Parallel Governance in the Post-Communist Space: Institutionalizing Ethnic Autonomies in the Western Balkans

In the aftermath of armed conflicts in the Western Balkans, the region has witnessed the emergence of parallel governance structures in the form of informal ethnic autonomies. The article employs the framework of informal institutions to examine how different groups have strategically utilized parallel governance. The analysis suggests that parallel, accommodating, informal institutions can contribute to the overall governability of the system, as demonstrated by the case of North Macedonia. Conversely, competing informal institutions that coexist with ineffective formal ones, as in the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, produce outcomes that diverge markedly from the envisioned governance goals.