The Legal and Political System of the Republic of Macedonia between the Rule of Ethnos and Demos

Abstract

This paper analyzes the functioning of the legal and political system of the Republic of Macedonia since its independence in 1991, regarding inter-ethnic relations and their legal and political solutions which are analyzed from the perspective of the process of democratization of the country as the main precondition for Euro-Atlantic integration. The paper concludes that the legal and political system of this state in transition utterly manifests the ethnocratic features as a permanent line of political governance with the state, which conceptually and practically favors the position and the rule of only one ethnic group to the detriment of democratic conceptual principles because ethnicity in this country is politicized and reflects in the daily lives of the citizens. That is why, the purpose of this paper consists in the elaboration of legal and political aspects of the position of Albanians in this country within the legal and political system drawing appropriate arguments over what is "de lege lata" and what should be "de lege ferenda" in terms of ethnic equality between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, as the two greatest communities in this country, because democracy is possible only with equal citizens in all spheres of social and public life.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p598