Indraneel Sircar

Compliance without governance: the role of NGOs in environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia–Herzegovina

Both qualitative and quantitative research suggests that foreign donors (particularly the European Commission) have exerted a positive impact on environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the post-socialist, new member states of Central and Eastern Europe. Green networks have been institutionalised and the foundations for multi-level environmental governance appear to be in place. But to what extent is a similar impact occurring in the so-called ‘potential candidate countries’ of the EU in the Western Balkans? From the perspective of environmental NGOs and their engagement in Environmental Impact Assessment processes in Bosnia–Herzegovina, it appears that the impact of donor-driven capacity building is exaggerated by assessments based on quantitative data. Formal compliance with EU procedures and the existence amongst NGOs of certain ‘capacities’ is not necessarily an indicator of environmental governance.

Environmental politics in the Western Balkans: river basin management and non-governmental organisation (NGO) activity in Herzegovina.

Environmental activism across the Western Balkan successor states of the former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia–Herzegovina and Serbia, remains in its infancy. Compared to the movements of central and Eastern Europe, the development of environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in these states appears to be much slower. From the empirical perspective of non-governmental organisation activity concerning river basin management in Herzegovina, the factors that have determined the pace and nature of environmental politics in the region are explored. The most significant constraints on ENGO activity relate specifically to the political legacy of conflict and the turbulent recent history of this region. The ethnicisation of party politics, the weak regulatory capacity of state authorities and the obfuscation of power, the specific model of political economy and the absence of green politics at the time of the collapse of socialism coalesce to inhibit the emergence of politically engaged and professionalised green advocacy networks.

Europeanisation and multi-level environmental governance in a post-conflict context: the gradual development of environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The post-conflict case of Bosnia-Herzegovina provides a challenging case for the approaches employed by the European Union to bolster state and non-state actor capacities related to environmental governance in post-socialist states. This article examines four major consultative environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to identify factors that either enable or impede the development of multi-level environmental governance at the state and sub-state entity levels. Larger environmental non-governmental organisations provide scientific opinions and smaller organisations lack capacity to participate at all. The complex configuration of state institutions, compounded by inadequate staffing and funding, creates impediments for effective governmental hierarchy during environmental impact assessments. However, international financial institutions and technical consultants involved in environmental impact assessments have taken a pivotal tutelage role to familiarise local stakeholders with best practice, which has led to some improvements in multi-level environmental governance during environmental impact assessments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, though the impact is dependent on staff retention in Bosnian public bodies.

Foreign donor assistance and environmental capacity building: evidence from Serbia and Bosnia–Herzegovina

Early analyses of the impact of donor assistance for NGOs across post-socialist Eurasia documented the extent to which the ubiquitous new NGOs were disconnected from indigenous networks, lacked sustainable resources and capacity, and were accountable to donors rather than citizens and governments. Although this article does not entirely contest such conclusions, it examines the role of NGOs from a different normative perspective based on their role as conduits of change rather than as emblems of democratic participation or liberal representation. However, in its critique, the research does contend that there are three fundamental problems with the earlier, somewhat negative analysis: (i) too much was being expected of NGOs and donor assistance; (ii) scholars were attempting to judge the impact of the intervention far too quickly; and (iii) the focus on democracy and civil society obscured the critical ‘governance’ impact that certain NGOs were having in terms of transforming decision-making and state power ‘behind the scenes’. From the empirical perspective of environmental NGOs in post-conflict Bosnia and Serbia, the paper uses a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods in order to ascertain better the impact of external assistance in terms of particular development skills and strategies employed by recipients. The conclusion reached is that donor funding seems to be exerting a positive longer-term impact on the transactional capacities of a small core of environmental NGOs in both locations. Organizations with the most developed transactional capacities, and the few organizations now able to engage transnationally, have obtained a succession of grants over a number of years and have had their transactional activities have been funded specifically by international donors via block grants. Although this does not necessarily prove a positive relationship between donor funding and transactional capacity, it nevertheless challenges more negative assessments in the existing literature.

Marrying European and Domestic Politics? The Marriage Referendum in Croatia and Value-Based Euroscepticism

Abstract On 1 December 2013, Croatia voted in a referendum on the constitutional definition of marriage. While recent scholarship has highlighted the symbolic nature of the referendum in domestic politics, its European dimension has not been considered. Using Leconte’s notion of value-based Euroscepticism, this article explores the role of European politics in the marriage referendum, using electoral data at the municipal level. The analysis demonstrates that the referendum, at least partly, was a proactive attempt to halt the Europeanisation of same-sex marriage. The article also sheds light on local resistance to EU homonationalist politics.

