Comparing Political Governance: Southeastern Europe in a Global Perspective

Change and Continuity in the European Union's Political Conditionality: Aims, Approach, and Priorities

“…Countries in the Western Balkans could therefore be fairly easily categorised as defective democracies, especially as regards progress with 'stateness', the rule of law, institutional stability, and political integration. 32 This has forced external actors to give greater priority than before to basic problems of the state, as distinct from issues of state capacity in already stabilised new democracies -which was essentially the case with the acceding countries in the 2004 enlargement. Indeed, there was a growing debate about weak states in the Balkans in the final year or so of that enlargement, and inevitably this fed into discussion about further enlargement.…”

Corruption, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Marketing in the Western Balkans

“…Instead, in the Western Balkans, the transition model manifested many weaknesses. International institutions such as the Bertelmann Stiftung, with its indicators from the Bertelmann Transformation Index, raise concerns about the quality of democracy, market economy, and political management in the new democracies of the Western Balkans (Brusis & Thiery, ). First, there are concerns that democracy in the Western Balkans has turned into power struggles between politicians, creating a gap between elites and average citizens.…”