Intersubjective legitimacy and the failure of Kosovo’s authoritarian peace

ABSTRACT

Legitimacy is traditionally the province of peacebuilding schools which pursue positive peace, but it is salient in illiberal contexts too. In this article I make the case that the concept of intersubjective legitimacy gives Authoritarian Conflict Management (ACM) theory the tools to address the processes of (de-)legitimation. It also highlights the interdependence of ACM’sdiscursive, spatial, and economic means of control. This elaborates ACM and thus makes a theoretical contribution to a growing research agenda on illiberal peacebuilding. I make a further, empirical contribution by illustrating my point with a study of the rise and fall of Kosovo’s old guard parties. They constructed an intersubjective environment using the means of ACM that allowed them to legitimate their governance despite grievances. The LVV movement was then able to break the intersubjectivity through actions of de-legitimation. My account therefore de-emphasises the influence of grievances alone and instead foregrounds active performances of legitimation in Kosovo.

KEYWORDS:

• Legitimacy
• peacebuilding
• Kosovo
• authoritarianism
• protest

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. e.g. RAND, The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building. For an overview and critique of liberal evaluations of Kosovo, see Lemay-Hébert, ‘Everyday Legitimacy and International Administration’, 92.

2. Smith, ‘Illiberal Peace-building in Hybrid Political Orders’, 1509–10.

3. Lewis et al., ‘Illiberal Peace?’

4. e.g. Oliveira, ‘Illiberal Peacebuilding in Angola’; Smith, ‘Illiberal peace-building in Asia’; Heathershaw and Owen, ‘Authoritarian Conflict Management in Post-Colonial Eurasia’.

5. Suchman, ‘Managing Legitimacy’, 574.

6. As definitively demonstrated by Dukalskis, Making the World Safe for Dictatorship.

7. Jeffery et al., ‘Understanding Legitimacy’, 179.

8. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power. This characterisation is taken from various parts of his argument, including 11, 18, 82–90.

9. For more on thematic analysis, see Nowell et al., ‘Thematic Analysis’, 4.

10. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’; Dziedzic et al., ‘Kosovo’; Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo.

11. Smith, Illiberal Peace-building in Hybrid Political Orders, 1509–10.

12. Lewis et al., ‘Illiberal Peace?’ 488.

13. Ibid., 487.

14. Oliveira, Illiberal Peacebuilding in Angola.

15. Cf. Höglund and Orjuela, Illiberal Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka, 91; Costantini and Hanau Santini. Power Mediators, 143; Smith, Illiberal Peace-building in Hybrid Political Orders, 1521.

16. Smith, Illiberal Peace-Building in Asia, 4.

17. Aoi and Chandra Thakur, Unintended Consequences of Peacekeeping, 3.

18. Smith, Illiberal Peace-Building in Asia, 4.

19. e.g. Chalermsripinyorat, Dialogue without Negotiation; Heathershaw and Owen, Authoritarian Conflict Management; Constantini and Hanau Santini, Power Mediators.

20. Keen, Assessing Authoritarian Conflict Management.

21. Smith, Illiberal Peace-Building in Asia, 3.

22. Lewis et al., ‘Illiberal Peace?’ 492–3.

23. Ibid., 493–8.

24. Chalermsripinyorat, Dialogue without Negotiation, 78.

25. Oliveira, Illiberal Peacebuilding in Angola; Smith, Peace-Building in East Timor and Papua; Chalermsripinyorat, Dialogue without Negotiation.

26. Eriksen, ‘The Liberal Peace is Neither’, 205.

27. Call and Wyeth, Building States to Build Peace, 6–7.

28. See e.g. UNDP, Governance for Peace; Hartzell, Structuring the Peace.

29. Jahn, The Tragedy of Liberal Diplomacy, 220–3.

30. Pogodda and Richmond, Post-Liberal Peace Transitions, 2–6.

31. Richmond, Peace Formation, 85–7.

32. McCullough, The Legitimacy of States, 7.

33. Ibid.

34. e.g. Richmond, Peace Formation, 24–5.

35. Caspersen, Degrees of Legitimacy, 87–90.

36. Weigand, Afghanistan’s Taliban, 360.

37. Heathershaw, Towards Better Theories of Peacebuilding, 278.

38. Wenner, Legitimization through Patronage; Aguswandi and Patria, Asia’s Perestroika; Roberts, The Superficiality of Statebuilding.

39. Jarvis, The Stabilising Impacts of Corruption, 165.

40. Lewis and Sagnayeva, Corruption, Patronage and Illiberal Peace, 81–4.

41. Lewis et al., ‘Illiberal Peace?’ 493–4.

42. Lemon, ‘Mediating the Conflict in the Rasht Valley, Tajikistan’.

43. Ibid., 6.

44. Lewis, ‘The Myopic Foucauldian Gaze’.

45. See e.g. Jeong, Peacebuilding in Postconflict Societies, 84; PRS Group, ICRG Methodology. 6.

46. AfroBarometer, Democracy in Africa; Gilley, The Determinants of State Legitimacy.

47. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power, 10.

48. Ibid., 11.

49. Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan, 74–9.

50. Ibid., 101–3, 169.

51. Ibid., 64–6.

52. Ibid.

53. Byrne and Klem, Constructing Legitimacy in Post-War Transition, 227–231.

54. Blair, Legitimacy after Violence

55. Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan, 172–3; Beetham, The Legitimation of Power, 1–2.

56. Lyons, From Rebel Victors to Strong Authoritarian Parties, 1033–7.

57. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power, 82–90.

