Power Sharing Without Democracy: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Power Sharing in National Self-Determination Conflicts in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and North Macedonia

Abstract

Power-sharing regimes are often misleadingly studied as democracies even when they are a part of authoritarian or hybrid regimes. This article contrasts power sharing without democracy in the national self-determination context—with all four pillars, largely constitutionalised and territorialised—with non-democratic but incomplete, informal and flexible power sharing in ethnic and ideological conflicts. It claims that power sharing facilitates peace and stability under both democracy and authoritarianism; however, problems arise in hybrid regimes and with political change. Evidence is provided from the comparative historical analysis of power sharing without democracy in communist Yugoslavia and postcommunist Bosnia and North Macedonia