Balavac Emil

Interdisciplinary Joint Master's Programme in South-East European Studies

Academic Year: 2012/13
Class: Culture and society in South East Europe

Belgrade 2012/2013

The process of modernisation in Southeast Europe

Rapid and incomplete?

Introduction
Modernization is a process that has been discussed for a long time and connected with
many other processes such as globalization and democratization. Modernization is a process that
starts at different times in different societies, takes several different ways, different speed and
touches different spheres of life. Modernization is also understood as a concept of transforming
traditional societies into modern ones. This change happens at multiple levels, including economy,
political system and social structure. In the case of Balkans, or specifically the ex-Yugoslav countries
it usually means catching up with the countries of Western Europe, and/or applying the concepts,
rules and values of the European Union.
Modernization in most countries is in many ways connected with democratization. Change of the
political system, usually from autocratic and centralized systems to democratic and open ones, is
seen by many as a main point of modernization. From this point, when the political system changes,
everything else follows.
My belief is that modernization of the Western Balkans can be divided into 3 phases. First phase is
up to the 140, or the outbreak of the Second World War. Western Balkans was developing under the
centuries of the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungary. The level of development depended on
many factors and this essay will not discuss these. It is important to mention that these processes
were focused on elimination of illiteracy and the formation of national identity.
Most of the modernization processes were stopped or slowed down by the outbreak of Second
World War, which basically forces the country, Yugoslavia at the time, to start with the
modernization almost from nothing. Second period of modernization starts in 1945, after the war,
and stops or slows down, depending on the country, in 1990s with the outbreak of the war for
dissolution of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was than going through the modernization of the technical
aspects, which meant development of science, but in a very state controlled environment.
Third period that started between 1991 and 1995, modernization started in most fields, from
politics, economy to culture and science.
Modernization after 1991 was very slow in some field, but also fat and incomplete in most.
In this paper I will try to describe modernization in Western Balkan countries as being slow and
incomplete through different processes such as democratization, globalization, and economic,
political and social changes. In order to understand this paper, it is essential that Western Balkans
refers to the following countries: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and
Macedonia.

Modernization and democratization

Modernization and democratization, with the assistance of the international community, is a great
need of the Western Balkan countries. But the success of adaptation highly depends on the nature
of influence by the international community.
After the collapse of communism in Europe, states that had changed their political system
were under strong influence of the western world and their practices. Accordingly, the same
influence was also present in the Balkan countries. But unfortunately, Yugoslav communism was
not just changed with the democracy. With the rise of nationalist movement Yugoslavia and its
Republics were drown into the wars that lasted until 1995. Due to the wars, influence of the West
was not same to these countries as it was to the countries of Central Europe, having in mind that
these were also the post communist states.
Many Western institutions had influence on democratization in the Balkan countries. These
institutions in a first place include European Union which had the most influence of them all. I
believe and support this, but I do not want to undermine the influence of many others. Maybe the
EU had the greatest influence just because it has the greatest capacities to do so.
If there were no wars, the transition period could have been much faster and easier. But the reality
was very different. In the early 90s European Union could hardly find a focal point for cooperation.1
It has been engaged in stopping the wars and creating a peaceful atmosphere in the former
Yugoslavia, but through this process it did not find the credible focal point. I believe that this
happened in the late 90s with Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and early 2000s with
Serbia. Only Slovenia has been putting considerably more effort into EU integrations in the first
decade of its independence.
In any case, the influence of the EU was enormous, and I believe that the accession to the European
Union is still the guiding idea for all the countries in the Balkan. Sometimes they are far away or
very slow, but as I could have seen they never go of that road.
Council of Europe is the other institution that has played an important role in the democratization
process in the Balkans. This institution that promotes and protects human rights, democracy and
the rule of law was the first big step for the post Communist European states. In order to become
the members, states had to fulfill certain criteria and satisfy some standards. As recognition to the
work of the Council of Europe (CoE), the EU has set membership in CoE as one of its first criteria for
accession.
While European Unions most valuable offer is of economic nature, Council of Europe offers social
aspect of life. This very much limited its influence, but having in mind that EU values its opinions
and decisions, states are still to certain degree under pressure to commit to the decisions.
European, or western influence, to democratic transition and processes was unavoidable since
Europe was already very highly institutionalized with international organizations and a parade of
other transnational actors were well placed to develop strategies for shaping domestic political
change. The extent and the time frame of these strategies has varied greatly, all of them have aimed
at promoting some aspect of liberal democracy and free market capitalism.

