Deconsolidation and de-democratisation: Current western Balkans experience of the transition

This article reviews the third decade of the post-Wall transition of central and eastern Europe, paying particular attention to the western Balkans. It focuses on European integration and the indicators of deconsolidation - notably, the lack of trust which has characterised the ‘crisis of confidence’ induced by the EU’s own series of crises since the middle of the 2000s. Additionally, the rise of authoritarianism and populism across the region is often viewed as a symptom of a possible ‘de-democratisation’, or reverse wave. From a process-oriented perspective, the author suggests a rethinking of the various polarisations under which, instead of seeing democratisation and de-democratisation as opposing forces, we may recognise instead that both are actually continuous, interconnected processes related to democracy itself - and not (at least, not necessarily) to a growing state of non-democracy. Oscillation between these two states may well characterise the next decade of the transition but, if we are to address the problems that this causes, we must first understand precisely how we have got where we are.