CHANGE IN THE PARTY SYSTEM FROM LIBERAL - TO ETHNIC-BASED POLARISATION - THE CASE OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

Although party systems (PSs) have been studied a lot, there is still insufficient research into the transition from a PS characterised by the predominance of liberal-based political parties into a PS in which ethnic-or religious-based parties dominate. The article helps rectify this deficiency by combining a quantitative approach using numerical measurements of PSs and a qualitative approach for determining the characteristics of PSs and how they change. This combination of approaches in the empirical study of the PS and the way it developed in Macedonia between 1990 and 2018 proved crucial for revealing the growing polarisation within the PS based on the stronger ethnic polarisation, an aspect uncapturable by the usual quantitative measurement of PS change.

Full text

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Elena NACEVSKA, Danica FINK-HAFNER*
CHANGE IN THE PARTY SYSTEM FROM LIBERAL –
TO ETHNIC-BASED POLARISATION –
THE CASE OF MACEDONIA
Abstract. Although party systems (PSs) have been stud-
ied a lot, there is still insufficient research into the tran-
sition from a PS characterised by the predominance of
liberal-based political parties into a PS in which ethnic-
or religious-based parties dominate. The article helps
rectify this deficiency by combining a quantitative
approach using numerical measurements of PSs and
a qualitative approach for determining the character-
istics of PSs and how they change. This combination of
approaches in the empirical study of the PS and the way
it developed in Macedonia between 1990 and 2018
proved crucial for revealing the growing polarisation
within the PS based on the stronger ethnic polarisation,
an aspect uncapturable by the usual quantitative meas-
urement of PS change.
Keywords: political party, party system, change, typol-
ogy, ethnic polarisation, Macedonia
Introduction
Political parties and elections are some of the most researched phenom-
ena in political science. Nevertheless, the comparative study of party sys-
tems (PSs) encounters several major challenges.
First, comparative PS research has so far chiefly focused on Western
PSs. Moreover, many comparisons consider PSs with political parties posi-
tioned on the left–right ideological continuum while party systems in con-
sociational democracies are typically included in empirical research using
the same methodology for examining PSs in majoritarian democracies (e.g.
McAllister and White, 2007; Siaroff, 2002; 2003; Mair, 2006; Wolinetz, 2006;
Epstein, 1967). Indeed, mainstream political science considerations of the
typology of PSs and theorising PS change often omit the distinction between
ethnic-based political parties and parties organised on the liberal principle
and the outcomes for PS characteristics of blocs of parties that are built on
ČLANKI
* Elena Nacevska, PhD, Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia;
Danica Fink-Hafner, PhD, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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different principles (left–right; ethnicity-based) and change and form coali-
tions.
Second, party systems in non-Western parts of the world such as those in
post-socialist countries have not attracted much research. Further, such PSs
are usually studied in relation to democratisation processes (Pridham, 2003;
Jungerstam-Mulders, 2006) and separately from other PSs around the world.
Another peculiar theme often seen in comparative analysis of party poli-
tics is the Europeanisation of post-socialist systems (Lewis and Markowski,
2011). Yet few studies comparatively analyse the development of PSs in
post-socialist countries that entail a considerable share of ethnic-based par-
ties in a setting of having experienced the impacts of war (esp. in countries
emerging from former Yugoslavia).
Third, some problems have been established in the main methodological
approach taken in current research into PSs. In fact, Pelizzo and Nwokora
(2016) identity two research approaches that seem to have been devel-
oping parallel to each other. One is the quantitative approach, which pri-
marily relies on quantitative measurements of PS characteristics and how
they change (e.g. Kwak and Janda, 2010) and the other is the qualitative
approach. Dalton (2008) notes that it is often the quality of party competi-
tion (that is, the degree of polarisation of political parties within a PS) that
is more important than the quantitatively measured properties of such PSs.
In this article, we address the gap in the literature regarding ethnic-based
parties while reviewing changes in PSs and related analyses, a crucial issue
when seeking to explain how ‘ethnicification’ can be a key indicator of the
diversion and polarisation of the PS in newly emerging democracies. We
use Mojanoski’s (2001) definition that ethnic-based political parties are par-
ties typified by an emphasis on ethnic rights and policy issues related to eth-
nic traditions and culture. By ethnicification, we understand the process of
the emergence of ethnic-based parties which can produce an ethnic cleav-
age in the PS and amend or even replace the left–right ideological dimen-
sion. We build on Dalton’s thesis (Dalton, 2008: 900) that a PS can become
polarised independent of how many parties are involved. We consider the
polarisation of a party system by combining: 1) the distribution of liberal-
based parties on the left–right continuum; and 2) ideological distinctions
among parties in terms of the level of ethnic radicalisation.
We focus on the relation between a segment of ethnic-based political
parties and a segment of parties organised on the liberal principle in a post-
socialist context and how it has changed. Further, we join Pelizzo’s and
Nwokora’s (2016) call to bridge the divide between quantitative and qual-
itative approaches. While taking account of the literature on PSs (see the
overviews in e.g. Siaroff, 2003; McAllister and White, 2007; Wolinetz, 2006;
Mair, 2006) as well as quantitative measures of PS characteristics and how

