THE ELECTORAL LIST IN THE ELECTORAL SYSTEMS OF THE COUNTRIES ESTABLISHED ON THE GROUND OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA IN ONE COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The topic of the exploration is the electoral list in the electoral systems in the statescreated in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The paper does a comparative analysis of oneof the most significant components and characteristics of the electoral systems in the ex-SFRYstates. It should be noted that at the very beginning of the introduction of party pluralism inthese countries, 30 years ago, they experimented with the character of the electoral system.Here, in the first place, the conjuncture came to the fore, more precisely, electoralsystems were established that suited the leading political parties. However, as thedemocratization of these societies gradually developed and the influence of the rulingpolitical elites eroded, a process of gradual re-examination and re-evaluation of theelectoral system followed, i.e. a gradual transition to a proportional electoral modeltook place. When applying this model in the countries of the former Yugoslavia,there are numerous variations. The differences are referred to the electoral formula,district magnitude, electoral threshold, and what this paper will be abstracted on – theelectoral list. However, the most common definition of these electoral systems is thatthey are electoral systems that can be classified in the group of party-list systems, asone of the variations of the proportional electoral model. In the theoretical literature,there are several approaches to the division of electoral lists –open, closed, free , andflexible in one more essential sense, but for analytical purposes in this paper, we willuse the more generalized division of open and closed lists

LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM. BULGARIAN-MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE DISPUTE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SIGNED TREATY OF GOOD NEIGHBOURSHIP BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES

Theories of nations and nationalism consider language as one of the important factors that define the basis of a nation. The language dispute between Bulgaria and Macedonia is not a recent issue. In its very sharp form it exists since the second half of 19th century when the two views were determined: one which embraced a common linguistic standard for Macedonians and Bulgarians; and the position of the so called makedonisti, who insisted that a separate linguistic development for Macedonian nation must be introduced. With the codification of the Macedonian linguistic standard in 1944, the language dispute with Bulgaria reached another dimension. Following the proclamation of the Macedonian Independence and their recognition by Bulgaria in 1992, a number of contracts of mutual cooperation remained unsigned due to the linguistic dispute. A breakthrough was made in 1999 when the Declaration for Good Neighbourship was signed in Macedonian language in accordance with the Constitution, and Bulgarian language in accordance with the Bulgarian Constitution, and a formulation which was also accepted when the Treaty of Good Neighbourship was signed in The purpose of this paper is to use the historical and explicative approach to explain the genesis of Bulgarian - Macedonian language dispute, especially its escalation following the codification of the Macedonian standard language in 1944/1945. Analysis was performed with the comparative approach, which included analogies with other national linguistic contexts for the unsustainability of the Bulgarian thesis for non-existence of an independent Macedonian language. A special review was carried out due to the dilemma on whether the formulation from the Treaty “Language in accordance to the Constitution” was Bulgaria’s attempt to devalue and deny the autochthony of the Macedonian language as an important marker of the Macedonian nation

THE COMPOSITION OF THE MAIN ELECTION BODIES IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE FORMER SFRY

Elections have always been perceived as an essential component of democracy. Sinequa non for any representative democracy is the election process to be fair and competitive.The key institutions for fostering faith in democratically conducted elections are the electionbodies. In comparative science that deals with the study of electoral systems, there aredifferent methodological approaches and different criteria through which attempts are madeto classify the bodies that manage the election process. Regardless of the fact that manyauthors distinguish between different forms of election bodies, the main distinction still liesin distinguishing between governmental and independent bodies for conducting elections.Hence, the aim of this paper is to consider the question of how the Election Commissionis conceived, as the most important election body, in the legislation of the countries of theformer Yugoslavia. It should be emphasized that such a comparative analysis is consideredquite plausible, since these countries that in the early 90s of the XX century, after thedissolution of the former SFRY, were transformed from the former political monism intocountries with political pluralism. The Pluralism in these countries was unthinkable withoutdemocratically conducted elections. During their holding, the election bodies, including theElection Commission, played a huge role in ensuring a quality flow of the same. For thatpurpose, this paper will first review the theoretical literature that aims to answer the questionsof how to analyze the bodies that manage the election process and what are their constituentelements crucial to evaluating the quality of the electoral administration itself. Then will bemake a comparative overview of the similarities and differences in the conception of theEC as part of the election bodies in the countries that arose on the territory of the formerYugoslavia. A generally accepted fact in electoral science is that, among the new democracies,which undoubtedly include the countries of the former socialist Yugoslavia, most popularwere more or less independent electoral bodies in the form of Election Commissions, as willbe evidenced by the analysis of the character of the election bodies in the countries thatemerged after the dissolution of the former SFRY – Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro,BiH and R Macedonia. The analysis done here will show that, regardless of the fact that allcountries from the former SFRY follow the most popular model for conducting elections,the so-called model of more or less independent Election Commission, the process is not completely identical because all analysed models are derived from the political specifics and characteristics of the respective countries and their specific legislative practice

