What question did this study set out to answer?

To critically assess the power-sharing model implemented in Macedonia post-2001 and its ramifications.

April 29, 2026

The Power-Sharing Model in Theory and Practice: Lessons from Post-Conflict Macedonia (2001–2019)

Key Points

To critically assess the power-sharing model implemented in Macedonia post-2001 and its ramifications.
Analyzed constitutional changes following the Ohrid Peace Agreement
Examined the role of ethnic quotas and proportionality in governance
Investigated the implications of corruption and human rights abuses under the model.
The power-sharing model altered Macedonia's political system significantly
Corruption emerged as a major issue within the governance structure
Human rights violations were linked to the abuse of power and government surveillance practices.

Abstract

The Ohrid Peace Agreement, signed between the central government in Skopje and the guerrilla army of ethnic Albanians after the armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia in 2001, has largely changed the constitutional framework of the previous political system. The so-called Westminster, or majoritarian, democracy established by the 1991 Constitution, which favoured the country’s ethnic majority (the Macedonians amount to 64% of the population), was fundamentally changed. A new model has been set up, known in political theory and practice relevant to such situations, as power-sharing. In the last 18 years, this model has demonstrated its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Under the umbrella of the so-called international community, which invested in the stabilization of this part of the Balkans (especially in Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia), this model of ethnic quotas and proportionality, decentralization, preferential policies and right of minority veto, contributed to inter-ethnic peace and a fragile balance of power. But the past 19 years has been a sufficiently long time for a critical assessment of the model, which has turned out to be largely reduced to corrupt governance. On February 9, 2015, the opposition party, Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM) publicly released a total of 36 packets of illegally made recordings of telephone conversations, including those of the Prime Minister, government ministers, holders of high public offices, mayors, deputies, the parliamentary speaker, opposition leaders, judges, the public prosecutor, civil servants, journalists, editors and media owners. These recordings had been made by the national intelligence services, at that time controlled by the ruling right-wing party VMRO-DPMNE (IMRO-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity). As a result of this massive abuse of human rights, after the elections in December 2016, VMRO-DPMNE was unable to form a government and the mandate was handed to the party with the second largest number of votes, SDSM (

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