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they change, we propose an additional indicator of variations in PSs – the
relationship between the segment of ethnic-based parties and the segment
of liberal-based parties within the system and the way it changes. The arti-
cle thereby offers both a side-by-side testing of quantitative and qualitative
analysis of PSs in a post-socialist context and a basis for further improving
PS classifications.
The empirical analysis focuses on the dynamic changes in Macedonia
(Marshall and Jagger, 2010) between 1990 and 2018. The PS in Macedonia
has shifted from: 1) initially a mainly liberal-based party cluster with several
moderate, ethnic-based parties, to 2) the current PS largely characterised by
radicalised party blocs involved in ethnic-based polarisation and even vio-
lence.
We apply qualitative and quantitative approaches while answering the
following questions: which are the biggest cleavages in Macedonia’s party
system over time, and why has the PS changed in the direction of includ-
ing ever more ethnic-based parties? The qualitative study is based on a
review of existing research and official documents. Already several stud-
ies have looked at Macedonian political parties (e.g. Bozóki and Ishiyama,
2002; Mojanoski, 2001; Bieber, 2005; Stojarová and Emerson, 2009; Mirčev
and Hristova, 2008), the transition to democracy (e.g. Ramet, 1992, 1995;
Šiber, 1989; Georgievski and Škarić, 2000; Fink-Hafner and Hafner-Fink,
2009; Daskalovski, 1999), ethnic conflict (Balalovska et al., 2002), legisla-
tive electoral changes (Bernauer and Bochsler, 2011) and on altering the
Constitution (Škarić, 2004; Hayden, 1992). We also looked at reports by
international organisations (Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, 2016),
international indicators (BTI – Bertelsmann Stiftung Index, 2016; 2018;
Economist Intelligence Unit, 2017, surveys (MCMS – Macedonian Center for
International Cooperation, IDSCS – Institute for Democracy, Solidarity and
Civil Society and Telma TV, 2016), items of legislation (the Constitution of
SRM, 1974; the Constitution of RM 1991; the Constitutional amendments of
2001; the Law on Political Parties; the Law on Higher Education; the Law on
the Establishment of a State University in Tetovo; the Law on Languages (still
in the procedure); the Election Code; amendments to the Electoral Code);
statistical data from the SEC (State Electoral Commission); data from the
Macedonian Parliament (Sobranie); and data from the SSO (State Statistical
Office). Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted in May 2018 in
Macedonia, including university professors, members of the Government
and Parliament, journalists as well as Macedonian and Albanian politicians
(interviews are in researchers' archive). The interview data are first used to
reveal the perceptions of the main actors in Macedonian politics that guide
their political behaviour.
In this article, we first present the theoretical frame for typologising the

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altered PS by taking the context of inter-ethnic conflict into account. After
providing some contextualisation of Macedonian party politics, we analyse
the PS characteristics and how they changed in the period 1990–2018 where
we consider both existing quantitative measures and qualitative typologies
of PSs as well as our qualitative analysis. In the conclusion, we discuss the
empirical findings and potential value our qualitative typology brings to PSs
based on distinguishing two segments (liberal- and ethnic-based) of parties.
Party systems and ethnic politics
By applying different ideological and social (class) criteria, political sci-
ence literature has so far revealed various types of political parties and party
families (e.g. Sartori, 1976; von Beyme, 1985; McAllister and White, 2007).
Indeed, the left–right ideological divide among political parties has featured
large in research on PSs. On the contrary, the focus on political parties that
represent different ethnic and religious groups was initially part of the sepa-
rate study of politics in segmented societies (e.g. Bernauer and Bochsler,
2011; Chandra and Metz, 2002).
As a rule, during transitions to democracy in post-socialist countries the
cleavage between the old (reformed previously socialist parties) and new
(oppositional) parties was critical as was indeed recognised while study-
ing newly emerging PSs. However, as politics became more pluralised in
post-socialist democracies that often also entailed new countries, aspects
of nationalism, separatism, secessionism and ethno-nationalism, especially
towards minorities (Giddens, 1994; Hayden, 1992), have proven to be
important for both party politics and PSs. Nevertheless, the existing method-
ologies for studying PSs and their typologies seem to be lacking the capacity
to fully capture the characteristics of PSs whose structure includes consid-
erable ethnic-based cleavages (e.g. Chandra and Metz’s, 2002:21 – study of
parties and changes in such PSs).
Typologies of party systems
Many researchers concentrate on the number of parties while seeking to
classify PSs (Epstein, 1967; Duverger, 1954; Mair, 1997). Here the counting
of parties has been crucial and gone beyond simply counting all parties,
e.g. the ‘effective number of parties’ (calculated based on the Tageperä and
Shugart index) or ‘relevant parties’ (as determined by Sartori, 1976).
The conceptualisation of PS types that is most commonly used is Sartori’s
(1976). It is based on the number of relevant parties and the degree of ideo-
logical polarisation. His measure of ideological polarisation focuses on the
ideological distance between parties and the ideological divergence (Sani

