Political Elites and Decentralization Reforms in the Post-Socialist Balkans

Abstract

South-East Europe presents a compelling agenda: a region that has challenged European identities, values and interests like no other at formative periods of modern history, and is now undergoing a set of complex transitions. It is a region made up of new and old European Union member states, as well as aspiring ones; early 'democratising' states and new post-communist regimes; states undergoing liberalizing economic reforms, partially inspired by external forces, whilst coping with their own embedded nationalisms; and states obliged to respond to new and recurring issues of security, identity, well-being, social integration, faith and secularization.This series examines issues of inheritance and adaptation. The disciplinary reach incorporates politics and international relations, modern history, economics and political economy and sociology. It links the study of South-East Europe across a number of social sciences to European issues of democratization and economic reform in the post-transition age. It addresses ideas as well as institutions, policies as well as processes. It will include studies of the domestic and foreign policies of single states, relations between states and peoples in the region, and between the region and beyond. The EU is an obvious reference point for current research on South-East Europe, but this series also highlights the importance of South-East Europe in its eastern context: the Caucuses, the Black Sea and the Middle East.