Civil Society and the Legacy of Ethnic Cleansing in the Southeastern Alps: Some Implications for Conflict Prevention

states ” was preceded in various Central European countries by initiatives to re-introduce the institutions of "civil society. " Protagonists of this activity understood their mission as the consolidation of a unified opposition to totalitarian regimes which it was claimed had virtually co-opted the “public sphere ” (Habermas 1989) of society. These initiatives gained momentum in the wake of perestroika, accompanied the demise of effective Communist Party control and elicited legitimacy at home and abroad with reference to western models of plural democracy and free-market economy where civil society is perceived as an essential component of “a desirable social order ” (Hann 1996). This normative understanding of the potential role of civil society (Seligman 1992) behind the “iron curtain, ” conveyed over that barrier primarily by dissident elite spokesmen such as Vaclav Havel (Hann 1996), caught the attention and imagination of western governments and academics. And following the dramatic fall of the Berlin wall significant material and human resources have been dedicated to bolstering the "public sphere " of these societies by establishing grass-roots non-governmental interest organizations _ (Sampson 1996) and promoting market economies based upon free enterprise. It is apparent, however, that western proponents of suc