INTRODUCTION

Special issue of NEW BALKAN POLITICS

“The crises of the social-democracy in Macedonia”

 

            This special issue of New Balkan Politics is dedicated to the social democracy in Macedonia. After three defeats in a row of the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) at the parliamentary elections in 2006, 2008, 2011, as well as after the catastrophic results at the local elections in 2013, the inevitable question that arises is: Why? Do the social democratic ideas about social justice, equality, solidarity and belief in democratic principles lose their attraction in a country in which every third person is unemployed and poor, and the division along social lines is becoming more dramatic? Or should we search for the reasons for the defeat in the Social Democratic Alliance, its historical legacy, its practical policies, organization and leadership?

            In this special issue of New Balkan Politics I have invited prominent members of the Social Democratic Alliance in Macedonia, independent intellectuals and experts to respond to the question asked. These are: Dane Taleski, Aleksandar Spasov, Martin Pechijareski, Lidija Hristova, Aneta Cekik and Dimitar Stojanovski. As editor of this issue, I also participate with my article. I hope that this is just the beginning of a good broader academic debate about the political parties and their role in society.

 

Prof. Mirjana Maleska

Editor-in-Chief

INTRODUCTION

Dear Readers,

The journal New Balkan Politics, after a few years of pause, is in front of you again. The reason for our absence has been financial. The magazine is independent and non-profit, with free access to the site, meaning that we apply for donations. Any donation is welcome and will be used in order to promote political thought and analytical way of thinking among scholars, students, journalists and the public in general.

Editor-in-Chief

Prof. Mirjana Maleska

The politics of rescue
To intervene or not? - this should always be a hard question. Even in the case of a brutal civil war or a politically induced famine or the massacre of a local minority, the use of force in other people s countries should always generate hesitation and anxiety. So it does today among small groups of concerned people, some of whom end up supporting, some resisting interventionist policies. But many governments and many more politicians seem increasingly inclined to find the question easy: the answer is not! Relatively small contingents of soldiers will be sent to help out in cases where it isn’t expected that they will have to fight-thus the United States in Somalia, the Europeans in Bosnia, the French in Rwanda. The aim in all these countries (though we experimented briefly with something more in Mogadishu) is not to alter power relations on the ground, but only to ameliorate their consequences - to bring food and medical supplies to populations besieged and bombarded, for example, without interfering with the siege or bombardment.