Vachudova, Milada Anna. 2006. Democratization in Postcommunist Europe: Illiberal Regimes and the Leverage
of International Actors. Center for European Studies Working Paper Series #139

I believe that main obstacle to the consolidation of democracy in South-East Europe is the
absence of rule of law. The rule of law is a legal maxim whereby governmental decisions are made
by applying known legal principles. 2
Since the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the first post-communist elections, the countries of the
South East Europe started working on processes of democratization. One of the main principles of a
democratic state is the above defined rule of law. The definition of following the established rules
and legal practices sound very simple. It essentially means that when group of people elected by the
population creates rules, they also stick to those rules. Even though that sounds very easy and
logical the reality in the SEE region has demonstrated us differently. It has been around 20 years
from the first democratic election in post-communist countries, but those countries still struggle
with the rule of law and its application.
Even the first elections, and many election that came, were did not fully respected the rule of law. In
some countries that succeeded from Yugoslavia it was difficult to even state what the law is. When
the wars started, they manage to weaken the rule of law and put it to the margins of the
democratization process. When the wars ended, the rule of law needed to be reintroduced
strongly. This process was very slow, and not all the states developed the rule of law to the same
level.
Rule of law was undermined together with administrative coherence and efficiency when the same
people, segments of the former communist elite, too the advantage of the situation to stay in power.
In a great degree they managed to corrupt the new institutional framework and its officials.
Even Croatia, which was unofficial leader in democratization among the Western Balkan countries,
had a very low score regarding the rule of law and corruption that is usually very tied to the
absence of the rule of law.
Establishment of uncorrupted and independent judicial sector is still, in 2012, far from reality. This
now applies to the countries other than Croatia, but it is also far from satisfacotry. Judicial problems
were among the largest and most difficult conditions for the membership in the EU.
According to the 2004 comparative study of judicial institutions in the region it was clear that lack
of the political preconditions for [judicial] independence is visible in many countriesan
insufficient culture of independence and separation of powers and functions still emerges in the
whole region due to the presence of legacies of the political culture. 3
Corruption has somehow become ordinary part of our lives. It is quite normal that if you visit a
doctor you bring him or her chocolate, some drink or anything else that one might think is
appropriate.
The same study demonstrated that corruption was still a serious problem of every country in the
region. In most of the cases, in the judiciary sector, was due to the very low salaries of judges which
were characterized as below the level of decency. The situation is not much different in the police
sector, health, army, and mostly any other public sector. We have been witnesses of such behavior
in our daily life, and majority of the citizens of Western Balkan countries experienced the
consequences of the corruption and to that point the lack of rule of law.
Croatian government was until recently had the judiciary which was very dependent on it. But
Croatia, unlike any other Western Balkan country, recently charged many high officials and started
broad investigations for corruption.
2

Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, page 1196 (West Publishing Company 1979).
Lenard J. Cohen, Administrative Development in Low-Intensity Democracies: Governance, Rule-of-Law and
Corruption in the Western Balkans
3

