POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE STATE IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA – IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION
POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE STATE IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA – IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of political parties for successful democratic consolidation in post-communist countries. The study looks into the role of political parties with respect to their relationship with the state both theoretically and empirically through the case study of Macedonia in the period 1990-2006. The research examines the question whether political parties have facilitated or delayed the process of democratic consolidation through performing their functions in relation with the state. Geoffrey Pridham’s analytical framework on the role of political parties in democratic consolidation forms the conceptual boundaries of this research. In addition to secondary literature, the paper utilizes primary data of twenty-one open-ended interviews with high-level representatives from all major political parties in Macedonia. The study contributes to academic research primarily by addressing the absence of any recent contextual literature on the role of political parties in the process of democratic consolidation in Macedonia.

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