Author: Vladimir Stojković
Florian Biber’s book The Rise of Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans is a handbook for understanding social conditions in the region. He points out in detail and precisely the similarities and differences in the unfolding of socio-political processes in the countries of this region. All social aspects and processes, such as media, corruption, reform, governance rights, etc., are covered. All the events that significantly influenced the emergence of authoritarianism are described in detail and chronologically framed.
This book is written so that it can be understood even by people who know nothing about the situation in the Western Balkans. It gives them a complete picture of events and social oscillations in these countries. Its core consists of three chapters, which discuss the challenges of democratic consolidation, patterns of authoritarianism, and mechanisms of authoritarianism.
Challenges of democratic consolidation
This chapter primarily deals with the causes that led to the emergence of a semi-authoritarian regime throughout this region during the nineties. The beginning of these processes is linked to the fall of communist regimes throughout Central and Eastern Europe, first in Romania and Bulgaria and then in Yugoslavia and Albania. Interestingly, the Balkan countries lagged far behind Central European countries in deconstructing the communist regimes in their countries.
This book segment also discusses the first multiparty elections in this part of Europe and the democratization process in these societies. However, multiparty politics marked the first years after the Union of Communists’ monopoly, but without realized democracy. For the political parties that came to power after those elections, the priority wasn’t the development of democracy and the democratization of society but the preservation of the monopoly over the management of the state apparatus.
At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, there was a breakthrough and strengthening of democracy in these areas. That period didn’t last long, but during 2002 and 2003, nationalist parties returned and took over power, primarily in Serbia and Bosnia. Unlike Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which quickly established democratic regimes and moved on through European integration, the countries of the Western Balkans cackled with regimes that brought them only instability, troubles, and wars.
Patterns of authoritarianism
In this part of the book, Bieber describes the situation in each country of the region in detail. The author identifies all the different social factors that led to the decline of democracy and the slowing down of its processes.
External influences, internal circumstances, and economic crises have all contributed to the strengthening of authoritarianism and the decline of democracy in the region’s countries. In Montenegro, the dominant Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) evolved over the years and underwent different phases of ruling style. North Macedonia’s direction towards authoritarianism was achieved after the conflict with Greece regarding the country’s name and the failed attempt to enter the NATO alliance in 2008. After Kosovo declared independence, the ruling elite relied on external support. The external partners, in turn, ignored Kosovo’s society’s problems, primarily problems in the rule of law and anti-corruption. The external factor allowed this to secure consent to cooperation with Serbia. Authoritarianism returned to Serbia in 2012 with the coming to power of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and Aleksandar Vučić. Party clientelism reaches its peak. In Albania, the government of Salia Berisha is characterized as a stabilocracy. This term was first used in that context. After that, the socialist government of Edi Rama made progress in reforms, but the main characteristic of his rule was the remnants of the old system in the form of party clientelism. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the government was mainly composed of ethno-nationalist parties, which always aspired to absolute control over the state. In Croatia, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was passing through several phases. During the nineties, the Croatian regime went through two stages. In the first phase, which lasted until the end of the war in 1995, the ruling party encouraged a nationalist atmosphere, and after that, the regime led by Tudjman switched to a sultanist form of ruling. It’s a political system in which he relied on the closest people around him.
So, there is no single authoritarian model, but there are common circumstances that repeat and which, together, strengthened authoritarianism in the Western Balkans.
Mechanisms of authoritarianism
In the third part of this book, the author talks about the different ways authoritarian regimes led until the capture of the state. These are political crises, nationalism, weak opposition, media control, etc. This chapter also discusses the role of the external factor and its contribution to maintaining this regime, namely the so-called regimes of competitive authoritarianism. Given that democracy and European integration have been important goals for the region’s countries in the last twenty years, open authoritarianism is not possible.
Therefore, the rulers of these countries apply competitive authoritarianism, which implies a model of governance in which rulers use authoritarian forms of governance, mostly informal, to avoid formal rules of democracy. So, it is about the simultaneity of these two systems (democracy and authoritarianism) in the way regimes in the countries of the Western Balkans work.
Conclusion
Apart from individuals who usually deal with this topic and monitor socio-political processes in the Western Balkans, this book is very good for those who need to know more about this topic. Florian Biber clearly and objectively processes and explains the circumstances that led to certain socio-political events and changes. A gradual familiarization with the political history of each country, framed by a chronological framework for each of those events, provides us with an exact overview of all those events.
In addition to getting to know the situation in these countries, the book can also serve as a guide it gives us direction to understand, in the best possible way, how certain political systems work. Also, as individuals, we can see the mistakes and the bad things and try to correct them in the following period so that similar negative processes are not repeated. That would be our contribution to the further development of democracy and improving the socio-political situation in the Western Balkans.
