Transformation Processes in the Yugoslav Successor States between Marginalization and European Integration

The book deals with the problems the Yugoslav successor states have experienced in the last decade’s transformation process.
Being the "heirs" of a state that was destroyed through means of political engineering and by brutal force their way was a difficult one from the start. Other than many of the Eastern European countries the forceful disintegration crippeled the necessary transformation of their political and economic systems. Especially those of them that experienced war against their state were preoccupied with territorial integrity and could pay much lesser attention to internal reforms whereas those that waged war found it a perfect excuse to hold all reforms. Not only was the forceful disintegration of former Yugoslavia very costly in material as well as in immaterial terms it also destroyed common economic and political structures many of them beyond repair thereby forcing all the successor states to economically and politically reorientate. As a result those of the successor states that preserved state integrity and internally democratized managed to overcome transformation barriers much quicker and to a much higher extent than others setting an example to those that are lagging behind.