Former Combatants, Democracy, and Institution-Building in Transitory Societies: Kosovo and North Macedonia [Hardcover]

1. Introduction; 2. Combatants and armed groups in fledgling peace: literature review; 3. Towards an inductive-based theory on democracy spoilers: theoretical framework and research design; 4. The rise of intra-state armies: background and context; 5. The political integration of former combatants; 6. Kosovo: former combatants building institutions and democracy; 7. North Macedonia: sharing power with former rebels; 8. Conclusion; 9. References

This book explores the long-term impact on democracy and institution-building in post-conflict and transitory societies, stemming from the political integration of former combatants of intra-state armed groups.

This book explores the long-term impact on democracy and institution-building in post-conflict and transitory societies, stemming from the political integration of former combatants of intra-state armed groups. By providing a comparative analysis on two countries with certain commonalities but also sufficient differences to warrant an intriguing comparison  Kosovo and North Macedonia  the author undertakes an examination of their respective political trajectories with a focus on the role of combatants turned politicians. Revolving around the concepts of democracy and political inclusion versus clientelism, corruption, and institutional capture, the objective is to shed light on the correlation between the inclusion of former combatants in politics, democratisation and institution-building, and the perpetuation of clientelist behavior and other illicit phenomena. In so doing, the book explores the novel concept of democracy spoilers in transitory societies. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of democracy, nation-building, institution-building, and security studies.

Armend Bekaj is a researcher in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR), Uppsala University, Sweden. He combines academic and policy experience on peal“µ