Decentralisation in Kosovo: Potemkin Charade or Political Pragmatism?
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2010
Language
en
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Abstract
As an autonomous province of Serbia, under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
Kosovo enjoyed a substantial level of administrative and legislative authority. After Milosevic’s rise to
power in 1987, Kosovo’s autonomy was in effect revoked and Belgrade attempted to strengthen its
central-level power. Promoting the message that Serbia could not lose to afford the cradle of its
culture, Serbs were stimulated to settle in Kosovo. Efforts to change Kosovo’s demography were
accompanied by repression of the Kosovo Albanian population; thousands of Albanians in Kosovo lost
their jobs in this period; medical staff was fired, the university was closed and Kosovo’s assembly was
dissembled, moves that pushed Albanian public life underground. The Kosovo Albanian population
formed a parallel infrastructure under leadership of an elected assembly, providing social services as
education. With the disintegration of the Yugoslav federation starting in 1991, Serbia’s repressive grip
on Kosovo gained an increasingly violent character and was met by resistance from the Kosovo
Albanian side, first peaceful but turning violent in the second half of the 1990s (led by the Kosovo
Liberation Army).
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen