The New Macedonian Question by James s> Pettifer (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 373 the post-I985 reformprocessin the country.The historicalbackgroundof the late Soviet years is presented in a concise and convincing manner, and the broader context of the Gorbachev-El'tsinreforms is suggested. Thirdly, and this is the meat of the book, every twist and turn of the Gorbachev-El'tsin years is examined, includinga usefulreminderof the personalchallengesthat faced the two leaders. This is largely a narrative account which leaves out many of the underlyingintellectualissues.The contrastbetween liberalization and democratizationiseffectivelyemployed,but thisonlyscratchesthe surface of the significanceof the process. As with so many books of this type, the evolution of policy, and the contrastingpolitical and ideological schools, are not discussedin great depth. Instead the discussion shifts to another plane, as it were, by analysing the forces promoting democracy, and the impediments that the democratization projecthas encountered.At the heartof theiraccount is the stuntedgrowthof civil society. Although their assessmentis relativelybleak, the retention of the question markin the title suggeststhat the end of the storyof the democratic adventurein Russia has not yet been told. Although the authorsare sensitive to the nuancesof the concept of civilsociety,itsoperationalizationin thisbook stillcarriesechoes of the starkcivil societyversusthe state approachof earlier times. The attempt to divide civil society into three groups, ranging from private associations through to general advocacy organizations and up to political representativebodies is useful, but does not get us very far, and in any case is hardly referred to in the bulk of the analysis. Civil society is a concept that only workswhen contextualized, and in this case the normative implicationsof the civil society approachare not fullyexplored. In the discussionof this as in so many other issuesin the book quite a lot of knowledge is assumed, yet familiar material is repeated. It is not clear for whom the book is aimed. There is a lot here that is valuable, the level of analysisis uniformlyhigh, the detailed knowledge of events is impressive,but the pervadingimpressionis that the whole adds up to less than the sum of the parts.It is neithera fully-fledgedresearchmonograph nor a textbook.That in itself is not a reproach, since many fine books have been published that seek to transcend such a starkdivision, but the problem lies in the authors' own representation of what they are trying to achieve. For those requiring a relativelyshortand accessibleupperlevel surveyof Soviet andRussianpolitics in the lasttwo decades, thisbook would be ideal. Butforthose who need more on theoretical debates and detailed historybased on new material, this book would not meet theirneeds. Department ofPoliticsandInternational Relations RICHARD SAKWA tUniversi{y ofKent atCanterbury Pettifer,James (ed.). TheNewMacedonian Question. Macmillan Press, Basingstoke and London, and St Martin's Press, New York, I999. xxxvi + 311 pp. Notes. Maps. Index. ?47.50. AT the end of the twentieth century the 'Macedonian question' has emerged on the historicstagein much the sameway asit didat the end ofthe nineteenth 374 SEER, 79, 2, 2001 century.Likepolicy makersa hundredyearsago, the UN and USA have been involved in finding a solution. And once again Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia have tried to promote their own interests.The very composition of this book gives the opportunity to readers to follow the process of emergence, development, and solution of the 'Macedonian question' both in the context of the former Yugoslavia and after Macedonia's resurrection in I99I. It is worth stressing that James Petiffer, the editor, has succeeded in bringing together a number of eminent scholars and analysts from differentnational backgrounds. The book comprises four parts and eighteen chapters relating to the Macedonian question.Partone introducesusto the complexityofthe question of Macedonia'semergence on thehistoricscene in I870;comparisonsbetween the past and present;the strugglefor internationalrecognition of Macedonia and the problems confronting the international community after the emergence of the 'new Macedonian question' in I99I; the disintegration of the Yugoslaveconomy, and various 'schools of thought' concerning the identity of the Macedonians. Stefan Troebst tackles the question 'Arewe now seeing the result of a belated process, lasting over one hundred years, from the foundation of a nation to the formation of a state?'(p. 66). Nina Dubrkovic observes the relation between Yugoslavia and Macedonia in the light of the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Peoples Army, relations between Gligorov and Izetbegovic, Macedonia's role after the imposition...