[guest name="Robert Hislope" biography="Dr. Robert Hislope is an associate professor with the Department of Political Science at Union College in Schenectady, New York."]

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, America.gov, as part of its feature “The Unfinished Work of Democracy,” is asking academics and journalists from the United States and elsewhere to comment on the challenges to democracy that still lay ahead for countries of the former Eastern Bloc. What follows are their responses – and yours are welcome as well.

The Republic of Macedonia has faced many dire situations in the 18 years of its independent statehood. And yet, remarkably, amazingly, this small republic in the heart of the Balkans has consistently beaten the odds. During the 1990s, the fledgling state faced many serious challenges, such as the Greek embargo, economic decline, ethnic tensions, and the struggle for the international recognition of its constitutional name. The country’s delicate and developing practice of multiethnic ruling coalitions proved sturdy enough to weather each crisis, until the 2001 conflict, when Albanian forces frustrated with the pace of reform launched a six-month insurgency. The Ohrid peace deal that followed led to a more explicit power-sharing arrangement with greater political and cultural rights for the Albanian community. Thus, Macedonia had once again overcome a fundamental state crisis.

There is much to celebrate in Macedonia’s ability to persevere in the face of numerous obstacles. Over the course of its post-communist transition, it has made considerable progress in building the institutions and political habits of a functioning multiethnic, multiparty, parliamentary democracy. While interparty relations in the cabinet and parliament can often become strained, the politics-of-bargaining rather than the politics-of-war mark the discourse of both the Macedonian and Albanian political class. In April of this year, a new president, Gjorge Ivanov, was elected. Previously a professor at the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Ivanov has a strong commitment to democracy, diplomacy, and European integration. In short, Macedonia has made noticeable progress in the state-building process. No other better authority than the European Commission supports this conclusion, for it just announced on October 14th that Macedonia has “made convincing progress and substantially addressed the key reform priorities.” Consequently, the Commission formally recommended that Macedonia may begin accession talks with Brussels. It is against the backdrop of these remarkable achievements that Macedonia’s challenges must be assessed.

And those challenges remain frustratingly formidable. In fact, the very basic questions of state identity that first rattled Macedonia in the early 1990s continue unabated. All of Macedonia’s problems — economic hardship, uncertainty over the implications of Kosovo’s independence, continued ethnic irritations and mistrust — will be exacerbated if Greece continues to deny, by the exercise of its veto power, Macedonia’s entry into NATO and the EU. The greatest challenge for Macedonia thus continues to be how to join these coveted western institutions and not compromise its basic right to self-identify.

Learn more about Dr. Robert Hislope.