Low level of political dialogue and intraparty democracy, distrust towards the institutions and between the parties as well as an inability to overcome a crisis without facilitation of the international community. These were a part of the conclusions that were noted at the discussion held on 17th of September 205 on the occasion of the promotion of the analysis “Political dialogue” by the authors Misha Popovikj and Nenad Markovikj. The promotion was organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje.
In this discussion, the two authors Misha Popovikj and Nenad Markovikj took part, along with the university professor Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova and university professor Albert Musliu. The opening remarks were given by the president of the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje, Marko Trosanovski and the representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for Macedonia Johannes Rey.
Political dialogue represents an instrument for overcoming political crises. Within this process, the political actors decide to resolve open issues between them with dialogue. It was noted during the discussion that the political crises in Macedonia are mostly solved with interference of the international community, acting as a mediator in the political dialogue. So far all major political crises were resolved in that way, with the exception of the political crisis that occurred in 1994 that lasted until the next regular elections in 1998.
It was emphasized that the key problem for the low level of political dialogue is the lack of enabling environment for its development. Namely, it was confirmed with the analysis that the Macedonian citizens have low trust among each other, and that they prefer decisiveness of the political leaders as a key quality, in contrast to a broader deliberative process of decision making. Fostering those values largely represents an obstacle for the development of political dialogue. It was noted that the low level of political dialogue is also a result of the structural flaws facing the political process in Macedonia. This is manifested with imbalance of the power that political parties possess, produced by the tendency of the political parties in power to uncontrollably utilize public resources.
The entire analysis “Political Dialogue” can be downloaded for free on the following links
{position politicki-dijalog-2015}