The Shadow Economy, War and State Building: Social Transformation and Re-stratification in an Illiberal Economy (Serbia and Kosovo)

• This article analyses the development and consolidation of an illiberal (or shadow) economy and its connection to political projects in Serbia and Kosovo. Here, some comparative remarks are made over the form of economy and its political connections and implications. In spite of methodological problems with sources being scarce or of varying quality, the phenomenon of illiberal economy and its coupling with political projects is too important to be neglected by researchers. To some extent 'soft sources' have been accepted here, where hard evidence is lacking. The article argues that the considerable consolidation of illiberal economies in Serbia and Kosovo (as elsewhere in the post-Yugoslav space) have been intimately connected to politics, political violence and conflict in the region, and produced a transformation of wealth and resources. In this manner the conflicts in the region can be analysed from the perspective of social transformation. The latter concept emphasises that the trajectory of social and political change is not necessarily linear, towards liberal democracy and market economy, which is implied in the concepts transition (where the end stage is assumed to be liberal democracy and market economy) or social breakdown (which assumes a possible reconstruction to the norm of a harmonious state). Instead we may see fairly sustainable alternative political and economic projects, capable in their own (illiberal) way of integration into global networks and structures. Whereas the formal economy in these areas is marginalised in the global economy, these illiberal forms of economy may be both relatively long-term sustainable and provide the basis for alternative ways of social protection as well as exclusion. They are in certain regards political, and integral to political projects, but they should be viewed in terms of emergence rather than causation. Conflict cannot be reduced to an understanding of illiberal economy, but the latter provides for redistribution of resources and power, which is of direct relevance to conflict and its dynamics. The relationship is of a dialectical, rather than causative, nature. The level of political violence may vary and the illiberal economy expresses considerable capacity for adaptation. These arguments are not only of theoretical relevance, i.e. for how to conceptualise social and political change in the region, but highly policy-relevant as well, especially with regard to international aid policy and the governing in international protectorates.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Shadow economy Illiberal economy black economy political economy of war conflict war-economy parallel economy war and state-building drug-trade Albanian mafia organised crime social transformation Serbian-Albanian relations Balkans Yugoslavia Serbia Kosovo ethnic conflict terrorism

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