engleski

Western Balkans Democracy: Inadequate Political Participation and Immature Political Culture

This paper argues that low and inadequate political participation across the Western Balkans and undeveloped political culture in all countries of the region indicates towards inadequate democracy promotion in the EU’s accession policy for the region all countries of the region have been exposed to through the Stabilisation and Association Process. In order to demonstrate the above stated hypothesis, I will refer to results of the inter-generational survey “A Tale of Two Generations - From Yugoslavia to the European Union”, that was conducted in late 2011. This survey namely reveals that introduction and development of democracy in the past two decades in the Western Balkans countries have influenced peoples’ attitudes towards politics only to a certain degree. Being deeply rooted in a society, political attitudes significantly shape political outcomes but take times to modify and develop. For example, readiness to engage in political action is a clear indicator of participative political culture. Civic engagement reflects both citizens’ interest in public issues and their devotion to public causes. Participant political culture is specific for population that possesses a strong sense of influence, competence and confidence in understanding of the domestic political system. Survey results indicate that population in all Western Balkans countries at large did not participate in any action related to problems in local community or society in general what points towards a conclusion that political culture in the region is rather subjective, i.e. where citizen are passive towards political institutions and role differentiation in political life.

rooted political attitudes; political culture; political conditionality; failures of democracy promotion in the EU accession process; Western Balkans; European Union

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