Captured Societies in Southeast Europe

In Southeast Europe there is a big disjunction between formal procedures and informal practices-and this gap is growing. When formal institutions fail, informal practices can solve problems. These practices can be viewed critically, as a space for favoritism and corruption, or favorably, as a space of creative problem-solving. In any case, informal practices consolidate the hold of unaccountable actors on power. This book presents findings from a collaborative and multidisciplinary research project. During a three-year exercise, a group of forty researchers looked at the world of informal practices in nine countries of Southeast Europe. The main strength in their procedures is the reciprocal modification and cross-checking between interviews and media, and the assemblage of comparative quantitative data. In the context of a mismatch between "the way the world is" and the world as described by law, the Balkans add a unique perspective due to a persistent deficit in state legitimacy and capacity. The underlying agenda is to bring Southeast Europe into line with European liberal democracy. The emerging evidence offers a critical assessment of "Europeanization" processes that produce only superficial changes and formal institutional resolutions. The book offers a rich analysis of the array of informal practices that people in the Balkans have resorted to in compensation for the poor implementation of formal reforms.

Eric Gordy is Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Alena Ledeneva is Professor of Politics and Society at the University College London and a founder of the Global Informality Project (in-formality.com). Predrag Cvetičanin is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts, University of Nis, Serbia. He is also the director of the independent research institute Centre for Empirical Studies of Southeast Europe.