20 Years On: Social Democracy in Macedonia - Summary (5/5)

Social democracy in Macedonia is a unique example of how an internationalist movement can be defined by differing values, policies, organizational features, experiences and legacies because it is set within the boundaries of one state. The branches do travel far and wide. Yet, in order to be defined as social democracy, certain identifiers are needed to reaffirm its identity. According to Coppieters and Deschouwer, the movement is meant to encompass the wider organized working class, but the focus of the movement in Macedonia is the SDUM. Ideologically, the social democratic family has a variety of branches, with the Socialist International conferring recognition through membership, which the SDUM has; but the application of policies spanning from the transition to the present day have appeared to have left the SDUM ideologically incoherent. So defining social democracy as a movement and ideology has proved complicated because the analytical tools of comparison have been unfairly weighted to the Western experience. So other, regionally focused and historically relevant markers are required.

By utilizing Bozoki and Ishiyama’s typologies to identify strategies that the successor parties adopted, one can clearly see that the SDUM still fit the modernization/social democratic model as they have reformed and are non-transmuted. However, this tool is of its time, and now the focus should look beyond post-communist strategies and towards ‘social democratization’. However, again the problem of comparison emerges. Progressive currents within the party are recognized and applauded by non-SDUM observers, yet they look to Europe for inspiration. Some do recognize that processes and ideas may not apply to Macedonia, therefore look to those whom they have shared a recent history with. These links are crucial for this process to occur at a pace which is comfortable for the party, both the leadership and members, to accept. 

However, voters still view the SDUM as the shadow of the communist party, for better or worse. The ‘paternal communism’ characterization of the SDUM by Kitschelt may still have degrees of similarity in regards to the centralization of internal party power, electoral support levels, its present attempt at ideological cohesiveness and undercurrents of clientelistic links. But ‘social democratization’ will alter this and is in part thanks to the efforts of the Progres Institut and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Additionally, the prospects of politicians and exogenous shocks, such as electoral defeat, may be the reasons why reform is taking place because debates can now occur. This is evident in reforms to the structure of the party and internal party democracy enacted by Radmila Sekerinska. Policy councils, input from academics and businesses, and an altered campaigning focus has allowed the party to modernize to appeal to a wider pool of people. However a disengaged membership, indirect democratic mechanisms and no strategic attempt to recruit members of ethnic minorities offset positive steps such as quotas for women and young members to be candidates.

The legacies of nation-building and state formation also have their relevance today. The rapid development of Macedonian national identity, vis-à-vis external threats, by SFRY after World War II accelerated the ethnic differentiation in the newly formed republic. This conforms to Gellner, Hobsbawm and Anderson’s ideas of the state creating the nation. Externally, relations with neighbouring sister parties suffered due to clashes over shared historical narratives, as Roudometof and Danforth mention; and internally clashes appeared in the early debates on citizenship and the constitution, and continue today with the creation of monuments and buildings to reaffirm Macedonian national identity.

Democratization also has its legacies. Parrott’s definition of democracy provides ample flexibility in its application in Macedonia, even if it sought not to compare democratization processes in areas of different experiences. The operation of consociational democracy, kept alive by an electoral system of proportional representation and a party system that reifies the mono-ethnicity of political parties (including the SDUM), institutionalizes a ‘separate, but equal’ situation in the political functioning of the system. However, as Lijphart mentions, the intent is to provide stability and this is what some of my interviewees mentioned. This can further highlight the inclusion/exclusion nature of ethnic division that Horowitz assigns to democracy. However, any future attempts to move away from this ethnic party system to an ideological one is hampered on the one side by possible electoral suicide should the SDUM practice multi-ethnic electioneering, and on the other by the straight-jacketed electoral system that fixes voting to regions with ethnic concentrations. The impact is thus felt on the attitudes of those within the SDUM who idealistically want a multi-ethnic Macedonia but remain pessimistic about its eventuality. However, limitations are expressed by the incomprehension of accepting defeat in a democratic system, and the limits of civil society to sustain itself and expand considerably.