In recent years countries in the region, and under pressure of the European Union, started working
faster in their efforts to combat corruption and uphold the rule of law. But the issue in some
countries is not upholding the rules and law, but creating them. Lack of proper legal rules and
procedures is the problem that must be solved in order to have meaningful application of rule of
law. The fact that some countries still lack some very important pieces of legal framework, years
after independence, is very devastating. These and many other holes in the justice system are being
used by the offender of the law very often and very successfully.
As I said before, development of rule-of-law vary from country to country. It essentially means
compliance with societal rules, particularly the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the
courts, and also the likelihood of violence. When translated into ordinary language it means that
most of the Balkan countries are very far from the ideal.
This ideal is a natural part of the Europeanization process and the European Union pushes
governments in region to implement necessary economic, political, legal and administrative
reforms as a part of the countries EU-related reforms through which they have been going through
since late 1990s. However, SEE countries are for a long time in a serious political gridlock due to
different interests of the ethnic communities regarding many different issues, from statehood,
independence, stateness etc.
Although all Western Balkans countries have many problems regarding the rule-of-law, Kosovo,
Albania, and Serbia are somewhat different. Their additional problem is very organized criminal
networks. They demonstrated their power with the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister
ini. Serbia has on the other side achieved relatively good cooperation with the Tribunal in
Hague when it delivered two most wanted persons accused for war crimes.
In comparison with the Central and Eastern Europe countries we can see that SEE is falling well
behind. But one must take into consideration that the other two regions were fortunate to develop
from communism to democracy without the conflicts.
Greatest problem in resolving these issues and bringing the rule-of-law to satisfactory levels lies I
believe in the weakness of the states in question. Lenard J. Cohen cited the 2004 review of the
region mentioned earlier which states that the warfare in the 1990s had fostered a culture of
opacity, politicization, and corruption leaving the countries and entities generally weak in their
capacities the rule-of-law is respected neither by the executives nor the population and judicial
systems are incapable of enforcing it systematically.4 Such state will have very hard time to
establish the rule-of-law, and in the end fulfill all the criteria from this area for the membership in
European Union for which it declaratively strives.
Such countries are not able to protect the rule-of-law and human rights. The worst thing is that
society is being indifferent to these problems. And as long the society acts this way, the practices
will not change. Some governments in the region focus on reviving nationalist values, resolving the
nationalist issues and preserving the staff and corruptive institutional structures that better serve
such objectives.5
One other point presented in the article of Vesna Pesic is that governing elites have collected huge
wealth, mostly state property including public companies; they fight to keep the status quo in order
to avoid any investigations and prosecutions.

Lenard J. Cohen, Administrative Development in Low-Intensity Democracies: Governance, Rule-of-Law and

Corruption in the Western Balkans
5 Vesna Pesic, State Capture and Widespread Corruption in Serbia, CEPS Working Document No. 262/March 2007
4

The EU also has its proactive agenda towards the neighboring countries. The effects of the
European Union neighboring policy on modernization of the Western Balkans had and still has
different aspect.
It was designed as a strategy that would encourage the EUs neighbors to adapt to European
democratic and human rights norms, liberalize market access and contribute to mutual economic
progress through political and economic incentives that would ultimately lead to stability and
prosperity in the EUs backyard.
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which was initiated in 2004 was designed as a
strategy to encourage neighbours approximation with the European Union (EU).6
Having this division in mind, some say that neighborhood policy alone has not provided sufficient
incentives for the EUs neighbors to change voluntarily7, while both EU Member States and the
neighborhood countries have failed to live up to their mutual engagements. Furthermore, third
parties often undermine the EUs efforts for the sake of the political power in their countries. The
best example for this might be Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is supposed to be a balance between national priorities and promoting the Unions interests and
values. EU foreign policy uses primarily soft tools8, such as trade rules and liberalisation of market
access, as there is no European army and European defence cooperation is limited. The Union is
also the worlds leading provider of overseas aid and is a global norm-setter on many issues ranging
from aviation and chemical standardisation to environmental protection and financial supervision.
The EUs agreements with its partners around the globe go beyond trade and traditional
development assistance. They cover support for economic reforms, health and education,
infrastructure programmes and in some cases cooperation in areas like research and development
and environmental policy. They also provide a framework for discussing political issues like
democracy and human rights as it is mentioned above.
The EU is particularly sensitive to the interests of developing countries and has long recognised
that trade can boost their economic growth and their productive capacity. Developing countries
enjoy duty-free access or cut-rate tariffs on exports to the EU market for many products covered by
the EU's generalised system of preferences. Vulnerable countries with special development needs
enjoy duty-free treatment for all products covered by the generalised system of preferences. This is
a one-way concession which does not require reciprocal action on the part of beneficiaries. This
type of help is hardly to be provided by the Member States themselves. It probably would not have
the same large effect as when given by the whole EU, and it would be very hard to achieve on a state
to state basis. This type of EU policies are good because, in a case of a single states acting on their
own might never chose as the priority to help other non-EU states, but they do not have anything
against the Common policy of the Union.
The European Union provides aid in many ways, by directly cooperation with governments,
implementation of the projects, mostly through civil society actions and NGOs, by delivering
humanitarian aid, assistance in crisis prevention and support for civil society.
Esther Barb, Oriol Costa, Anna Herranz, Elisabeth Johansson-Nogus, Michal Natorski, Maria A. Sabiote,
Drawing the Neighbours Closer to What? - Explaining Emerging Patterns of Policy Convergence between the
EU and its Neighbours, http://cac.sagepub.com/content/44/4/378.abstract (May 3, 2012)
7
Piotr Maciej Kaczyski, The Brighter Side of Europe - What European Foreign Policy,
http://www.singapore.polemb.net/?document=453 (May 3, 2012)
8
The EU in the world, The foreign policy of the European Union, Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 2007, ec.europa.eu/publications (May 5, 2012)
6

