Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) Unitary state

History and trends

Macedonia is one of the successor states of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991. It joined the United Nations in 1993 but, due to a dispute over its name with Greece, it was admitted under the provisional description of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Macedonia is a semi-presidential Republic. Its Constitution was adopted on 17 November 1991.

Upon declaring independence, the country emerged unscathed from the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. But the new state remained fragile because of integration-driven tensions between its two dominant communities – the majority Macedonian Slavs (Orthodox Christian) and the minority Albanians (Muslim).

The two communities formed a political alliance to neutralise these tensions, but the problems flared up again during the Kosovo War of spring 1999.

The Ohrid Agreement was a peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia and ethnic Albanian representatives on 8 August 2001. It established a decentralisation policy, partially recognised Albanian as an official language, and granted Albanian-speaking citizens greater representation in government.

In return, the agreement reaffirmed Macedonia’s territorial integrity and its character as a unitary state, and the Albanian rebels agreed to disband the Macedonian National Liberation Army (Macedonian UÇK).

The agreement put an end to the 2001 Macedonian War, in which the Macedonian UÇK fought against the Macedonian army, giving ethnic Albanians greater representation in society and allowing municipalities to adopt any minority language spoken by more than 20% of the population as a second official language.

Local level :

The Republic of Macedonia has just one level of local government, comprising 82 municipalities. The city of Skopje enjoys special status as defined by the constitution. It is divided into 10 municipalities, each with its own council and mayor. Macedonia’s municipalities encompass one or more settlements with similar needs and interests.

Municipalities are geographical and economic entities revolving around an administrative centre. They are created or modified by law, following a local referendum. Each municipality has its own government and a mayor, elected by direct universal suffrage, with remits as defined by law. They have certain local self-government powers, vote on the municipal budget and draw up development plans.

The municipalities can consent to the establishment of lower subdivisions, covering a particular village or neighbourhood, for example. The municipal government determines the powers of such entities, which consequently vary from one municipality to the next. Yet these subdivisions are not political entities. They can only make recommendations to the local government and voluntarily work in the interests of the village or neighbourhood. They may receive funding from the municipality, local citizens or businesses.

Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian minority supports decentralisation in the interest of greater self-government. Yet most ethnic Macedonians are opposed to the creation of regions, arguing that the country is too small for this level of local government to serve any purpose.

Nevertheless, the country was divided into eight statistical regions in 2009. These regions, which have no administrative role, were created to align with the European NUTS system (corresponding to NUTS level 3). Other than their statistical role, the regions are also tasked with coordinating economic development work between municipalities. Each region has a council, made up of the mayors of its constituent municipalities.