Fundamentally, as Waller and Coppieters stated, it is unfair to assess the nature of social democracy in Macedonia with that of the West, or even with that of its regional neighbours or the states of the former Yugoslavia. To compare the evolution of a political tradition that in the West is one hundred and fifty years on from its inception, to one barely twenty years on its journey is to undermine the progress made by those new movements. As Kitschelt wrote, the causal chain of how legacies can shape the present originated in the era of World War I. The nature of the precommunist regime, the evolution of the communist regimes within states, the nature of transition, along with the early transformation of the communist successor parties, all led to the different trajectories of these parties. But I add to this with two points. Since independence, new factors have made these trajectories even more divergent such as Kosovo, internal ethnic conflict, the rise of new leaders and a change in international discourses related to the global economy. But also nation building prior to, and the creation of the state after, World War II, provided alternative legacies that impress upon the movement today.

Social democracy in Macedonia therefore should, and must, only be judged within the widest possible parameters set for the social democratic family that all other movements across the world and over time have allowed themselves to navigate within.

Around the Balkans in 20 Days – Part 7

The morning was slightly overcast as we peered out the window to test the sky, needing to judge whether or not we should have a day out and about. We discovered that there was a man-made lake on the outskirts of town, which Belgrade folk frequent. Despite no clear sunshine at the moment, we decided that the heat was enough for us to deserve a trip out to see what was on offer. After a few minutes of translating the Belgrade transit website, we found the details for the bus we would need to get us there. We packed a few essentials – sun cream, snacks that we had about the apartment, towels, books and sunglasses – and departed.

Conveniently, the bus stop was on Trg Republika. So we walked up to the square, and stopped at a kiosk that was adjacent to the bus stop we needed. We wanted to get a good supply of water, as we were unsure of the facilities available at the lake; handily this was also where you had to buy bus tickets. In English, accompanied with gesticulations on par with that of an orchestra conductor, we managed to convey, to the lady hidden amongst the confectionery and magazines, where we wanted to go. A few dinars later, we had our return bus tickets. The wait was not long, but the sun was starting to burn through the clouds, increasing the feeling of warmth somewhat. I was glad my gamble with shorts and a vest was starting to pay off.

Sadly not a trolleybus, rather a modern diesel ‘bendy bus’ came to carry us to our destination; and was quite busy too. I felt that other city dwellers or tourists thought this day might be a good one to head to the lake too. We sat two thirds of the way up, and I did my usual thing of tracking our route to ensure we were going in the right direction. Half an hour later, a bell was pressed ahead of the stop we intended to get off, upon which a sizeable number of people joined us in doing so. We were let off next to a bypass that headed southwest, on towards more suburban parts of the city. With our backs to the road, across from us was a rather unkempt marina for medium-sized leisure boats, and to our right back towards the city stood the newest of the bridges to span the Sava River. We walked left, and then bared right on to a raised dam-cum-road that separated the marina and the leisure lake now on our left. Once we walked over, we were on an island that sat between the lake and marina behind us, and the Sava River, hidden ahead of us by a wood. This was quite dense to our right, but thinned out as we gazed to our left, with leisure structures dotted around in the clearings. It was in this direction we walked.

We meandered along a windy path, intersected by bicycle lanes heading into the wood, as we approached a small collection of one and two storey concrete buildings housing a café, a non-descript indoor leisure hall, and a couple of stand alone kiosks selling food. There was a handful of uniformed staff amongst them, joined by an equal number of customers who seemed to be on friendly terms with them. The path turned towards the lake as we walked by these conveniences, and then curved back to run alongside the lake next to a 4 storey boating tower. The long and slim shape of the lake either proved coincidentally ideal for boat races or was built specifically for this purpose. We continued along this concrete walkway for a good mile and a half. Every 200 meters or so there would be a shack or small bungalow to our right, acting as a café or restaurant. The staff would cross over the path to customers sitting at the café’s tables hidden under a dozen or so parasols, on the pebble beach that sloped down at a fair gradient to the waters edge. Every now and again there would be a base for a functioning activity – a zip wire across the lake, pedalloes etc – and one or two that had been long forgotten. There was a mixture of activity going on along the lakeside; people paddling or swimming, many sunbathing, most lazily drinking pivo in the shade and conversing loudly. At some point we turned right into the wood to get some shade, and walked back on ourselves. We then rejoined the path and stopped for a soft drink to quench our thirst.