The EUs development cooperation aims to give disadvantaged people in the third world control over
their own development. This means attacking the sources of their vulnerability, including poor access
to food and clean water, or to health, education and jobs and a sound environment. It also means
fighting disease and promoting access to cheap medicines to combat scourges like AIDS as well as
action to reduce their debt burden that diverts scarce resources away from vital public investments
back to lenders in the industrialised countries. The EU also uses development cooperation as a way to
promote human rights and gender equality and to prevent conflicts.9
For the European countries who are not members of the EU, European Union created many
programs to help and support the development of specific sectors of civil society and government.
Those programs range from scientific, over cultural, educational, capacity building to youth and
many others. These are directly financed from the European Union budget and are very much used
by the beneficiaries. This help is appreciated moreover because these areas are not considered as
priorities in the developing countries thus they receive very small, or none, grants from the
governments.
European Union sets higher standards in many life areas, thus forcing other countries to
aspire for the same, thus creating better world for all.

Modernization and globalization

Globalization could be explained as a phenomenon of trade among specific industries
whereby markets become cross-national, then international and eventually global. In turn, this
movement requires companies to adapt by changing marketing, sourcing, human resources,
possibly all functions to conform to these markets. There is no single definition of globalization that
is accepted universally. Still, there are many authors that stress connection, linkage and shrinkage
of the world when they define this phenomenon. Globalization as a term, derived from the Latin
word globus which represents ball, means round, planetary, earthly, and essentially represent our
planet and the whole world. Globalization processes did not bypass the Western Balkan region, but
the globalization in a sense of strong growth, especially economical, was lacking. Globalization in
this region did not necessarily bring the modernization, at least not in the full sense of the word.
Globalization usually includes technologically determined processes that increase trading, political,
science, cultural and social relations among people of different states and nations.
If we look beyond the specifics of the industries that become globalized, we can see other two
important things mentioned earlier, technology and changed institutions. Modernization in
technology was slowed down in most Western Balkan countries for different reasons, from war and
international sanctions to internal problems of corruption and lack of rule of law.
Nevertheless, technological change is still there, but just in smaller scales. It is recognized through
the development of production facilities, lower costs products, modern transportation, product
standardization, higher quality, less waste, etc.
On its way towards the European Union, Western Balkan countries developed much greater
liquidity for capital. Additionally, there is an increase in labor mobility and education. There is a
9