Activist Citizenship in Southeast Europe

THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS COLLECTION ON PROTEST AND ACTIVIST citizenship in Southeast Europe (SEE)1 delve far beyond discussions about the efficacy and legitimacy of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and social movement organisations that have dominated the study of civil society in post-communism. They focus instead on how certain types of citizenship—most notably ‘activist citizenship’—are forged or not forged; how citizens are drawn into ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin 2008, 2009) other than through joining or supporting established NGOs. The essays illustrate what political scientists find it difficult to uncover— non-institutionalised and non-formal modes of collective action, symbolic politics, cultural challenges, acts of citizenship, and participation that defy notions of ‘weak civil society’ (Rose 2001; Crotty 2003; Howard 2003) or the ‘NGO-isation’ of civil society spaces (Jacobsson & Saxonberg 2013). They each critique the NGO-isation thesis—the dominance in post-communist states of externally funded, apolitical, and non-participatory professional organisations focused on policy and governance (Quigley 2000; Wedel 2001; Mandel 2002)—by illustrating the activism that takes place outside of NGOs or completely separate from them. They thus contest the assertion that NGOs have colonised the civil society space and interrogate the notion that a premature institutionalisation of civil society organisations has killed off political activism and any vestige of radicalism. Each case study highlights the extent to which a rejection, or at least a suspicion, of the institutions of liberal democracy as the mechanisms for political participation underpins much of the activism. This in itself does not make the SEE states under scrutiny here particularly unusual. Cultural protest and non-institutionalised forms of activism have long been seen in established Western democracies (Melucci 1988) and have, as Dolenec et al. observe, become a global phenomenon since the financial crisis of 2008. What, then, is surprising or specific about contemporary activism in these countries? First and foremost, it is that this level of civic engagement and activist citizenship is occurring in countries that we were told had ‘weak’ civil societies and very little civic participation (Petrova & Tarrow 2007). Citizens were apparently politically timid due to the lingering legacy of Soviet-style authoritarianism, because of their failure to fully grasp democratic politics, or

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Processes in Serbia

Unlike the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), there is a long and well-established institutional legacy of environmental governance, and governance more generally, in Serbia. As outlined in the previous chapter, the governmental structures in Serbia are highly centralized at the state level, with minimal responsibilities at the municipal level and no intermediate level of governance. The exception to this is the autonomous province of Vojvodina with limited autonomy in selected areas, though these competencies were curtailed in the amended statute in May 2014. Because of existing governance capacities, the objective of Europeanization in Serbia was not one of state consolidation and creation, but rather to transform or rehabilitate authoritarian modes of government into practices that adhere to European democratic standards. In the period after the end of the Milosevic-led regime, a number of reforms were passed, including new environmental legislation.

Europeanizing Environmental Governance

This first chapter sets out to capture the theoretical and practical challenges of Europeanizing environmental governance in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The objective is to construct a conceptual framework for examining the impact of Europeanization on environmental governance that anticipates the type of impact that the EU is likely to exert — based on the experience of the 2004, 2007, and 2013 Eastern enlargements — and to analyze the process of transformation, the agency of domestic and international actors, the role of institutions, and the various constraints that are likely to determine the pace of change.

The Curious Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina

This chapter will start by providing background information for the complex, post-conflict, and ethno-territorially fragmented country of BiH, which will be followed by a detailed mapping of state and nonstate capacities in multi-level environmental governance. Unlike the other republics within the federal Yugoslavia, BiH had more than one constituent national group, and the 1974 constitution recognized that the republic was home to Serbs, Croats, and Muslims (Bosniaks). After a referendum in February 1992 (boycotted by Serbs) passed to secede from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) intervened in BiH, and hostilities escalated into full-blown inter-ethnic conflict.

From Pariah to Partner? The Case of Serbia

The trajectory of Serbia during the first decade of the 21st century is quite remarkable: from an authoritarian state led by Slobodan Milosevic blamed for much of the violence in BiH and Kosovo,2 to a post-authoritarian state still controlled by shadowy elements of the former regime who were hiding war-crimes suspects, and finally a credible candidate for future accession into the EU. Unlike its Western Balkans neighbours, Serbia benefitted from a long legacy of state institutions and technical capacities, and largely inherited the public administration from Yugoslavia. This chapter will provide relevant background information, which will be followed by a mapping of the state and non-state capacities for multi-level environmental governance.