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and Sartori, 1983). Using these two dimensions, Sartori’s typology includes
four types of democratic PSs (see Table 1).
Unlike the abovementioned authors who looked at western PSs,
Mainwaring (1998: 3) stresses that the appropriate way of analysing “third-
wave party systems” in “late democracies” is to distinguish between “weakly
institutionalised party systems” and “well established party systems” (see
Table 1).
Table 1: TYPOLOGIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTY SYSTEMS (PSS)
The PS typologies of Sartori (1976) and Sani and Sartori (1983) are based on the number
of relevant parties and the ideological relationships among them:
Four types of democratic party systems:
Two-party systems Moderate pluralism (low ideological
polarisation)
Polarised pluralism (considerable
polarisation)
PSs with a dominant party (the same party
consistently wins a majority of seats up to
three times in a row – after then, it can be
considered a one-party system)
While analysing the ‘third wave’ of democratisation, Mainwaring (1998) presents the
polarisation of PSs between:
Two types of PSs based on institutionalisation of the PS
Well-institutionalised party systems
Highly stability in patterns of interparty
competition
Parties are strongly rooted in society
Higher level of legitimacy of parties and
elections
Organisation and party processes are well
institutionalised
Weakly institutionalised party systems
Quite volatile
Parties are strongly rooted in society
Lower level of legitimacy of parties and
elections
Intraparty processes are not well
institutionalised
The authors’ proposal for analysing post-socialist democratisation in ethnically segmented
contexts
Two types of party systems
Largely liberal-based PSs
Majority of parties are based on the liberal
principle
The main type of cleavage in the PS is the L-R
continuum
Largely ethnic-based PSs
Majority of parties are based on the ethnic
principle
The main type of cleavage in the PS is inter-
ethnic
Source: Sartori 1976; Sani and Sartori 1983; Mainwaring 1998; the authors.
Nevertheless, the existing methodological approaches and typologies of
party systems are still unable to capture the complexity of PSs where there
are blocs of liberal-based and ethnic-based political parties that engage in
conflicts within the PS. These are not predominantly left–right conflicts but
conflicts between two ethnic party blocs (as in the case of Macedonia) over
ethnic policies, that are only to a limited extent accompanied by left–right
clashes. Sartori’s two-dimensional typology is unable to capture peculiar
coalitions of quite small number of (relevant) ethnic parties and a high level
of polarisation (where there are two blocs, like in Macedonia).

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Measuring change in the party system
As a rule, PS characteristics have so far been measured by focusing on
the number of (relevant, effective1 etc.) political parties and their ideologi-
cal positioning on the left–right spectrum. Measures have been developed
to describe fragmentation of a PS (e.g. Rae’s index of fractionalisation2, see
Sartori, 1976: 307), aggregation of the PS (e.g. the index of aggregation cal-
culated as the ratio between the proportion of parliamentary seats held by
the biggest parliamentary party and the number of parliamentary parties)
and electoral volatility (e.g. calculated based on Pedersen’s (1990) index of
volatility3). Using calculated indexes that look at the same (changing) PS
over time, changes can be detected as the indexes go up or down.
Party system polarisation has so far been measured indirectly – by the
number of political parties, vote shares for governing parties, and voters’
perceptions of parties on the left–right continuum (public opinion surveys).
In our article, we employ a combination of the existing measures and
add some fresh qualitative insights.
Framework for studying party systems containing a considerable share
of ethnic-based parties
To study Macedonia’s PS, we shall take into account the context (Mirčev
and Hristova, 2008; Ramet, 1992), especially the type of transition to democ-
racy (Marshall and Jagger, 2010; Huntington, 1991), and the logic of party
proliferation in the setting of the transition to a democracy (Dahl, 2000).
Following Dalton’s (2008) focus on PS polarisation, we examine the
dynamics between: (1) liberal-based political parties and their left–right
ideological matrix; and (2) ethnic-based political parties, characterised by
an emphasis on ethnic rights and policy issues related to ethnic traditions
1 The Tageperä and Shugart index ENP (Effective Number of Electoral Parties) (obtained from
Lijphart, 1984, 120). The ENP is calculated using the following formula:
p = the % of votes a party gains at elections
where “n” is the total number of parties in the parliament and “si” is the number of seats (in percent)
of party “i”. The ENP is the number of hypothetical equally-sized parties that would have the same effect on
the party system’s fragmentation as the current parties of varying sizes.
2
Rae’s index of fractionalisation (FP), conducted according to the following formula (Sartori, 1976: 307)
:
where N is the number of parties, pi is the proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by i-party i=1
3 Volatility (Vt) = 1/2 TNCt
0 ≤ Vt ≤ 100
where Vt represents the cumulative gains of all parties in the party system or (if interpreted symmetri-
cally) the cumulative value of the losses of parties/losers of votes (Pedersen, 1990).

