Summary

Democracy promises intrastate peace therefore post-civil war societies are often pre-scribed democratization. However, in ethnically divided societies building democratic institutions where all former warring parties operate is tantamount to an impertinent demand. In many cases at least one of the conflict parties refuses to be a single demos together with the other party and coexist with it in the same political community. There can, however, be no success in building or remodeling democratic institutions as long as one of the conflicting parties rejects the state, its borders or internal structures. Likewise, an absence of common democratic institutions prevents all the conflicting parties from accepting the state as their own. In the context of these considerations the present report discusses whether democratization in Macedonia has succeeded in making progress after the fighting in 2001 and fulfilling the promise of peace through democracy. In 2001 the (Albanian) National Liberation Army (UÇK) attacked the Macedonian se-curity forces. Initially, it also promoted secessionist objectives but later it restricted itself to demands for empowerment of Albanians in Macedonia. The fighting came to an end with the Ohrid Agreement between the largest Macedonian and Albanian parties. Th