Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T19:57:12.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State Ownership and “State-Sharing”: The Role of Collective Identities and the Sociopolitical Cleavage between Ethnic Macedonians and Ethnic Albanians in the Republic of North Macedonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2019

Arianna Maria Piacentini
Arianna Maria Piacentini*
Affiliation:
CAS SEE, University of Rijeka, Croatia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ari.piacentini@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article analyzes, from a historical and institutional perspective, the sociopolitical cleavages existing between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in the Republic of North Macedonia. Although primarily ethnic, the division between the two groups is deeply connected to state ownership and the official status each group occupies and wishes to occupy in it. By scrutinizing both groups’ claims, standpoints, and dissatisfactions, the article asserts that the implementation of consociationalism in 2001, through the de facto institutionalization of ethnicity, has partly soothed both groups’ frustrations, using the pragmatic exploitation of the existing ethnic divide as a proxy for “state sharing” in addition to power sharing.

Keywords

Macedoniapower sharingcollective identitiesstate ownershipstate sharing
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2019 , pp. 461 - 476
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, Kevin and Jović, Dejan. 2004. “The Macedonian-Albanian Political Frontier: The Re-articulation of Post-Yugoslav Political Identities.” Nations and Nationalism 10 (3): 293–311.Google Scholar
Babuna, Aydin. 2000. “The Albanians of Kosovo and Macedonia: Ethnic Identity superseding religion.” Nationalities Papers 28 (1): 67–92.Google Scholar
Barbieri, Sara, Vrgova, Roska, and Bliznakovski, Jovan. 2013. Overcoming Ethnic-Based Segregation in Public Schools in Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Skopje: Institute for Democracy, Societas-Civilis Skopje. http://idscs.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/zastoneidscs_2013_final.pdf. (Accessed January 3, 2019.)Google Scholar
Bieber, Florian. 2005. “Partial Implementation, Partial Success: The Case of Macedonia.” In Power Sharing: New Challenges for Divided Societies, edited by Ian O’Flynn and David Russell, 107–122. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2002. “Ethnicity without Groups.” Archives of European Sociology 43 (2): 163–189.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. “In the Name of the Nation: Reflections on Nationalism and Patriotism.” Citizenship Studies 8 (2): 115–127.Google Scholar
Bumci, Aldo. 2003. “Regional Perspectives for an Independent Kosovo—Albania and Macedonia.” In Understanding the Kosovo War, edited by Florian Bieber and Zizas Daskalovski, 279–297. London: Frank Cass Publishers.Google Scholar
Chepreganov, Todor, ed. 2008. History of the Macedonian People. Skopje: Institute of National History.Google Scholar
Daskalovski, Zidas. 2004. “Democratic Consolidation and the ‘Stateness’ Problem: The Case of Macedonia.” Global Review of Ethnopolitics 3 (2): 52–66.Google Scholar
Floudas, Demetrius Andreas. 2002. “FYROM’s Dispute with Greece Revisited.” The New Balkans. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.598.6662&rep=rep1&type=pdf. (Accessed February 6, 2019)Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalisms. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hayden, Robert M. 1992. “Constitutional Nationalism in the Formerly Yugoslav Republics.” Slavic Review 51 (4): 654–673.Google Scholar
Holliday, Graham. 2005. “From Ethnic Privileging to Power-Sharing: Ethnic Dominance and Democracy in Macedonia.” In The Fate of Ethnic Democracy in Post-Communist Europe, edited by Sammy Smooha and Priit Jarve, 139–166. Budapest: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald. 2014. “Ethnic Power Sharing: Three Big Problems.” Journal of Democracy 25 (2): 5–20.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2009. “Macedonia’s Name: Breaking in Deadlock.” Policy Briefing, Europe Briefing no. 52, Pristina/Brussels, January 12.Google Scholar
Irwin, Zachary T. 2010. “Macedonia since 1989.” In Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, 328–357. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Iseni, Bashkim. 2013. “One State, Divided Society: The Albanian in Macedonia.” In Civic and Uncivic Values in Macedonia. Values Transformation, Education and Media, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Ola Listhaug, and Albert Simkus, 175–193. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kacarska, Simonida. 2008. “Political Parties and the State in the Republic of Macedonia—Implications for Democratic Consolidation.” CEU Political Science Journal 3 (1): 49–71.Google Scholar