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and culture (Mozaffar et al., 2003; Mojanoski, 2001; Norwegian Helsinki
Committee, 2001). We are particularly interested in the shift from a largely
liberal-based PS to a largely ethnic-based PS.
In order to capture these dynamics, we employ both quantitative indica-
tors of PS characteristics and more qualitative indicators that are sensitive to
the ethnic political divide within the PS.
In order to capture the changes in the party system between 1990 and
2018, we use the following indicators:
• number of parliamentary parties (liberal, ethnic parties, total);
• share of liberal/ethnic parliamentary parties;
• number of parliamentary seats (for liberal, ethnic parties, total);
• share of parliamentary seats for liberal/ethnic parties (changes in per-
cent of seats);
• fragmentation within blocs of the same kinds of parliamentary parties
(number of parties);
• ideological distance within the same kinds of parliamentary parties
where liberal-based parties are considered based on the left–right con-
tinuum and ethnic-based parties on their level of radicalisation (estima-
tions based on a literature review and interviews); and
• polarisation between blocs of different kinds of parties (estimations
based on interviews).
The Macedonian context
Transition to a democracy
Like in other post-socialist countries (Bozóki and Ishiyama, 2002), the
continuing involvement of the communist-party successor has signifi-
cantly affected the development of democracy in Macedonia (Stojarová
and Emerson, 2009). The Macedonian Communists SKM-PDP (League of
Communists of Macedonia – Party of Democratic Transition) was one of the
leagues in former Yugoslavia which up until 1989 believed the communist
regime would continue to exist in Yugoslavia (Ramet, 1995). Indeed, mem-
bers of SKM-PDP were among the most reluctant when asked about their
attitudes to a multi-party system and the already emerging oppositional
political organisations (Šiber, 1989: 29). This explains why the legalisation of
political pluralism in Macedonia and holding of the first multi-party elections
in 1990 followed more the examples of other Yugoslav republics than being
the result of any home-grown changes. Similarly, Macedonia proclaimed its
independence in a referendum held on 8 September 1991 but only after
the declarations of independence made by other Yugoslav republics. When
adopting the new Constitution, it opted for a parliamentary system.

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Nevertheless, the Macedonian path to democracy has not only faced the
transformation and adaptation of the old political elite within the process of
political pluralisation, but also the growing prominence of nation-building
and ethnic minority issues, along with problems like the negative economic
effect of indirect involvement in the Yugoslav war (1991–1995) and the con-
flict with Greece over the name of Macedonia (long preventing EU integra-
tion) (Fink-Hafner and Hafner-Fink, 2009).
Building a nation-state and the inter-ethnic conflict
Like the elites of ethnic majorities in certain other (former) Yugoslav
republics, the party elite in Macedonia stressed nation-building and
strengthened the legal position of the titular nationality in Macedonia:
ethnic Macedonians (Daskalovski, 1999). At the referendum on the sover-
eignty and independence of Macedonia held in 1991, 95.09% (72.16% of all
citizens with a voting right) chose independence (Macedonian Parliament,
1991). The ethnic Albanian population4 boycotted the referendum. Instead,
Albanians were pushing for a bi-ethnic state system (BTI, 2016).
Despite this, on 17 November 1991 the Constitution was adopted by
96 of the 120 MPs (Members of Parliament). Macedonia was defined as a
state of the “Macedonian people” (Constitution of RM 1991, OG, 52/91) con-
trary to the previous definition in the preamble of the 1974 Constitution
as “a state of the Macedonian people and of Albanian and Turkish nation-
alities” within the Socialistic Republic of Macedonia (Constitution of SRM,
1974, OG – Official Gazette 7/25). The Albanians perceived this as a loss in
the normative basis for equal treatment by the state of Macedonia. At first,
the new Macedonian state also did not re-establish a Pedagogical Academy
(founded in 1961 and abolished in 1987) which had allowed for education
in Albanian. In January 1992, an unofficial referendum (named Ilirida) was
conducted among the ethnic Albanian population (but declared illegal by
the Macedonian authorities) reportedly resulted in 99.9% of votes being cast
in favour of territorial and political autonomy for the ethnic Albanian popu-
lation (Babuna, 2000). The Pedagogical Faculty for Albanian teachers was
reactivated based on a St. Cyril and Methodius University Rectorate decision
in 1995 with reference to Article 48 of the Constitution that allows education
in minority languages at primary and secondary schools (Azizi, 2011). This
step provoked anti-Albanian demonstrations.
All in all, political classes of both Macedonians and Albanians have
instrumentalised education policy (and particularly language policy in this
sense) in their political battles (Kavaja, 2017). Albanians perceive adoption
4 Ethnic Albanians in Macedonia make up almost 25% of the population (SSO RM, 2005).

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of the 1991 Constitution as the “generator of crises” (Abdurahman Aliti in
an interview with Xhezairi, 2018) since they believe that certain rights they
held under the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution, such as the ability to use the
Albanian language, had been abolished. The growing grievances (especially
because Albanians interpreted that they were not allowed to have education
in their mother tongue) in conjunction with deteriorating security after the
Kosovo crisis in 1999 led to the conflict in Macedonia in 2001 (interview
with DUI – Democratic Union for Integration, alb. Bashkimi Demokratik për
Integrim, BDI, MPs, 2018). Over 300,000 Albanians from Kosovo came to
Macedonia and the Kosovo Liberation Army (UČK, alb. Ushtria Çlirimtare
e Kosovës) gave the initiative for the formation of the National Liberation
Army (NLA, alb. Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare) in Macedonia for, as it said,
the “liberation of the territory occupied by the Slavs in Macedonia” (inter-
view with Spasov, 2018).
The EU-US (European Union and United States) mediated agreement in
August 2001 quickly brought an end to the armed conflict. The OFA (Ohrid
Framework Agreement) signed on 31 July 2001 with the EU’s help envi-
sioned a series of political and constitutional reforms, fulfilling many of
the demands of Macedonian Albanians (Balalovska et al., 2002). The OFA
introduced some features of power-sharing, transforming the country into
a consociational democracy with the Albanian community gaining from the
introduction of a double majority5 in voting on bills sensitive for minori-
ties and ensuring the equitable representation of Albanians in all govern-
ment institutions (interview with Spasov, 2018). Also introduced were the
concepts of ‘majority population in Macedonia’ for ethnic Macedonians
and of ‘community’ for other ethnicities (Škarić, 2004: 176). In addition,
other new elements were that: the Albanian language gained the status of
an official language in those municipalities6 where Albanians comprise
more than 20% of the total population (Law on Territorial Organisation
and Local Self-Administration, OG 55/2004); the right to have identity and
travel papers in the Albanian language (Constitutional Amendments X
and XVI, OG 91/2001); the use of Albanian language at all levels of educa-
tion; and formation of a state university in the Albanian language funded
by the state budget (according to the Amendments of the Law on Higher
Education, OG, 64/2000, 49/2003 and the Law on Establishment of a State
University in Tetovo OG, 8/2004). According to the Rules and Procedure of
the Macedonian Assembly from 2002, MPs from the Albanian community
are also entitled to speak in Albanian at plenary sessions and the sessions of
5 The ‘Badinter majority’ means a majority from all MPs, including the majority of ethnic communi-
ties. Robert Badinter is a French Constitutional Court judge who was involved in negotiations in 2001.
6 Out of 84 municipalities, Albanian is the official language in 30.

