Thesis (Selection of subject)

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Relationship Between Citizen and State in the Countries of Former Yugoslavia: Interdisciplinary Investigations

Thesis title in Czech:	Vztah mezi občanem a státem v zemích bývalé Jugoslávie: interdisciplinární výzkum
Thesis title in English:	Relationship Between Citizen and State in the Countries of Former Yugoslavia: Interdisciplinary Investigations
Key words:	Občané a stát. Demokracie. Jugoslávie. Autokracie.
English key words:	Citizens and state; democracy; Yugoslavia; autocracy.
Academic year of topic announcement:	2021/2022
Thesis type:	diploma thesis
Thesis language:	angličtina
Department:	Department of Political Science (23-KP)
Supervisor:	Janusz Salamon, Ph.D.
Author:	hidden - assigned by the advisor
Date of registration:	23.12.2021
Date of assignment:	23.12.2021
Date and time of defence:	15.09.2023 07:00
Venue of defence:	Jinonice - U Kříže 8, Praha 5
Date of electronic submission:	01.08.2023
Date of proceeded defence:	15.09.2023
Opponents:	Mgr. Tomáš Halamka, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Topic Characteristics / Research Question(s):

Generally, citizenship has been viewed and understood primarily through two different models: Republican and Liberal. Republican theories can be found in writing of older authors such as Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli and others. Key principle was the self-rule – citizen being able to rule and be ruled in turn. (Leydet, 2017)
Liberal viewpoints on the other hand, whilst traceable from early Roman law, really started developing from 17th century onwards.
It has emphasized presenting citizenship as a legal status and not the political office that needs to participate in formulation and the execution of the law. (Ball et al., 1989)
(Stahl, 2020) builds on these two traditional models and includes a third one, ethno-nationalist model, that views the citizenship as a tool to connect people under a shared banner, be it cultural, ethnical or territorial.
In addition, he also presents synthesizes of these models.

In my initial phase of this Thesis, I would like to use these models to describe and prove the first hypothesis – that the citizenship in the countries of the former Yugoslavia is best explained through synthesis of Ethno-Nationalist/Republic model, as opposed to Liberal/Nationalist model that prevails in Western Europe.
In this section I would also use typology models such as that of Hitman & Crowther-Dowey (2020)
to look at these interactions between citizen and the state and connect it to the initial hypothesis.
Secondly, I would like to use empirical data such as that of Boda (2020) and present them in order to affirm the hypotheses about corruption, level of political participation and level of political trust in the ex-Yugoslavian countries.

Finally, essential research question would be as follows: If the first four hypotheses are true, how is it possible that from societies that place such a high emphasis on its nationalism and collective identity, can there be such low trust in the institutions and such a high level of corruption, if those societies are led by the people stemming from that same mindset? Similarly, how those same citizens, have such a lack of will to engage politically and make impact on how their countries are led?
While researching the above question, I will be looking at multiple works researching and also pointing out to the failures of the so called “Third Wave Democracies”.
I would like to pursue interdisciplinary investigations looking at the question from historical perspective and perception of the governance looking at the theories such as one of Ditchev (2005), but also then more recent events after the fall of the Communism, and finally current state of apathy and limited engagement of the civil sector.

References

References / Bibliography:

Ball, T., Farr, J. & Hanson, R.L., 1989. Political innovation and conceptual change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://www.worldcat.org/title/political-innovation-and-conceptual-change/oclc/17842617.

Ditchev, I., 2005. Communist urbanization and conditional citizenship. Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, 9(3), pp.341–354. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13604810500392621?scroll=top&needAccess=true.

Haggard, S. & Kaufman, R.R., 2016. Democratization During the Third Wave. Annual Review of Political Science, 19, pp.125–144. Available at: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-042114-015137#_i8.

Hitman, G., 2020. From separatism to violence: A typology of interactions between the citizen and the State Establishment C. Crowther-Dowey, ed. Cogent Social Sciences, 6(1). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2020.1832345.

Leydet, D., 2017. Citizenship. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/citizenship/#TwoModeCitiRepuLibe.

Mladenov Jovanovic, S., 2013. V. Stancetic, ed., Center for Good Governance Studies. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316601776_HISTORY_AND_POLITICS_IN_THE_WESTERN_BALKANS_Changes_at_the_Turn_of_the_Millennium.

Rose, R. & Shin, D.C., 2001. Democratization Backwards: The Problem of Third-Wave Democracies. British Journal of Political Science, 31(2), pp.331–354. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/democratization-backwards-the-problem-of-thirdwave-democracies/7B31C4E76310FC3933F78B0F868CA35D.

Stahl, K.A., 2020. Three Models of Citizenship. In Local Citizenship in a Global Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 21–39. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/local-citizenship-in-a-global-age/three-models-of-citizenship/509C50F2A7432C797BC1A6B5EE5E52C0.

Preliminary scope of work

Outline:

Introduction
Subject matter & Research Flow
Methodology

Chapter 1: Citizenship in ex-Yugoslavia
- Models to describe citizenship & its connections to the state

Chapter 2: Corruption, political trust and civic sector political engagement
- Showcasing the Empirical Data

Chapter 3: Research Question Analysis
- Combining findings from first 2 chapters and literature review to answer the question.

Conclusions
References / Bibliography

Working hypotheses:

1. Citizenship in the countries of ex-Yugoslavia is based on Ethno-Nationalist/Republican synthesis model as opposed to the Western Europe where the Liberal/Nationalist model is more applicable.
2. The political trust in the newer democracies in the countries of ex-Yugoslavia is lower than in the older Western European democracies.
3. The corruption in the newer democracies in the countries of ex-Yugoslavia is higher than in the older Western European democracies.
4. The political participation of the citizens via the civic sector in the countries of ex-Yugoslavia is lower than in the older Western European democracies.
5. The reasons for this stem from three sources: a) Historical perception of the state governance b) Privatization and institution-building developments after introduction of democracy c) Apathy and limited engagement from the civil sector.

Methodology
In the first chapter I would like to use the qualitative descriptive analysis of the literature on the models and understanding of the citizenship and its relation to the state.
More narrowly, I will combine it with literature pertain data specifically about ex-Yugoslavia countries but also personal observations.

Second chapter will be primarily focused on combination of meta-analysis and content analysis when speaking about the measurement of the political trust, corruption and participation of the citizens in the politics.
For third and chapter assessing the research question, I would base my findings and conclusion primarily on the extensive literature review, which will include historical events and developments, but also contemporary situation and affairs.

Preliminary scope of work in English