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This book contains collection of articles which provide policy implications related to the problem of achieving substantive reform on the basis of harmonising legislation in Western Balkan (WB) countries with the standards of the European Union (EU). While WB states have generally been successful in adopting legal reforms that make up a part of EU conditionality, many laws remain unenforced, amounting to "empty shells." In the space between law, as it is written, and practices as they are engaged in everyday life, exists a gap, characterized by informality, clientelism, and exchange often based on strong tie relationships. Some instances of informality undermine the goal of establishing rule law and contribute to corruption. Others offer valuable solutions to persistent social problems or represent traditional vehicles of social cohesion that should be promoted. The recommendations in this book seek to address both constructive and damaging instances of informality, and to identify policy measures that can help to harmonise not only legislation, but existing informal practices on the ground.
List of contents
Engaging Policy to Address Gaps Between Formality and Informality in the Western Balkans - Europeanisation and Institutionalisation of EU Rules in the Western Balkans - Implementation and Enforcement of EU Rules in South East Europe - The Cost of Informal Networking in the Western Balkans Region Matters! - How to Sustainably Decrease Clientelism and Ensure Fair Political Competition in the WB? The Case for Introducing Standing Parliamentary Committees - Leaders' Meetings: Facilitating or Replacing the Formal Political Processes in the Western Balkan Countries? - Informality and Everyday Life: How 'Things Get Done' in Contemporary Western Balkan Societies - Formal and Informal Institutions in Policy - Evidence from South East Europe
About the author
Eric Gordy is Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His research concentrates on everyday life, political culture, and social and cultural dynamics in the states of Southeast Europe.
Adnan Efendic is Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sarajevo. His research focuses on the effects of formal and informal institutions in economics, on migration and development, with particular focus on the Western Balkans.