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working bodies of the Assembly, except for the Assembly Spokesman while
presiding (OG, 60/2002).
Nevertheless, the new Law on Languages7 and its implementation,
including the issue of Albanian being used as an official language across the
whole country, remains a point of conflict. The post-2001 period is still char-
acterised by the segregation of education along ethnic lines (Kavaja, 2017).
Ethnic groups’ parallel living alongside each other, ethnic prejudice among
teachers, pupils/students and their parents, ethnic bias in textbooks and
the bringing in of new generations of teachers without any real-life inter-
ethnic experiences into the education system add to the conflicting narra-
tives and inter-ethnic animosity (Muhic, 2017). A particularly controversial
issue concerning the Albanians’ claim that they are in practice excluded
from university studies has only to some extent been met by a single pro-
gramme that is run in Albanian and offered by the Faculty of Pedagogy. On
the contrary, Macedonians point to the post-2001 Ohrid policies focused on
improving equity in education which (as noted international organisations’
reports) have in fact faced significant implementation problems (Muhic,
2017; Kavaja, 2017). Today, Macedonia is considered to be a hybrid regime
(Economist Intelligence Unit – Index, 2017) with significant and in recent
times even deteriorating political and socio-economic problems (BTI, 2018).
The electoral system as a factor in party system characteristics
Between 1990 and 2014 three different electoral systems were tried
out: majoritarian with 120 single-member units (1990 and 1994), mixed8
(1998), proportional9 with 6 multi-member units and 120 MPs (2002, 2004
and 2008), proportional with 9 units and 123 MPs (2011 and 2014) (SEC,
1990–2016) and, at the last elections held in 2016, proportional 120 MPs in 6
within-country electoral units and up to 3 MPs from a single out-of-country
electoral unit (Art. 1, OG 196).
The measures available in Macedonia to ensure the protection of minori-
ties are laudable (Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, 2016). Albanian
political parties have favoured the creation of a “single constituency and
strict proportional representation, which was thought to enhance the
number of Albanian deputies” (Bieber, 2005: 5). Such demands were not
7 As this was not clearly defined in the OFA, the Macedonian President has still not signed this law.
8 A mixed electoral system – 35 MPs were allocated via the proportional system while 85 were via the
majoritarian electoral system (Article 2, Election Law, OG 24/98).
9 120 members of Parliament were elected in a closed party proportional system in six constituencies
according to the d’Hondt formula and 3 MPs in one constituency elected from the Macedonian diaspora
(Europe and Africa, North and South America, Australia and Asia) (Electoral Code Amendments OG 196,
10. 11. 2015).

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accepted because that would endanger the position of the bigger governing
parties (interview with Georgievski, 2018).
In general, majoritarian electoral rules (in 1990 and 1994) helped the
reformed communists snare substantial shares of electoral votes (Ivanov,
2001). Later, the mixed electoral rules have pushed towards systemic con-
centration (Casal Bértoa and Taleski, 2016) and the proportional system
since 2002 has added to the PS’s fragmentation. The measures to counter
this PS fragmentation have been unsuccessful in stopping the multiplication
of ethnic parties.
Nevertheless, the two biggest parties from the Macedonian bloc SDSM
(Social-Democratic Union of Macedonia) from the left and VMRO DPMNE
(Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation – Democratic Party for
Macedonian National Unity) from the right) have led coalitions since the pro-
portional electoral system was introduced. The two largest Albanian ethnic
parties – DUI; DPA (Democratic Party of Albanians, alb. Partia Demokratike
Shqiptare) and lately also the BESA (BESA Movement, alb. Lëvizja Besa) and
Alliance for Albanians usually compete independently.
The development of political parties in Macedonia since 1990
A controlled transition from a one-party system to party pluralism
Due to the old ruling elite in Macedonia (the reformed SKM-PDP, later
SDSM) maintaining control over the transition from a socialist system to
party pluralism (Stojarová and Emerson, 2009), the remains of a one-party
system political culture persisted (Mirčev and Hristova, 2008: 297). At the
first multi-party elections, the main opponent of the reformed SKM-PDP was
VMRO-DPMNE (a Christian-democratic party with an ethnic Macedonian
nationalist orientation), constituting the second largest political party in
Macedonia (Ramet, 1992). Even though VMRO-DPMNE won the first mul-
tiparty elections in November 1990 by obtaining 38 (31.7%) (SEC, 1990) of
MPs, President Kiro Gligorov insisted on creating a ‘government composed
of experts’. In 1992, SDSM was able to make that a political reality and thus
led the first government in 1992–1994, then the second in 1994–1998, the
fourth in 2002–2006 and, since the 2016 elections, has been leading the cur-
rent government.
The proliferation of political parties
The early transitional expansion in the number of parties included sev-
eral unstable parties with an unclear ideological orientation, including a
few moderate ethnic-based parties, economically-oriented parties (e.g. URF

