International multi-ethnic state-building through power-sharing arrangements: a comparative study of Kosovo and Macedonia

After the Cold War, international state-building has taken place in several countries as a response to ethnic conflicts. The dissolution of Yugoslavia was also characterized with ethnic conflicts, which ended after international interventions. The inter-ethnic violence destabilized the nexus between eponymous states, nationalizing states, and the minorities living in the latter. The international actors - primarily the EU and the US - involved in state-building saw consociational power-sharing arrangements as a key feature in multi-ethnic state-building processes, notably in post-war Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Using Smith’s quadratic nexus and Germane’s “fifth element” as a theoretical framework, this thesis examines one segment of the nexus - the correlation of international relational field and national minorities relational field – in a ‘top down’ approach. Two central questions are asked: how have international actors influenced power-sharing arrangements in reaction to separatism; and how has the interplay between different ethnic groups from the same ethnic minority living in the same state affected power-sharing arrangements? These questions are addressed by engaging in a comparative case analysis of two ethnically divided states, namely Kosovo and Macedonia, having adopted consociational power-sharing arrangements under the international influence. The work in this thesis examines the international influence on power-sharing arrangements in reaction to separatism through three processes: international mediations, implementation of power-sharing arrangements into the constitutions and the functionality of power-sharing systems in practice. The thesis revolves around these central arguments: the role of international actors in reaction to separatism and the degree of local ownership in the drafting and constitutionalisation of power-sharing arrangements is reflected in asymmetric power-sharing arrangements between the two compared cases and on the functionality of the power-sharing systems; and, relationship between different groups of minorities from the same ethnicity living in the same state - “the sixth element” - has an impact on the functionality of power-sharing systems, giving rise to “the sixth element” as a new relational field within the quadratic nexus, proposed in this thesis.