Leaders’ meetings: facilitating or replacing the formal processes in the Western Balkan countries? 7 pages, pdf  Download Back

Leaders’ meetings: facilitating or replacing the formal processes in the Western Balkan countries?

Publisher: Vjollca Krasniqi, Nenad Markovikj, Ilina Mangova, Enriketa Papa-Pandelejmoni and Jovan Bliznakovski

Volume: 7 pages, pdf 

Description:

Leaders meeting, an informal practice for resolving political conflicts, have become a common feature of the political systems of unconsolidated democracies in the Western Balkan countries- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo and Macedonia. 'Leaders' meeting are negotiations among the major political party leaders and their delegated representatives that seek a consensual resolution of contentious issues and that occur outside formal institutions, e.g. a neutral location such as public, commercial or diplomatic premises. Formal parliamentary political institutions and processes in the Western Balkans are often incapacitated by boycotts, blockades or rejections on the part of political actors, which turn political competition into political conflict. In turn, political conflicts have created and/or intensified political crises, rendering formal institutions dysfunctional and opening space for interventions by external actors. The deadlocks in political decision-making and the fragility of formal political institutions have led to a reliance on 'leaders' meetings' as an informal mechanism. These include both meetings of leaders themselves external and 'leadership meetings' which are attended by delegated representatives; in many cases, external actors are aslo involved. The purpose of this informal practice is to deal with political disputes, which, having gone outside institutions, cannot be contained by them, so are resolved in private meetings, mainly between party leaders.