THE OHRID FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT: A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR ELECTORAL PARTY COMPETITION IN MACEDONIA

Abstract

The myth that the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) can be the ‘cure’ for fragile heterogeneous societies has been debunked shortly before its 10th anniversary. The general research question of this article is how political parties in Macedonia assess the role of the OFA in building functioning multiethnic society, while the specific puzzle is what accounts for the radicalism of the nationalistic rhetoric of the political parties in Macedonia? We argue that the assessment of the successfulness of the OFA implementation would depend on the parties’ position of power and the type of ethnic community (majority, majority minority or non-majority minority). We find the bad economic situation and the exclusion from government to be the most perceived radicalizers of nationalistic party rhetoric in Macedonia. This case study uses qualitative analyses of thirty semi-structured interviews with high representatives of 26 most important political parties in Macedonia.

Keywords

• Ohrid Framework Agreement
• nationalism
• minorities
• ethnic parties
• party competition