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– Union of Reform Forces of Macedonia), political organisations represent-
ing particular social groups (e.g. pensioners’ parties), small parties emerg-
ing from the transformed old political organisations – such as the centre-left
SPM (Socialist Party of Macedonia) and LP (Liberal Party – a splinter of URF).
Instead, what emerged were ‘catch all’ parties and parties built on social net-
works without ambitions to identify, support or express the interests of spe-
cific social groups (Mirčev and Hristova, 2008: 299).
The trend of an increasing number of political parties continues today,
involving both the growing emergence of completely new parties as well as
splinters from existing parties (Figure 1).
Figure 1: NUMBER OF REGISTERED PARTIES OVER TIME (1990–2017)
Source: Macedonian Parliament, 1990–2018b; SEC, 1990–2016; Andreeva and Markovska,
2013.
A few ethnic-based parties emerged during Macedonia’s transition to a
democracy, but they have been proliferating particularly since 2001. They
are primarily Albanian parties as well as some parties of other ethnic minori-
ties (representing Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks living in Macedonia). A
party bloc made up of multiple parties is thus a post-2001 phenomenon.
Party system change in Macedonia since 1990
Taking the dynamic changes between the liberal-based and ethnic-based
party blocs into account, four periods in the PS can be identified:

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Table 2: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTY SYSTEM
Characteristics Liberal-based parties Emerging ethnic-
based parties
First
(1990–
Sept.
1994)
Legalisation of political
pluralism
First multi-party elections
(November 1990).
Adoption of the first Law
on Political Parties in 1994.
Conflict between the
pro-Yugoslav reformed
communists (SKM-PDP)
and the anti-communist
and pro-independence
VMRO-DPMNE (with
a platform for uniting
all Macedonians) and
MAAK striving to unite all
Macedonians.
The first ethnic
Albanian party
emerged – PDP.
NDP as its fraction.
DP of Turks and the
PCERM.
Second
(August
1994–
1998)
Rise of nationalism in both
Macedonian and Albanian
ethnic parties, but also
in other smaller ethnic
parties, in addition to
protecting minority rights.
Within the Macedonian
bloc, additional small
parties with a centre-
left orientation were
established (LDP, DP, DA).
The Law on Political
Parties (OG, 41/94)
intended to prevent
the formation of
ethnic parties (Casal
Bértoa and Taleski,
2016: 7) by requiring
parties to organise
and act across the
whole country,
not just in certain
municipalities.
Third
(1999–
2001)
– Corruption scandals
related to the shock-
therapy privatisation.
– Suspicions of the
government being
involved in organised
crime.
– Replacement of
the Social Democrat
government.
– Ethnic armed conflict.
– The OFA was signed by a
coalition of the two major
parties in the Macedonian
bloc (VMRO DPMNE and
SDSM) and two major
ethnic Albanian parties
(DPA and PDP) emerged.
Additional political
pluralisation due to
splits of liberal-based
parties’ (mostly due to
the stronger nationalistic
currents in these parties).
Increasing
radicalisation of
Albanian parties,
even leading to
armed conflict
in 2001 between
Albanians and
government forces.
Fourth
(2002–)
Implementation of the
OFA.
A new wave of new ethnic-
based parties representing
and additional party splits
within the Macedonian
political party bloc.
Radicalisation of the
Albanian segment of
parties
Founding of a new
Albanian party after
the 2001 conflict
– DUI, mainly
composed of NLA
military.
Source: The authors’ own model.

