas Lemay-Hebert for their many helpful suggestions concerning an earlier version of this manuscript. They also express their gratitude to the American University of Kosovo for enabling a preliminary version of this paper to be presented at a conference on “Economic Development and Political Transition in Kosovo” held at the University in Pristina in October 2012.

Funding

This work was supported by the Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services, Aston University, May 2011.

Notes on contributors

Anneliese Dodds is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy within the Academic Subject Group of Sociology and Public Policy at Aston University. She is the author of “Comparative Public Policy” (Palgrave).

Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the Academic Subject Group of Politics and International Relations at Aston University. She is the author of “Ethnic Conflict and War Crimes in the Balkans: the Narratives of Denial in Post-Conflict Serbia” (IB Tauris).

Ahmed Badran is a Lecturer (Education and Scholarship) at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter. He is the author of “The Regulatory Management of Privatised Public Utilities: A Network Perspective on the Regulatory Process in the Egyptian Telecommunications Market” (VDM Verlag Dr Müller).

Notes

1. This article thus rejects Reich's (2000) assertion that different forms of institutionalism must be used to investigate different processes, although it acknowledges his point that the different institutionalisms do tend to focus on different important aspects of political processes. The reason for this rejection is that, according to our understanding, assigning certain institutional approaches for exclusively examining certain political/policy processes may result a superficial gap between the different varieties of institutionalism. Based on the context under investigation, different cases may call for using different institutional perspectives and some complex cases such as Kosovo requires a combination of these forms to fully capture the role of institutions in shaping actors' behaviour as well as the consequences of existing institutional settings for the legitimacy of institutions.

2. The SLS is reported to have received 12,525 votes; the next best-performing Serbian entity, the ‘United Serbian List’ won 5,010 votes, while all others won below 1000 total votes.

3. The Serbian Electoral Commission refers to North Mitrovica as Kosovska Mitrovica.

4. To this extent, it shares the critical approach of those socio-legal studies which have stressed the intimate, and frequently constitutive, connection between law and politics, rather than viewing the two areas as separate (Brigham and Gordon 1996)

5. These types of activities are in some ways similar to the phenomenon of ‘venue shopping’ (Baumgartner and Jones 1993; Pralle 2003), although these different sources of law do not necessarily form separate systems but often interact and influence each other. The study of institutional arbitrage also shares similarities with analyses which have stressed how political actors can exploit the interplay between different levels of decision-making (e.g. domestic and European), rather than viewing one level as necessarily determining the other (Callaghan 2010; James 2010; Radaelli 2003; Thatcher 2007)

6. Authors' anonymous interview with a civil society representative, Prishtina, Kosovo, June 2011.

7. Ibid.

8. Authors' anonymous interview with an international community representative, Prishtina, Kosovo, June 2011.

9. For more details see: International Civilian Office, http://www.ico-kos.org/index.php?id=8

10. See note 6 above.

11. See note 6 above.

12. The text of the agreement appears on European Voice, ‘Text of Historic Agreement Between Kosovo and Serbia’, Accessed August 28, 2013. http://www.europeanvoice.com/page/3609.aspx?&blogitemid=1723

13. Authors' interview, Pristina, June 2011

14. Ibid.