Not necessarily endeared towards the café’s we walked past, we decided to go around to the other side of the lake. We retraced our steps and returned to near the bus stop, and then took the path that ran between the bypass and the lake. The noise of the road soon faded as at first a car park, then another wood, emerged to our left pushing the road off into the distance. The bars on this side were a lot livelier; the clientele were a lot younger and mostly in groups. Evidently they were university kids who had returned and were catching up with their childhood friends. We perched near them and ordered some beers so that we could enjoy the camaraderie going on around us and indulge our pastime of people watching. We had now reached mid-afternoon.

We drank a couple more beers before we finally decided to walk back to the other side of the lake and see if the café’s there had a change in their clientele. A mixture of the beer and slight dehydration made us a bit giddy and woozy as we walked around in the early evening heat. I think we only had some crisps and a sandwich as a snack. We sat down at a generic café and ordered some more beers. In-between reading our books, we chatted and commented on passersby, many of whom were scantily clad whilst cycling or rollerblading. The background music pumping from the café across the path had now stepped up a gear, and was playing some terrible generic dance music. Our fellow patrons were somewhat older than us, and I am sure this was not their cup of tea either. To mix it up, we decided to walk to another café, and settled on one 300 meters closer to the start of the lake in the direction of the bus stop home.

We sat at a table by the waters edge. There was a small group of people in their late teens, which the waitress seemed to be familiar with. After our beers came, we continued our chatter and drew the attention of an older man in his 40’s who seemed to manage the bar. He started to talk to us about football. A strong point of conversation for John that could deflect away from why we were visiting and how we knew each other. However, the team that he began to talk about, according to John, had links to crooks and killers. The longer the conversation went on, and with no escape as we were at the waters edge, the more I felt uncomfortable. He soon had to attend to other patrons. We finished up, and made our escape.

The next few hours were rather a haze. We managed to locate the bus stop back into town, mostly by following other people over a footbridge and waiting alongside them at a busy section of the road. The bus we boarded was packed, and had a certain drunken and friendly atmosphere as the bus swayed knocking people into each other. Unfocussed glances and half–smiles were the language of this bus ride. We arrived back at the apartment and showered and changed. We had arranged to meet Nemanja and Danilo at a bar around the corner from where we were staying. We had still only snacked by this point in the late evening. The bar was called Blaznavac and it was a 90 second walk away. It sat in the middle of the block, with an iron gate guarding its open courtyard, the main bar being some 30 feet back from the road. It had a mass of memorabilia and other trinkets scattered through out it. We saw Nemanja and Danilo perched on stools, on one half of an 8-seater table, straddled between the courtyard and the sheltered bar within.

After exchanging pleasantries John ordered a round of drinks and we continued our conversation of introductions from the other night. The way we were sat meant that Nemanja and I began to chat to each other separately, as did Danilo and John. We discussed a lot about the city, about its LGBT scene, and recent history – the latter only fleetingly. After an hour or so Danilo said he had to head off and catch his train. He was staying with family who lived in Nova Pazova, just outside the city but could only be reached by the last train at around 23:15. Nemanja accompanied him, so we said our goodbyes and off they went. We stayed for another round of drinks. After this, we returned to Bucko pizza from the previous night and ordered a whole one. We ate some of it whilst staggering back to the apartment and taking pictures of each other. We crashed into bed, leaning over its edge, feeding off the last of the pizza from the floor.