Koneska, Cvete. 2014. After Ethnic Conflict: Policy-Making in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Koppa, Maria-Eleni. 2001. “Ethnic Albanians in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Between Nationality and Citizenship.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 7 (4): 37–65.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arendt. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Malešević, Siniša. 2013. Nation-States and Nationalism: Organization, Ideology, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Marolov, Dejan. 2013. “Understanding the Ohrid Framework Agreement.” In Civic and Uncivic Values in Macedonia. Values Transformation, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Ola Listhaug, and Albert Simkus, 134–154. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Neofotistos, Vasiliki P. 2012. The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
O’Leary, Brendan. 2005. “Debating Consociational Politics: Normative and Explanatory Arguments.” In From Power Sharing to Democracy. Post-conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies, edited by Sid Noel, 3–43. Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Ortakovski, Vladimir T. 2001. “Interethnic Relations and Minorities in the Republic of Macedonia.” Southeast European Politics 2 (1): 24–45.Google Scholar
Petkovski, Ljupcho, and Marichikj, Bojan 2017. “Macedonia at the Crossroads—Is Peaceful Transfer of Power Possible in Authoritarianism?” European Western Balkans. March 9. https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2017/03/09/macedonia-at-the-crossroads-is-peaceful-transfer-of-power-possible-in-authoritarianism/. (Accessed February 6, 2019.)Google Scholar
Pettifer, James. 1999a. “The New Macedonian Question.” In The New Macedonian Question, edited by James Pettifer, 15–27, London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pettifer, James. 1999b. “The Albanians in Western Macedonia after FYROM independence.” In The New Macedonian Questions, edited by James Pettifer, 137–147, London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Poulton, Hugh. 2000. Who Are the Macedonians? 2nd ed. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Ramet, Sabrina P. 2002. Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Ramet, Sabrina P. 2005. Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ramet, Sabrina P. 2006. The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Ramet, Sabrina P. 2013. Introduction to Civic and Uncivic Values in Macedonia: Values Transformation, Education and Media, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Ola Listhaug, and Albert Simkus, 1–9. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Reilly, Benjamin. 2001. Democracy in Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering for Conflict Management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reilly, Benjamin. 2006. “Political Engineering and Party Politics in Conflict-Prone Societies.” Democratization 13 (5): 811–827.Google Scholar
Reuter, Jens. 1999. “Policy and Economy in Macedonia.” In The New Macedonian Question, edited by James Pettifer, 28–46. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rossos, Andrew. 2008. Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Rossos, Andrew. 2013. “Comments on Macedonia’s Difficult Transition.” Afterword to Civic and Uncivic Values in Macedonia: Values Transformation, Education and Media, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Ola Listhaug, and Albert Simkus, 305–320. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Roudometof, Viktor. 2002. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question. Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Shasivari, Jeton and Zejneli, Ismail. 2013. “The Legal and Political System of the Republic of Macedonia between the Rule of Ethnos and Demos.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 4 (10): 598–604.Google Scholar
State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia. 2002. Census of Population: Households and Dwellings, vol. 13. http://www.stat.gov.mk/Publikacii/knigaXIII.pdf. (Accessed January 3, 2019.)Google Scholar
Stefou, Chris. 2005. History of the Macedonian People from Ancient Times to the Present. Toronto: Risto Stefov.Google Scholar
Vankovska, Biljana. 2012. “The Procrustean Bed of the State Building in the Republic of Macedonia (1991–2011).” In The Macedonian Question: Twenty Years of Political Struggle into European Integration Structures, edited by Zidas Daskalovski and Marija Risteska, 8–26. Rangendingen: Libertas.Google Scholar
Vankovksa, Biljana. 2013. “Constitutional Engineering and Institution-Building in the Republic of Macedonia (1991–2011).” In Civic and Uncivic Values in Macedonia. Values Transformation, Education and Media, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Ola Listhaug, and Albert Simkus, 87–108. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar