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Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, American and Western European efforts to establish stable democracies in the formerly communist states of Central and Eastern Europe have been an overwhelming success by almost any definition. In the two decades since the collapse of single-party dictatorships, 10 nations of the former Soviet bloc have been integrated into Atlantic institutions, promising an unrivaled period of stability and prosperity for the continent.
A series of chronic problems in the new democracies, however, threatens to deny pro-democratic forces in Europe a complete victory. Economic crisis is starving the remaining non-member states of the European Union (EU) of the scale of investment that helped make the democratic transition feasible in other post-communist nations. Moreover, enlargement fatigue and continuing currency crises are distracting the EU from the problems of the Balkans; in this context, the Western Balkans face the prospect of being left behind, or even backsliding, due to a legacy of war, corruption and unaccountable government.
While weak governance at the national level has plagued many of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, experience around the region shows that innovative approaches to improving accountability have been tried at the national and local levels and that local elected officials are often the most forward-thinking in understanding how good governance is also good politics. For this reason, IRI works with select municipalities and civil society partners to create public demand for reform in fiscal governance in three countries in the Western Balkans – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia.
IRI’s program has commissioned two studies, one from Central Europe and one from the Western Balkans, to identify challenges to local governance and propose viable reform models, work with an established network of political parties and leaders and alongside citizen watchdog groups to build web-based fiscal monitoring systems to enhance government transparency and institutional effectiveness at the municipal level, and identify and work alongside municipalities (two from each target country) to serve as examples for implementing reforms that respond to public demand and recommendations from citizen watchdog groups.
The program uses regional experts from new EU member states to work with the municipalities on implementing reform agendas, and develop a network of watchdog groups, reform-minded mayors, and political parties and party representatives that will work collaboratively to develop and promote successful governance reforms. The Institute believes the coupling of increased public demand for better fiscal governance generated by civil society, with positive examples set by responsive, constructive local officials, increases the incentive for other municipalities to embrace similar reform initiatives.
Through the organization of a transnational conference, IRI will bring together municipal officials and civil society partners from each of the three target countries as a way to encourage the sharing of best practices, enhance cooperation and generate new project concepts. Data and input collected by IRI from in depth discussions with various partners will be used to produce case studies of citizen-driven local governance reform. A final study will be commissioned that documents the program’s success, contains recommendations for future replication, and creates a model for civil society oversight of local government.
