ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the implementation, rather than just the design, of decentralisation in Macedonia contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the challenges facing different forms of territorial self-governance in the longer term. It demonstrates how the prevalence of clientelism at both the central and local levels, together with limited fiscal autonomy, can undermine the reform's potential to grant meaningful self-government to territorially concentrated minority ethnic groups. In the twenty-first century the question has become whether there is a distinctively Macedonian answer to ethnic conflict. Macedonia, as it is known to the world, apart from Greek officials who insist on labelling it FYROM (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), experienced ethnic conflict during the spring and summer of 2001. Macedonians and Albanians residing in small numbers in municipalities where another ethnic community may be in the majority are subject to a similar fate.
