Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

Pluralism and the economy
The Macedonian transition
is taking too long
Nikola Popovski
The pluralistic "revolution,"
which took place at the end of
the 1980s and the beginning of
the 1990s in Central and Eastern
Europe, gave a lot of hope to
hundreds of millions of people
for a general betterment of their
lives. On the wings of this pluralism
came not only the hope
for democracy, human rights and
general freedoms, but also the
hope that economic performance
in their societies could greatly
improve and, consequently, people
would enjoy a much better
life. It would not be an exaggeration
to say that aspirations for a
wealthier life and greater satisfaction
of people's essential
needs were the fundamental
During the first
ten years, pluralism
did not
respond positively
to many economic
problems
driving forces of the radical
changes that were taking place.
Just this kind of aspiration
also encouraged pluralism in
Macedonia. This pluralism,
which developed alongside the
process of creating a state,
encouraged the Macedonian
nation to believe that such integral
changes would enable more
prosperity in the future. As to
what was meant by future,
everybody anticipated something
different, but one thing is
certain: nobody anticipated that
even ten years later the transition
would still be at this stage.
There was hope that in three to
four, or perhaps in seven to eight
years, the transition would be
over. Then a period of tranquil
development would begin, more
democratic and-from an economic
point of view-would be
more stable and more prosperous.
However an entire decade
passed, and we can state with
certainty that not only are we
only gradually getting out of the
period of transition, but
Macedonia is facing even more
problems that are typical for the
first transitional years.
If we sincerely face some of
the basic indicators of what the
first decade of pluralism did
bring to Macedonia in an economic
sense, then undoubtedly
we would say that we are not
moving forward at all: and we
are usually moving in the opposite
direction from development.
In that sense, it is a defeating
fact that we began the pluralism
period in 1990 with GDP of
USD 4,253 million, whereas in
the tenth year of pluralism, or
more precisely in the year 2000
we will end up with a GDP
which is only a bit over USD
19
Ten years of pluralism, December 2000