Liquid Transformation in the Political Economies of BiH and Kosovo.

Abstract

The transformation dynamics of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo rubs salt into the war wounds of economically vulnerable sectors of society in a context of fragile political and security situations, complex or ambiguous constitutional status and an imprecise and contested balance of power between international direction and local ownership. The protectors have been imposing a model of economic transformation, ultimately derived from the neoliberal economic ideology of aggressive capitalism and the 1989 Washington consensus on developmentalism. The inhabitants of war-torn societies have often clung to clientism, shadow economic activities and resistance to centrally-audited exchange. This paper contends that what is sometimes portrayed as a clash between neoliberal modernity and a pre-modern `Balkan way¿ is questionable in its dyadic assumptions and its underestimation of linkages between the spheres of neoliberalism and nationalist¿mafia¿clientism.