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Qualitative analysis of changes in the party system
Polarisation of the two blocs containing different kinds of parties
In 2000, Georgievski and Škarić (2000) estimated that Macedonia’s mul-
tiparty system is a symmetrical polarised multiparty system based on two
blocs: Macedonian and Albanian. While Petre Georgievski corroborated
this characterisation when interviewed in May 2018, he also described addi-
tional aspects of the current PS, which are included in Table 3.
Table 3: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MACEDONIAN PARTY SYSTEM
Ethnic-based polarisation of the Macedonian party system:
The Macedonian bloc of political parties
Closed to the representation of
Macedonians’ interests
The Albanian bloc of political parties
Closed to the representation of Albanians’
interests
Ideological polarisation
Ideological positioning on the left–right
ideological scale
No left–right ideological positioning
Polarisation in terms of the level of
radicalism in realising ethnic political goals
Source: The authors’ own model; Georgievski and Škarić, 2000; Interview with Georgievski,
2018; Interview with Billali, 2018; Interview with DUI MPs, 2018.
While the Macedonian party bloc is composed of parties which can be
located on the left–right continuum, parties in the ethnic party bloc can be
distinguished by their level of radicalisation. In the interethnic conflict of
2001, the ethnic cleavage prevailed which primarily involved the liberal-
based Macedonian party bloc and the Albanian bloc of ethnic parties.
Further, the polarisation seen among the ethnic-based parties in terms of
the level of radicalism in solving ethnic political issues has been increasing.
Ideological distance within the liberal-based party bloc
Since the 1990s, the main conflict has persisted between two parties in
the Macedonian party bloc– SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE. There are several
reasons for such polarisation of the Macedonian political-party bloc: a) the
polarisation is an expression of traditional ideological differences since
VMRO DPMNE believes it originates from the VMRO founded in 1893
(whose purpose was liberation from five centuries of occupation by the
Ottomans), but has had a ‘magnet’ influence by attracting a considerable
number of members and supporters through its ethnic Macedonian nation-
alistic appeal; and b) SDSM declared itself a successor to SKM-PDP, which
also consisted of its former members and their sympathisers.

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Since 2002, the Macedonian political bloc has become more fragmented
as small parties have emerged, such as the centre-right oriented VMRO-NP
(VMRO People’s Party) as a fraction of VMRO-DPMNE (founded by the
former leader of VMRO-DPMNE) and the centre-left NSDP (New Social-
Democratic Party) as an offshoot of SDSM. Some new parties, such as the
Greens – DOM (Democratic Renewal of Macedonia), grew from new social
movements.
While the analysis of party and electoral programmes (Mirčev and
Hristova, 2008: 298–299) shows there is no a huge ideological difference
among the political parties since most stress general development, the
transformation of society, a ‘European’ future, voters of the two largest par-
ties (SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE) appear to have some differences reflecting
specific aspects of their voters (MCMS, IDSCS and Telma, 2016).
Ideological cleavage within the ethnic-based party bloc
According to the interviews, the Albanian parties’ reason for existence
is to solve ethnic problems and left–right ideological differences have not
played any major role in the inter-ethnic cleavages. Nevertheless, the inter-
views highlighted important differences in the level of radicalisation among
Albanian parties when it comes to selecting the means for achieving politi-
cal reforms to improve the status of Albanians in Macedonia.
As the first ethnic party in parliament, PDP (Party for Democratic
Prosperity, alb. Partia për prosperitet demokratik) participated in govern-
ment coalitions with SDSM and was initially created as a liberal party that
installed an ethnic Macedonian as vice-president (interview with Billali,
2018). However, internal differences in the level of radicalisation among its
members in 1998 saw it split with PDPA (Party for Democratic Prosperity
of Albanians in Macedonia, alb. Partia për prosperitet demokratik Shqiptar)
being founded (a fraction of PDP) that sought the federalisation of
Macedonia and aimed for Albanian to be at recognises as the second (other)
state nationality (Wojnicki, 2016). PDPA and NDP (Party for Democratic
Prosperity of Albanians in Macedonia and People’s Democratic Party, alb.
Partia për prosperitet demokratik Shqiptarе dhe Partia Demokratike e
Popullit) (another offshoot of PDP) merged and in 2002 formed the DPA
party that attracted sympathy among the Albanian population due to its
more radical demands. PDP then slowly disappeared from the political
scene.
The cleavages within the parties based on ethnic grounds became more
visible after the 2001 conflict, dividing them according to how radical the
demands made were regarding ethnic issues.
Since 2002, new parties have appeared with the goal of realising the

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22
requirements for making constitutional and legal changes. One critical
policy issue has been the new Law on Languages. The most influential is
DUI (a successor to NLA). Since DUI entered the political scene by winning
16 seats at the September 2002 parliamentary elections (taking third place
after SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE), the other Albanian parties have faded.
After 2014, a new Albanian ethnic party known as the ‘BESA Movement’ has
emerged. In addition, in 2016 a coalition of splinter parties from DUI and
DPA formed the Alliance for Albanians (DR-ADP – Movement for Reform,
Democratic Party of Albanians, alb. Levizja per Reforma PDSH; UNITETI
– Unity; RDK – National Democratic Revival, alb. Rilindja Demokratike
Kombëtare).
Quantitative measures of the party system
Quantitative measures (Table 4) show the increasing number of political
parties has not radically altered the fractionalisation of the parliamentary PS
(which since 2011 has stabilised with the index of fractionalisation being a
little over 0.7).
However, the number of ethnic parties rose from 4 to 5 (from 33% to
56% of all parties) in the period before 2002 to 7–12 ethnic parties in the
parliament since 2002 (44%–60%). While, in the period before 2002, the
percentage of MPs from ethnic parties ranged between 18% and 21%, since
2002 that share has been between 23% and 29%.
Nevertheless, the growing number of political parties (of these, most are
only represented by 1, 2 or 3 MPs) has not led to the more balanced politi-
cal representation of various ethnic groups. Conversely, the effective num-
ber of parliamentary parties has even decreased since 2008 from 5.434 to a
slightly more than 3 parties.

