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Informality, Criminality, and Local Autonomy in the Balkans: A Geographic-Based Analysis of State Confines

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Governance Beyond the Law

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

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Abstract

In the Balkans, early national heroes were often smugglers, bandits, and resistant fighters, all at the same time. Distrust toward any form of upper authority is still today a widely shared feeling among ordinary people. When discussing (former) Eastern European politics, such a distrust, whose manifestations are manifold, has been seen as an indication of “backwardness”, as opposed to the modernity embodied by “advanced” Western countries. Borderlands are areas where the “ugly face” of the Balkanist cliché is best emphasized. It is no coincidence that exotic forms of extraterritoriality emerge in outlying regions. The chapter sheds light on the territorial dimension of the abovementioned duplicitous system opposing a formal political world to self-governed peripheries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995), Kosovo War (1998–1999), insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001), and in the northern part of (FY) Macedonia (2001), not to mention other more or less dormant political-military and territorial disputes.

  2. 2.

    Author’s extensive fieldwork experience in Northern Greece and Southern Albania has affected the empirical base of the chapter.

  3. 3.

    See shekulli.com.al (2016 August 14), quoting a secret report from Albanian police services.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS-UMR 5281 ART-Dev, Montpellier, France

    Régis Darques

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  1. Régis Darques
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Correspondence to Régis Darques .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law & Government, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Abel Polese

  2. Institute of International Studies, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Abel Polese

  3. Centre Émile Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Pessac, France

    Alessandra Russo

  4. DIRPOLIS Institute of Law Politics and Development, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

    Francesco Strazzari

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Darques, R. (2019). Informality, Criminality, and Local Autonomy in the Balkans: A Geographic-Based Analysis of State Confines. In: Polese, A., Russo, A., Strazzari, F. (eds) Governance Beyond the Law. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05039-9_10

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