A MULTIPARTY SYSTEM WITHOUT A DOMINANT PARTY AS A PREREQUISITE FOR A MORE SUCCESSFUL CONSOCIATION – A COMPARATIVE REVIEW

In political science, there is a principled consensus that the full functioning of the consociational model of democracy, so-called power-sharing, requires the existence of a multiparty system. But certain authors go a step further saying that not whoever multiparty system is appropriate for the countries of consociational democracy, but a multiparty system without a dominant party. This is also the main thesis of this paper. Hence, to process it, the paper is structured as follows: first, a theoretical overview will be given of the typologies of party systems that exist in political science, then through the prism of the so-called Laakso-Taagepera index (L-T index) for the effective number parties (ENP), named after the Estonian scientists of the same name, will be reviewed the party systems of the paradigmatic European ‟case studies” - the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, as well as the newly formed consociations - Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM). The time segment for the analysis of election cycles and the effective number of parliamentary parties (ENPP) in these selected cases is derived as follows: 1. For the Netherlands, the focus is from the introduction of the proportional model in 1917 to 1967, that is, the so-called period of sixty years of consociation; 2. For Belgium from the elections after the First World War, with particular emphasis on the election cycles in the 70s, 80s and 90s, when with the six constitutional reforms the country became a federal and full-blooded consociation; 3. For Switzerland, since the introduction of the proportion in 1918, with a particular focus on the election cycles after the introduction of the so-called “magical formula” for the determination of the composition of the Federal Council (1959); 4. For BiH and RNM, the election cycles after the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) and the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), when consociational elements were introduced into their political systems. From the analysis made, on the one hand, it will be confirmed that in all selected cases, except RSM, in “the lion’s share” of the election cycles, indeed the ENPP index indicated multipartyism without a dominant party. On the other hand, it will be shown that the RNM does not fit into the definition of a typical consociation with a multiparty system without a dominant party, because its party system after the OFA according to the L-T index for the ENPP is a typical two-and-a-half party system. Therefore, it is more correct to speak of the totality of the Macedonian political system as a kind of ‟hybrid” of elements of parliamentary and consociational democracy, rather than a ‟pure” consociation

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE USE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO – THE MACEDONIAN CASE

Pursuant to Article 83 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia „the duty of the President of the Republic is inconsistent with any other public office performance, profession or position in a political party.“ But without the support of the two dominant parties on the Macedonian political scene, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, not any pretender for this position, within a time pan of more than a quarter century of political pluralism in Macedonia, could have been chosen. In the comparative constitutional law, as well as the comparative science of contemporary political systems, the use of the veto by the president, if defined and allowed by a constitution, is one of the indicators of the so-called presidential activism, a frequently used term in literature, yet without a universal definition. The purpose of this paper is precisely the analysis of the way in which the veto power in the Republic of Macedonia is used by all previous presidents, given the fact that this right is enabled by Article 75 of the Macedonian constitution, with a special focus on the factors which influence the use of the presidential veto. The use of the suspensive veto, as an act of presidential activism, by all four presidents who have completed their term, will be analyzed through the prism of eight criteria

PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS IN ELECTORAL REGULATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA REGARDING THE ELECTION OF THREE-MEMBER PRESIDENCY – ONE REVIEW 25 YEARS AFTER DAYTON

AbstractLate last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) marked 25 years since the signing of theDayton Peace Accords (DPA). This Agreement ended the country’s brutal ethnic war (1992-95).The established political system in Dayton was qualified as a classic consociational agreementbut from the new wave. It provided consensual power-sharing between the political elites ofthe three constituent peoples – the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, including in the collectivethree-member Presidency. The collective form of the BiH Presidency was not an innovationin peace negotiations under US-mediation in Dayton, but an institution rooted in Yugoslavtraditions. Therefore, in this paper, first, an overview of the development of the institutioncollective head of state in the political system of BiH will be given. Then it will be crossed tothe main goal of this analysis – the problematic aspects in the election regulations regardingthe election of its members, above all the Croatian, as well as the issue of passive suffrage,including for the so-called “unconstitutional” peoples. Finally, certain ideas for overcomingthese problems that exist in the constitutional solutions and provisions of the BiH ElectoralCode will be sublimated. Hence the main thesis of this paper is that the electoral system ofBosnia and Herzegovina, including in terms of the presidential elections, a quarter-centuryafter Dayton, insufficiently and poorly reflects the constitutional, legal, national, political andethnic structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina