ABSTRACT
Even after the first multi-party elections in South Eastern Europe, semi-authoritarian rule persisted for most of the 1990s to a greater extent than in Central Europe. Some of these semi-authoritarian rulers were part of the communist nomenclature which had managed to transition into the post-communist period. This chapter explores the nature of this difficult transition and examines key explanations offered in the literature. It focuses on the post-Yugoslav republics, but also considers the wider post-communist South Eastern European context and thus seeks to identify not just post-Yugoslav particularities of transition, but also highlights commonalities with other countries. The focus on Central Europe and the 'successful' cases of democratic transformation has resulted in a research bias that often results in looking at South Eastern Europe as merely the case of failure or incomplete democratisation, often shaped by Balkanizing perspectives on the region.
