Political culture in Macedonia after the Ohrid Framework Agreement Cover Image

Political culture in Macedonia after the Ohrid Framework Agreement
Political culture in Macedonia after the Ohrid Framework Agreement

Author(s): Jonuz Abdullai, Demush Bajrami
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Kolegji ILIRIA and Felix-Verlag
Keywords: Macedonia; Ohrid Agreement; Western Balkan; political culture; democracy; transition; integration

Summary/Abstract: The political culture, according to scholar Kavanagh is part of the overall societal culture, and represents a set of basic values, emotions, knowledge, attitudes and convictions, within which the political system operates, shaping and feeding political processes. Culture came as a sequence to efforts to factor the spiritual world of people in explicating policy. Political culture brings to surface some kind of independence of culture from economic factors, and the role of culture in political order and economic development. This paper provides the theoretical aspects of political culture and political systems, within which its reflection is analysed on several aspects of interethnic relations in a democracy. Also, it accentuates the preferred paths of Western Balkan countries, including Macedonia, towards integration with the European Union, which is spiked with many challenges. In the political culture of multi-ethnic societies, ethnic divisions may have an influence. The ethnic principles are still present in the political arena of Macedonia, where although there is some “interethnic reconciliation”, the failure in implementing the Ohrid Framework Agreement, signed in 2001, between Albanians and Macedonians, there are often political contractions, affecting national interests, which is in contradiction to all values of the European Union, mainly with human rights, but also ethnic rights. The object of the analysis of this paper is specifically related to: - extended transition of Macedonia, - political consensus, - role of political parties, and - interethnic relations after the Ohrid Framework Agreement

  • Issue Year: 2/2012
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 131-148
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English