Consequences of consociationalism in North Macedonia: the changing inter-community relationship in elite discourse

Abstract

The fall of Yugoslavia resulted into the independence several countries among them Macedonia (North Macedonia now). However, the government form of new country brought mixed feelings for its citizens. Eventually frustrations for better representation of the ethnic Albanian in the new independent country led to an armed revolt. The revolt between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians in 2001 resulted in the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The Ohrid Agreement introduced a Consociational government form in Macedonia. My research aim is to find how discourse has changed among Macedonians and Albanian political elite by the implementation of Consociational in the country. Using critical discourse analysis in a diachronic research design this thesis will contribute to the argument that Consociationalism has been successful in changing the political elite discourse in North Macedonia. A line can be drawn that with the introduction of Consociationalism in the country change in identification and vocabulary as well a decline in polarization and political elites’ activities/behaviour has been changed. Additionally, the intervening factor is that Consociationalism worked in conjunction with the main external factors for North Macedonia that being the EU.