58. Smith, Illiberal Peacebuilding in Hybrid Political Orders, 1510–2.

59. Gippert, ‘Legitimacy and Coercion in Peacebuilding’, 321–2.

60. Von Billerbeck and Gippert, ‘Legitimacy in Conflict’, 280–1.

61. Eriksen, ‘The Liberal Peace is Neither’, 213–214.

62. Lewis, ‘The Myopic Foucauldian Gaze’.

63. Mustafa, The Politics of Citizenship’, 167.

64. Dziedzic et al., ‘The Kosovo Liberation Army’, 166–7.

65. Jonsson, ‘The Kosovo Conflict’, 192–3.

66. Lyons, ‘From Victorious Rebels to Strong Authoritarian Parties’.

67. See e.g. Dziedzic et al., ‘The Kosovo Liberation Army’, 167.

68. Jonsson, ‘The Kosovo Conflict’, 188–90. Cf. Peritt, Kosovo Liberation Army, 93. Peritt argues that the proportion of revenue from smuggling has been exaggerated.

69. Dziedzic et al., ‘The Kosovo Liberation Army’, 159. For the importance of clans, see Duijzings, Religion and the Politics of Identity, 6.

70. Perritt, Kosovo Liberation Army, 154–5.

71. Bellamy, Kosovo and International Society, 10.

72. Dziedzic et al., ‘The Kosovo Liberation Army’, 151.

73. Proksik, ‘EULEX and the Fight Against Organised Crime’, 403–8. Proksik notes large increases in smuggling after Serbia’s exemption of Serb businesses in Kosovo from VAT and sex trafficking to profit from arriving peacekeeping forces.

74. Dziedzic et al., ‘The Kosovo Liberation Army’, 190–1.

75. Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 67–9.

76. Ibid.

77. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 101–3.

78. Mustafa, ‘The Politics of Citizenship’, 167–9.

79. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 98–9.

80. Judah, ‘Kosovo’, 118–9.

81. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 101–2.

82. Mustafa, ‘The Politics of Citizenship’, 163–4.

83. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 104.

84. Jonsson, The Kosovo Conflict, 182–3.

85. Schwandner-Sievers, ‘The Bequest of Ilegalja’, 953.

86. Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 151.

87. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 104; Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 100; Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 105–9.

88. Ibid., 142–3.

89. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 72.

90. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 97–8.

91. Visoka, ‘Shaping Peace in Kosovo’, 85.

92. Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 165.

93. Visoka and Musliu, Unravelling Liberal Interventionism, 23.

94. Beljinac, ‘Constitutional Patriotism in Plural societies’, 377–8.

95. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 105–6.

96. Balkans Group, Serb Integration in Kosovo, 37.

97. Exit, Kosovo President Asks Parliament to Ban New Talks.

98. In 2018, PDK-led government finally circumvented the ethnic veto on reforming the armed forces by expanding it without changing its constitutional position. Balkan Insight, Kosovo Votes KSF Transition into Army.

99. Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 116.

100. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power, 18.

101. ibid.

102. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 100; Ingimundarson, ‘The Politics of Memory’, 104–5.

103. Visoka, ‘International Statebuilding and Local Resistance’, 24–5.

104. Schwandner-Sievers, ‘Democratisation Through Defiance?’ 96.

105. Kurti, Kosova in Dependence, 90.

106. Bucaj, ‘Making the Law’, 88.

107. Rrustemi, ‘Local Voices and Agency’, 113; Luci and Gurcia, ‘Inside-Out and Outside-In’, 134.

108. Schwandner-Sievers, ‘The Bequest of Ilegalja’, 961–2.

109. Schwandner-Sievers, ‘Democratisation Through Defiance?’ 102–3.

110. ibid., 103–6

111. Caspersen, ‘Democracy, Nationalism and (lack of) Sovereignty’, 345.

112. BBC, Kosovo Election; Prishtina Insight, Kurti on LDK.

113. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 118; Nosan, Kosovo’s Vetëvendosje Movement.

114. Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 144–5.

115. Mustafa, ‘The Politics of Citizenship’, 169–70.

116. Luci, ‘Copy Paste’ Independence Day.

117. Skendaj, Creating Kosovo, 161–2.

118. Ibid., 86–7.

119. Ibid.,141–2.

120. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 130–3.

121. Schwandner-Sievers, ‘Democratisation Through Defiance?’ 108.

122. Balkan Insight, Kosovo Braces for Independence Day.

123. Lemay-Hébert, ‘Everyday Legitimacy and International Administration’, 94–7.

124. Beha, ‘Disputes Over the 15-point Agreement,’ 308–10.

125. Visoka, ‘International Statebuilding and Local Resistance , Tajikistan’, 32–5.

126. Visoka, Shaping Peace in Kosovo, 134–6

127. Lemon, ‘Mediating the Conflict in the Rasht Valley’, 19.

128. Balkan Insight, Election without Losers.

129. See e.g. Gusic, ‘Contesting Peace in the Postwar City’.

130. See e.g. Voorhoeve, From War to the Rule of Law, 147–166.

131. From many possible examples, there is the ongoing contestation of the ‘Day of Repulika Srpska’ and the repeated attempts by the SNSD government to fix the border between Republika Srpska and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. See Balkan Insight, Banned Bosnian Serb Celebration and Balkan Insight, Bosnian Serbs Open New Battle respectively.

132. Hronešová, ‘Ethnopopulist Denial and Crime Relativisation’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isaac Grief

Isaac Grief graduated in July 2022 from the University of York with the thesis ‘A Claim-Making Model of the Legitimation of Post-War Governance’. As this suggests, he specialises in the theory of legitimacy and its application to peace- and state-building. Isaac is also a popular writer for World History Encyclopedia. He welcomes any correspondence at [email protected].