The EU in the world, The foreign policy of the European Union, Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 2007, ec.europa.eu/publications (May 5, 2012)

great increase in cross-border trade and investment with lower tariffs and quotas. Countries have
joined CEFTA in order to boost their economies.
Economic interests connect people even when they are on completely different, even conflicted
ideological positions. My belief is that this fact drives the modernization and Europeanization of
the Western Balkans. These interests, being primary for human existence, are in a focus of most
people. This economic driven globalization does not concern economy alone, but it goes into all
spheres of life. This means that globalization is bringing modernization not only into economy and
politics, but also to the ecology, religion and beliefs, information sharing, terrorism, drugs, aids,
lifestyle and culture.
Adaptation of the local societies of the region to the new realities is eminent and highly necessary.
Adaptation in most cases leads towards modernization, and it represents the core need of the
Balkan states to take and bring lifestyle of the superior civilizations, modern technologies,
efficient economy, democracy, human rights etc. Now, countries of the Western Balkans are mosaic
of many social aspects.
Again, globalization brings modernization, transition, and everybody who tries to resist to this
process or stays outside will be turned into ghetto.
Consequences of globalization on national state, which means most Western Balkan countries, are
different. On one side it brought, or was supposed to bring, faster modernization, liberalization of
economy and politics, pluralism and parliamentary system, human rights, rule of law etc. This all
did not happen completely in the Western Balkan countries, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Serbia where people still struggle with the very high corruption and lack of rule of law. On the other
side it introduces the countries into the worldwide competition in all fields of life, and nations that
are not strong usually lose in that game. Western Balkan countries could be considered to belong to
this group.
Conclusion

Conclusion of this text can be only one. Countries of the Western Balkans have started with the
process of modernization century ago. This process was interrupted with wars and conflicts
several times. Now it is being pushed fast, but it is also incomplete and with many flaws and
setbacks. Modernization in last several decades was followed by major changes in political and
economic system which then had great effect on social, cultural and other aspects of life of
ordinary citizens. As Dimitar Bechev said in his paper on Western Balkans and the euro crisis,
In the Balkans, Europeanisation held out the promise of modernisation and convergence with
the rich and well-governed countries of old Europe10, I would only add that this Europe is still
miles and ages far from certain countries if they continue to act as they acted until now.

10

T.J. (2012). The Balkans and the EU, Integrated circuit.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/09/balkans-and-eu (December 2012)

References:
European Commission. 2006. .The Western Balkans on the Road to the EU: Consolidating
Stability and Raising Prosperity.. Communication from the Commission.
COM(2006) 27 final.
Levitsky, Steven and Lucan A. Way. 2002. .The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism..
Journal of Democracy
Vachudova, Milada Anna and Timothy Snyder. 1997. .Are Transitions Transitory? Two
Models of Political Change in East Central Europe Since 1989.. East European
Politics and Societies
Vachudova, Milada Anna. 2001. .The Leverage of International Institutions on Democratizing
States: Eastern Europe and the European Union.. RSC Working Paper
No. 2001/33. San Domenico, Italy: European University Institute.
Vachudova, Milada Anna. 2006. Democratization in Postcommunist Europe: Illiberal Regimes and
the Leverage of International Actors. Center for European Studies Working Paper Series #139
Black's Law Dictionary. 1979. Fifth Edition, page 1196. West Publishing Company
Esther Barb, Oriol Costa, Anna Herranz, Elisabeth Johansson-Nogus, Michal Natorski, Maria A.
Sabiote, Drawing the Neighbours Closer to What? - Explaining Emerging Patterns of Policy
Convergence between the EU and its Neighbours,
http://cac.sagepub.com/content/44/4/378.abstract (May 3, 2012)
Piotr Maciej Kaczyski, The Brighter Side of Europe - What European Foreign Policy,
http://www.singapore.polemb.net/?document=453 (May 3, 2012)
The EU in the world, The foreign policy of the European Union, Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, 2007, ec.europa.eu/publications (May 5, 2012)
Vesna Pesic. 2007. State Capture and Widespread Corruption in Serbia. CEPS Working Document
No. 262/March 2007
Lenard J. Cohen. Administrative Development in Low-Intensity Democracies: Governance, Ruleof-Law and Corruption in the Western Balkans
Differences between modern and traditional societies. (2003). In WriteWork.com.
http://www.writework.com/essay/differences-between-modern-and-traditional-societies