Democratic restrictions in Macedonia : A study about which democratic restrictions that can be identified in Macedonia 2017

The purpose of this paper was to address the issue of democratic restrictions in Macedonia today, 2017, due to all the media attention of the Macedonian political life. It was also an interesting country to study because of its disputes with its neighbouring country Greece, which blocks Macedonia from entering both the European Union and the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. The study was carried out on the grounds of Roberts Dahl’s seven institutions regarding Polyarchy which are elected officials, free and fair elections, inclusive suffrage, right to run for office, freedom of expression, alternative information and freedom of assembly. The method which was applied to this study was an ideal-type of democracy. The seven institutions of Polyarchy is the nearest a democratic governance one can come, and therefore Polyarchy became the main ideal-type. The seven institutions were later compared with both the Macedonian constitution and how these institutions are applied to daily life in the country. The results showed that the institutions inclusive suffrage and right to run for office were the only ones which met up to Dahl’s definition of those two institutions. Further, the institutions elected officials and freedom of assembly are partly restricted by the state. The institutions freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are the ones which are most restricted in Macedonia. The institution free and fair elections is also since 2016 an institution with restrictions because of the political crisis in recent years. Due to these results, one can conclude that Macedonia does not meet up to the requirements of all seven institutions and one can therefore infer that there are several democratic restrictions in Macedonia in 2017.