ABSTRACT
Macedonia's decentralisation seems directly to address many of the political, cultural status, social and economic inequalities experienced by the Albanian community during the decade after the Republic's independence in 1991. Decentralisation may also contribute indirectly to addressing underlying sources of insecurity, such as socio-economic inequalities, that make Macedonia prone to group-based conflict. The Republic of Macedonia became an independent state in September 1991. The most southerly located of the former Yugoslav republics, Macedonia shares borders with Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo and Serbia, and its ethnically diverse population, although totalling a mere 2 million, reflects the cultural diversity of the region and a legacy of shifting borders and empirical conquests. The greater emphasis placed on individual as opposed to collective rights in the 1991 Constitution also adversely affected the cultural status of Macedonia's non-majority groups; particularly in the eyes of the Albanian community.
