The development of interest groups in the Balkans: Background and contemporary characteristics

• Date: 01 May 2019
• Author: Clive S. Thomas,Danica Fink‐Hafner
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1717

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

The development of interest groups in the Balkans:

Background and contemporary characteristics

Danica Fink‐Hafner

1

|Clive S. Thomas

2

1

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of

Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

2

Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy

and Public Service, Washington State

University, Pullman, Washington, USA

Correspondence

Danica Fink‐Hafner, Faculty of Social

Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva

ploščad 5 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Email: danica.fink-hafner@fdv.uni-lj.si

Understanding the political development of the Balkans can be challenging even for

historians and social scientists. This is particularly the case with the region's past

and present interest group systems as virtually no research is available on the subject.

With this in mind, this article provides basic background on the region and its fledgling

interest group system as a foundation for approaching the analysis in the 7 country

articles that follow. The topics considered include an overview of the common ele-

ments of the 7 group systems and their differences, developments that shaped these

systems, and an initial look at the role of interest groups in consolidating the region's

pluralist political systems.

1|INTRODUCTION

The development of the interest group systems in the Balkans has

been a political odyssey. This reflects many common elements of

other group systems: both those progressing toward pluralism and

consolidating democracy, as well as authoritarian regimes. Like all of

these systems, other prominent elements of group development have

been the product of local circumstances. In this article, we focus on

the common elements and the political environment that shaped

these group systems. Then, following the articles examining the seven

countries, among other things, the concluding article examines the

variations in these group systems.

The seven countries emerged from the territory of the former

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) which spanned the

years 1945–1991. These countries are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croa-

tia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Together

they constitute the definition of the Balkans used in this article,

alternatively designated as the region.

The article begins by identifying the major characteristics of

contemporary interest group activity across the region. This is

followed by an outline of the political developments that shaped

contemporary group activity. The next section looks specifically at

variations among the countries in the development of individual

groups and the group systems, including consideration of strategies

and tactics. The relationship of interest groups and democracy is

considered next. The conclusion explains the purpose of the rest

of the volume regarding the interest group‐democracy relationship

and the relevance of particular theories of interest group activity.

2|THE FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF INTEREST GROUPS AND GROUP SYSTEMS

IN THE CONTEMPORARY BALKANS

Variations in socioeconomic characteristics, traditions of statehood

and political culture, are such that Ramet (1999) referred to the region

as the Balkan babel. This diversity across the seven countries means

that what characterizes their group systems, past and present, are

their differences rather than their similarities. Identifying and

explaining the specifics of this diversity is a major part of the analysis

in this article.

Nevertheless, some general characteristics of the seven group

systems can be identified based on their common experiences, such

as those under the first Yugoslavian state (1919–1941), and particu-

larly under the SFRY. Ten characteristics are most prominent: (a) the

transitional nature of the group systems, (b) foreign influence, (c) the

impact of war, (d) the affect of socioeconomic factors, (e) political

culture and political participation, (f) the perception of interest groups,

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any

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© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Public Affairs Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1717

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1717.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1717

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of11