Challenging assumptions of the enlargement literature : the impact of the EU on human and minority rights in Macedonia

This article argues that from the very start of the transition process in Macedonia, a fusion of concerns about security and democratisation locked local nationalist elites and international organisations intoa political dynamic that prioritised security over democratisation. This dynamic resulted in little progress in the implementation of human and minority rights until 2009, despite heavy EU involvement in Macedonia after the internal warfare of 2001. The effects of this informally institutionalised relationship have been overlooked by scholarship on EU enlargement towards Eastern Europe, which has made generalisations based on assumptions relevant to the democratisation of countries in Eastern Europe, but not the Western Balkans

Party Formation and Coalitional Bargaining in a Model of Proportional Representation

We study a game theoretic model of a parliamentary democracy under proportional representation where `citizen candidates' form parties, voting occurs and governments are formed. We study the coalition governments that emerge as functions of the parties' seat shares, the size of the rents from holding office and their ideologies. We show that governments may be minimal winning, minority or surplus. Moreover, coalitions may be `disconnected'. We then look at how the coalition formation game affects the incentives for party formation. Our model explains the diverse electoral outcomes seen under proportional representation and integrates models of political entry with models of coalitional bargaining.Proportional representation, Party formation, Coalitions

Ongoing Pristina – Belgrade Talks: from Decentralization to Regional Cooperation and Future Perspectives. EDAP 4/2012

On 17 February 2008, Kosovo declared independence, ending its nine years unresolved status. The principal goal was, and remains, the need to involve different communities in the state structures. The new state, which aims to fulfil all the obligations set by the Ahtisaari plan, is trying to complete the decentralization process the implementation of which continuous to face obstacles in the two main communities: the Serbs and the Albanians. This article discusses matters related to community acceptance of the decentralization process, the functioning of the parallel structures, the situation in North Kosovo and the on - going talks between Pristina and Belgrade. The article provides evidences that while the implementation of the decentralization process is the best possibility for Kosovo, it must not follow only an ethnic line

Foundation Focus (Issue 17): Social Dialogue - For a Competitive, Fair and Modern Europe

Social dialogue is a key part of the European social model, with European social dialogue having been launched at the historic Val Duchesse meeting 30 years ago. However, since then, established approaches to social dialogue in Europe have been challenged by industrial and social change. Ongoing shifts towards greater decentralisation of collective bargaining have resulted in a polarisation of Member States and the crisis has resulted in an increased trend towards unilateral decisionmaking by governments at the expense of social partners’ autonomy. In response to these challenges, the new Juncker Commission has set about a ‘relaunching’ of social dialogue. This issue of Foundation Focus looks at the current state of play of social dialogue in Europe, focusing in particular on Eurofound’s extensive research findings from both its Europe-wide surveys and its observatories

Instituciones políticas, procesos de diseño de políticas y resultados de las políticas en Uruguay

Uruguay genera una variedad de resultados políticos. Primero, hay políticas relativamente estables que permiten la apertura comercial y financiera del país. También, hay políticas de baja calidad e inflexibles relacionadas con políticas sociales, algunas áreas de reforma estatal (los salarios de los funcionarios del estado y mecanismos de contratación), el régimen de bancarrota, etc. Finalmente, estan los resultados volátiles que son generalmente los efectos de choques económicos, algunas veces relacionados con los gastos públicos. En los casos en que hay un precedente histórico o que la disponibilidad de mecanismos externos de cumplimento no conducen a políticas relativamente estables, la principal característica saliente de las políticas Uruguayas es la rigidez. La fuente de rigidez de las políticas Uruguayas parece ser una mezcla de factores institucionales (múltiples vetos, partidos fraccionados, y mecanismos de democracia directa) y conflictos políticos (preferencias de políticas divergentes), en los cuales es muy costoso moverse del status-quo debido a la gran amenaza de un reverso de las políticas. Las instituciones políticas en el Uruguay son propicias a alcanzar un acuerdo político a corto plazo, pero no pueden cooperar efectivamente y establecer políticas estables y flexibles al largo plazo. La dificultad está en conseguir intercambios políticos ínter temporales que son consistentes con las principales características del ambiente político: una cifra alta de principales actores políticos y vetos, una cifra considerable de maniobras políticas inobservables, una pobre aplicación de tecnología en el área económica, una burocracia políticamente influenciada, intercambios políticos que ocurren fuera del ruedo legislativo, y una particular constelación de partidos y preferencias además de un diseño costoso de políticas y cambios institucionales. (Disponible en Inglés)

State of Civil Society Report 2016

Each year the CIVICUS State of Civil Society Report seeks to celebrate the achievements of civil society, understand the conditions it works in and encourage action to address the challenges it encounters. In addition to reviewing the civil society landscape as a whole, every year the report has a special theme. This year's focus is 'exclusion and civil society'

Better by design: Business preferences for environmental regulatory reform

We present the preferences for environmental regulatory reform expressed by 30 UK businesses and industry bodies from 5 sectors. While five strongly preferred voluntary regulation, seven expressed doubts about its effectiveness, and 18 expressed no general preference between instrument types. Voluntary approaches were valued for flexibility and lower burdens, but direct regulation offered stability and a level playing field. Respondents sought regulatory frameworks that: are coherent; balance clarity, prescription and flexibility; are enabled by positive regulatory relationships; administratively efficient; targeted according to risk magnitude and character; evidence-based and that deliver long-term market stability for regulatees. Anticipated differences in performance between types of instrument can be undermined by poor implementation. Results underline the need for policy makers and regulators to tailor an effective mix of instruments for a given sector, and to overcome analytical, institutional and political barriers to greater coherence, to better coordinate existing instruments and tackle new environmental challenges as they emerge

What Belgium Can Teach Bosnia: The Uses of Autonomy in 'Divided House' States

Belgium and Bosnia can be understood as “divided house” states, which contain proportionally similar groups with opposing views regarding whether the state should be more unitary or more decentralised. The Belgian example demonstrates that even where groups disagree on state structure, a mixture of various forms of group autonomy may facilitate stability and compromise within the state. Belgium addresses this dilemma in two ways: 1) non-territorial autonomous units in the form of the linguistic communities, and 2) exclusive competencies for different units within the diverse Belgian state. In Bosnia, the rights of minorities in different territorial units, as well as refugee returns to areas where they are minorities, might be improved by structures with non-territorial autonomy that are similar to the Belgian linguistic communities. Similar to Belgium, these non-territorial units might hold exclusive competencies for educational, linguistic, cultural, and religious matters, and enable more political representation of minority individuals. In order to advocate working models for Bosnia, analysts should more carefully examine actual examples from states with similarly divided populations

Asymmetrical treatment and revenue from regional protest

This study seeks to empirically determine to what extent continual protest by regionalist parties may generate revenue for their regions. To this end, we perform an econometric estimation using the collaboration agreements between Spanish governments and the autonomous communities as the dependent variable (first-level political and administrative divisions, CCAA in their Spanish initials). We test our hypothesis by analogously applying the economic specifications employed in studies of "pork barrel politics", including control variables regarding per capita income, regional financing systems, political variables such as support for regional governments from the same political party or the existence of pivot parties. The results support the theoretical conclusions reached by Treisman (1999), namely that non-sovereignist regionalism generates revenue while sovereignist nationalism or regionalism leads governments to react by applying unfavourable treatment. Similarly, the fact that a regionalist party plays a key role in the investiture of the national president brings with it even greater revenue to the region in question, concurring with the results predicted by Brancati (2008)