Abstract
In the Western Balkans, the last two centuries have witnessed the emergence of genuine nationalist and communist movements as well as the establishment of political regimes corresponding to the respective ideologies. Liberal movements, on the other hand, never gained much significance in the region and liberal parties are either inexistent or lack in electoral support. In light of the ‘European perspective’ of these states, this is highly problematic. The European discourse and the politics of the European Union are, implicitly or explicitly, based on liberal ideas and principles. This talk introduces a larger project dealing with the challenges of liberalism in the highly communitarian Western Balkans and the region’s European accession perspective. More concretely, it will focus on the legacies of Yugoslav socialism and how they shaped and influenced the people’s contemporary perceptions of liberty and liberalism.

Adis Merdzanovic is a Junior Research Fellow at South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on constitutional order in divided post-conflict societies using the perspective of political theory, in particular the theory of consociational democracy. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Early Post-Doc Mobility Programme, he is currently pursuing a project dedicated to the challenges of liberalism in the Western Balkans and the region’s European Perspective.