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Table 4: MACEDONIAN PARTY SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS IN 1990–2018
10 11 12
ACCORDING TO QUANTITATIVE AND SOME QUALITATIVE MEASURES
Elections
Party system
characteristics
1990 199410 1998 2002 2006 2008 2011 2014 2016
No. of all
parliamentary parties
after each election
12 9 12 19 20 18 20 15 20
MPs from ethnic
parties
24 21 26 33 33 32 36 32 28
MPs from liberal-
based parties
96 99 94 87 87 88 87 91 92
No. of ethnic-based
parliamentary
parties
4
(33.3%)
5
(55.5%)
3
(25%)
10
(52.6%)
9
(45%)
8
(44.4%)
12
(60%)
7
(46.6%)
12
(60%)
No. of liberal-based
parliamentary
parties
8
(66.7%)
4
(44.5%)
9
(75%)
9
(47.4%)
11
(55%)
10
(55.6%)
8
(40%)
8
(53.4%)
8
(40%)
% share of votes
for ethnic-based
governing parties
(SMC)
1st round:
15,4%
2nd round:
7,3%
(SMC)
1st round:
8,8%
2nd round:
15,2%
(SMC)
1st round:
4,78%
2nd round:
3,64% (Party
List) 19,27%
12,18% 7,5% 12,82% 10,24% 13,71% 15,09%
% share of votes
for liberal-based
governing parties
1st round:
42.3%
2nd round:
48.7%
1st round:
29.5%
2nd round:
53.5%
(SMC)
1st round:
33.05%
2nd round:
47.87%
(Party List)
38.83%
41.59% 38.54% 48.78% 38.98% 42.97% 36.66%
Index of
fractionalisation (Fp)
0.77011 0.69212 0.803 0.745 0.816 0.686 0.729 0.731 0.714
Eective no. of
parliamentary parties
(ENPP)
5.102 1.865 5.076 3.932 5.434 3.184 3.690 3.717 3.496
Electoral volatility _ 35.4 34.1 23.2 20.2 10.9 14.8 12 23
Source: the authors’ own calculations based on Macedonian Parliament data for 1990–2018
and SEC data for 1990–2016.
10 At the 1990 and 1994 elections, the majoritarian election system was used whereby a candidate
needed a majority of the votes, but no less than 1/3 of the votes of all voters. If no candidate won a majority,
a second round was held after 14 days among candidates who had received at least 7% of votes in the first
round (Article 54, Law on the Election of MPs, OG 28/90).
11 Among the pp are calculate also 5 independent candidates (as one party).
12 Plus 7 independent candidates calculate as one party.

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A synthesis of qualitative and quantitative analysis
Macedonia’s PS has seen dynamic changes in the period from 1990 to
2018 moving from the initial largely liberal-based PS featuring several eth-
nic-based parties to the current PS containing a significant bloc of ethnic-
based parties and a predominant inter-ethnic cleavage.
While quantitative measures of the PS indicate the Macedonian PS seems
to be stabilising (e.g. a quite stable index of fractionalisation and a narrow-
ing of the number of relevant parties to just over three), the qualitative anal-
ysis based on the interviews suggests Macedonia is in fact challenged by
political destabilisation.
Research stemming from the methodology applied suggests the trans-
formation which is overlooked by quantitative measurements of PS change
entails shifts: 1) in the shares of parliamentary seats of both liberal- and
ethnic-based parties; and 2) increasing radicalisation of ethnic-based parties
together with the ‘ethnification’ of liberal-based ones. However, there are
exactly these measures that matter considerably when seeking to describe
the PS and the changes in the PS! It also matters whether a particular eth-
nic group is represented by its own party or not, which is relevant in the
Sartorian sense. As shown in Macedonia, only the biggest ethnic minority
has succeeded to achieve such a position in the country’s PS.
Conclusion
In this article, we have shown the deficiencies of the dominant approach
used to measure party system characteristics and their dynamic changes in
a setting of liberal-based and ethnic-based party blocs. Given that for cases
like this the already known PS typologies are unable to capture the true char-
acter of the PSs, we propose an additional typology for use when describing
such PSs.
While studying the party system in Macedonia, we applied both the usual
approach of quantitatively measuring PSs and the qualitative approach
based on distinguishing the liberal-based and ethnic-based party blocs. This
showed how the PS has evolved from 1990 to 2018 from liberal character-
istics (largely liberal-based parties and left–right cleavages) to ethnic char-
acteristics (largely ethnic-based parties and dominant ethnic cleavages).
Nevertheless, more research based on further academic considerations
including other methods (such as content analysis of party manifestos and
normative acts in the centre of political dispute) is needed to both facilitate
an even deeper understanding of the party and party system dynamics in
Macedonia and to refine conceptual issues.

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Overall, we believe that, without combining the quantitative and qualita-
tive approaches to measure and analyse the main structure and cleavages
in such PSs, it is impossible to reveal the structures and processes that are
crucial for detecting (de)stabilisation of the PS and the prospects for democ-
racy. This agrees with the thesis (Powell, 2009; Dalton, 2008) that stability of
political systems is more a function of the polarisation of PSs than their frag-
mentation as well as Dalton’s thesis that when studying PSs quality should
count more than quantity (Dalton, 2008: 917).
We hope our research encourages: 1) comparative research into party
systems which include ethnic- and/or religion-based parties; 2) changes in
such party systems; and 3) further methodological/analytical developments
to determine the characteristics of those systems and how they change.
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