Zhidas Daskalovski

• University "St. Kliment Ohridski" - Bitola

Corruption flourishes when governance structures are deficient, where impartiality in government is abused by powerful interests. We use a framework for measuring corruption, the TASP framework – referring to types, sectors, activities and places developed – to analyse the rule of prime minister Zoran Zaev (2017-2021) focusing on the issues of stat...

For a variety of historical reasons, Macedonia’s dealings with its neighbours have been difficult. This chapter considers the country’s relations with its immediate neighbours: Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Kosovo before focusing on the name dispute with Greece which has hindered Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions throughout the country’s long tra...

While formally founded on a variety of values and rules, the enlargement of the European Union (EU) has also been consistently influenced by geopolitical considerations, including within the Western Balkans (WB). The author particularly focuses on the Macedonian case in this regard, observing it in the context of the enlargement policy?s diminished...

Despite the positives of the digital revolution and the expanding public sphere there are various threats to liberal democracy and order in the internet era. On the one hand, liberal order is under severe threat by the rise of the surveillance state around the world. The second threat is related to the conduct of the political process and elections...

What is the best electoral system to increase the number of political parties represented in Parliament? This article answers the question using data from all the elections in Macedonia since 2002, and by making simulations of the results according to different electoral systems. In principle, we found that the electoral model that would bring most...

This book compares the results of twenty years of international media assistance in the five countries of the western Balkans. It asks what happens to imported models when they are applied to newly evolving media systems in societies in transition. Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia undertook a range of media reforms to conf...

This study examines the state of the EU enlargement process in the Western Balkans. A more strategic approach from the side of the EU is needed to engage with the region and its myriad challenges – from security to economic development to the rule of law. The Western Balkans are surrounded by EU member states, yet membership remains a remote prospe...

This article focuses on the question of what kind of approach should the liberal state take regarding religion and public holidays in multicultural societies of Western Europe. At present, these laws deny the equal status to citizens of different religious backgrounds. There are privileges that the laws bestow on citizens with Christian backgrounds...

A census is not only a public policy tool to classify and enumerate the population but also to construct social reality. Establishing a particular vision of social reality during census taking is important because public resources are granted and denied to ethnic groups depending on their numbers. In principle, the bigger the number of an ethnic co...

Abstract: In multiethnic societies liberals are concerned about outcomes in which people have fewer resources and opportunities than others when this is due to circumstances that they had no responsibility for causing. In this context demands by members of systematically and long term disadvantaged ethnocultural minorities for a form of an affirmat...

Macedonia should not worry about Kosovo becoming independent. This article reviews the current state of affairs in the northern neighbour. The author analyses whether there is a potential danger of an independent Kosovo negatively affecting internal politics in Macedonia. Is there the danger of the escalation of a new conflict. Presenting the facto...

The war in Kosovo has been a defining moment in post-Cold War Europe. Kosovo has great importance beyond the Balkans as the most ambitious attempt of the international community to prevent internal conflicts and rebuild a society destroyed by war and ethnic cleansing. As the danger of ethnic conflict prevails in the region and elsewhere around the...

This essay tackles the question of whether liberal political theory can remain neutral and grant minority cultural rights. It is argued that although consequentialist neutrality is impossible to implement, justificatory neutrality does allow certain benefits to be guaranteed to minorities as rights – although not as many as most multiculturalists d...

This paper aims to evident the predicament of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. The human rights of these people have been persistently negated by Bulgarian authorities and their present situation is fragile. Subjects of assimilationist policies for over 80 years, Bulgarian Macedonians are on the verge of loosing their distinct national identity...

The author explains the distinct democratic transition of Slovenia and Macedonia using Przeworski's theory of democratization. He underlines the differences and similarities between the paths of transition followed by these two former Yugoslavian republics. He also shows the importance of the elite's responses to the status of second Yugoslavia in...

1 Having declared independence on 8 September 1991, Macedonia, "the only ex-Yugoslav republic to secede non-violently, has been considered one of the bright spots in former Yugoslavia." 1 Hailed as an exemplary case of successful inter-ethnic co-operation, the country surprised analysts and diplomats when it almost surged into a full-blown civil wa...