Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

14
Stojan Andov
Chronicle of pluralistic democracy
Macedonia made historical
decisions about its future
Due to the difficult economic situation, interest in
fostering the civic status of the individual is lagging
behind and ethnic identity is over emphasized.
The first multiparty elections in
Macedonia were held in the autumn
of 1990, while the first multiparty
assembly in the country was constituted
on 9 January 1991. It was comprised
of 38 deputies from VMRO-
DMPNE, 31 from SKM-PDP, 23
from PDP and NDP, 18 from SRSM
IMDS, 5 from SPM, 2 from the
Yugoslav Party and three independent
deputies. During 1991 the legal
framework was created for the new
state order: the Declaration for the
Sovereignty of Macedonia was
enacted, the Referendum for
Independence was held and the new
Constitution of the country was
enacted. Soon after, key laws were
enacted for the establishment of the
Macedonian army and for monetary
independence of the country. The
Law on the Constitutional Court and
the Law on the Regular Judiciary
were enacted, as well as the Law on
Local Self-Governance. The latest
law that was enacted is the Law on
State Administrative Bodies, by
which, basically, the legal regulation
of the foundations of the democratic
institutions in the state as well as the
administrative policies were completed.
For the overall democratic
process it is important that citizens
can freely express their political will
during elections and, by doing so,
affect their own future and the future
of the country. During elections the
way a country's democratic system
functions becomes visible. How
political parties function also
becomes visible, as well as the
(mis)use of authority, the media's
role, and other mechanisms. During
the last ten years in Macedonia, parliamentary
elections have been held
three times, whereas presidential as
well as local elections have been held
twice. Basically the elections were
acceptable. However, political parties
are gradual strengthening their
efforts to influence election outcomes
even in an illegal way, which
is noticeable. Therefore the entire
legislation by which the organization
of parties is regulated, as well as the
functioning of political parties and
the electoral legislation, must be
carefully reviewed.
In the economic arena, state ownership,
fundamental to the so-called
socialist project, has been abandoned,
and the market economy has
been introduced. In that context, in
1993 the Law on Privatization was
enacted, then the Law on Trade
Companies, the Law on Banking and
other financial institutions were
enacted, whereas the Law on
Employment and Social Rights of
Employees was amended and
improved. The Law on
Denationalization and the law on
returning the so-called old foreigncurrency
savings were enacted as
well. Also, the foreign debt of the
country was regulated, and structural
economic reforms began. The results
have not met expectations and it
seems that to date the country has
paid a high price for these reforms. A
real economic stratum has not yet
been created that would take initiative
in economic development and
ensure the economic and political
stability in the country. The main
cause for that is the fact that in the
reforms to date, especially in the
realm of privatization, more attention
was paid to the inherited managerial
stratum and its relationships with ruling
party structures. The reforms
were not conducted in a logical way.
It was logical that the privatization
means would ensure the return of
once-expropriated property and of
the frozen foreign hard currency. In
such a case, the former property
resulted out of labour and the economic
activities of previous generations
would have been given back
and we would have had a stable and
legally established economic stratum
in the society. That opportunity was
missed and that is why there is a
decline in economic activities during
the reforms, enormous unemployment
and a lack of sound economic
initiatives by citizens. Great courage
is needed in the further flow of
reforms, especially structural
Ten years of pluralism, December 2000