MONTENEGRO DEMOCRACY INDEX 2006
MONTENEGRO DEMOCRACY INDEX 2006

Contributor(s): Miloš Bešić (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics, Civil Society, Government/Political systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: CEDEM Centar za Demokratiju i Ljudska Prava
Keywords: Democracy Index; Social transformation; Post-socialist societies; Reform process; Montenegro
Summary/Abstract: After 15 years of social transformation in Montenegro, just as in other countries that underwent the same process, a number of important social and political issues have been raised, which relate directly or indirectly on the evaluation of effects of implemented reforms. Speaking of the very nature of these social changes, first we have to stress one important fact: ‘changes are irreversible’. The fact remains that both in the Montenegrin as well as in other societies in transition, there are social groups and their political promoters who demand the return to the old ways. However, even among the supporters of this idea there is a conviction that it is quite impossible to turn the wheel backward and that thanks to the reform process the key social and political mechanisms, which eventually could start the reversible process, have been dismantled. This, by all means, does not mean that the transformation process is completed, or that it was successful in all social segments. Furthermore, when determining the reach and depth of changes that occurred within the social structure, one should be very careful. If we take phenomenological layers as evaluation criteria we can easily end up with wrong conclusions, or in other words, by superficial review of changes, without analysis of all the layers, we may overestimate their depth. In that sense, political scientists, sociologists, economists, and other social analysts rightfully point out to fact that post- socialist society is convergent in its nature and that in many elements it is burdened by past which is permanently acting as barrier to reform processes.

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