The Historical and Political Context of State Formation and State-Building Process in Kosovo
| Author | Mexhit Shaqiri |
| Position | University of Pristina, Kosovo |
| Pages | 103-117 |
Vo
l.
5
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o
. 1
M
arch, 201
9
ISS
N 2410-391
8
A
cces on
l
ine at www.ii
p
cc
l
.or
g
1
03
A
cademic Journal o
f
Business,
A
dministration, Law and Social Sciences
II
PCCL Publishin
g
, Graz-
A
ustria
The Historical and Political Context of State Formation and State-Buildin
g
P
r
o
c
e
ss
i
n K
o
s
o
v
o
M
ex
h
it S
h
a
q
ir
i
U
niversity o
f
Pristina, Kosovo
Ab
str
a
ct
I
n the modern era, the state constitutes one of the most important factors in determining social
p
rocesses and phenomena.
I
ts mechanisms, which have gradually developed and become
m
ore and more complex, a ect almost every sphere of social life.
A
s a result, the central focus
o
f
all political ideologies o
f
modernity is exactly this state dimension, the dimension o
f
its
r
elationship with the society, its expansion and limitations. Thus, the process of state building
i
n essence is one o
f
the most complex processes that a particular society might undergo.
T
he aim of this paper is to examine this process in the context of Kosovo society in order to
i
dentify the specifi cs and character of this process. The paper is structured in two basic parts.
T
he fi rst part will elaborate the modern concept of the state, as well as the general concept o
f
s
tate-building while the second part will conduct an analysis of the historical and political
context, from which the process of state formation of Kosovo has derived.
T
he results of this paper are presented through the theoretical analysis which is based, inter
a
lia, on the comparative method, content analysis, historical method, re
f
erring to well-known
a
uthors of the fi eld, documents and historical processes that illustrate the context and process
o
f
state
f
ormation and state building in Kosovo, having as its main goal the addressing o
f
a
p
articular dimension of the state, namely the dimension of its relationship with the society.
Ke
y
words: political ideologies o
f
modernity, state-building process, historical and political
context,
K
osovo
.
I
ntr
odu
ct
io
n
T
he conce
p
t o
f
the state constitutes one o
f
the most im
p
ortant conce
p
ts not onl
y
in
socio
l
ogica
l
researc
h
an
d
t
h
eor
y
,
b
ut in a
ll
socia
l
sciences t
h
at stu
dy
t
h
e organize
d
re
l
ations
h
i
p
s in societ
y
. T
h
roug
h
t
h
is conce
p
t, socia
l
sciences an
d
societies t
h
emse
l
ves
e
x
p
ress wa
y
s o
f
organizing and distributing
p
ower in social li
f
e.
A
lthough the
o
rganization o
f
p
ower is dee
p
l
y
rooted in histor
y
and to the social grou
p
s o
f
the
Neolithic
p
eriod, the term "state" is a relativel
y
late term and relates to the beginnings
of
E
uro
p
ean modernit
y
. Technicall
y
, the term
state
is use
d
by
sc
h
o
l
ars to
d
escri
b
e
f
orms o
f
p
olitical organization in
p
re-modern societies, which do not recognize this
t
erm.
A
ccording to the French
p
hiloso
p
her Claude Le
f
ort, modernit
y
begins with the
s
o-called "
p
rocess o
f
embodiment", a
p
rocess o
f
unraveling or se
p
arating the various
sp
heres o
f
human activit
y
f
rom one another and constituting them as autonomous
sp
heres with their internal logic o
f
f
unctioning (Le
f
ort, 1986).
I
n this context, one
o
f
the most im
p
ortant se
p
arations is between the
p
olitical and the social s
p
heres,
w
h
ic
h
sometimes a
l
so come as a se
p
aration
b
etween t
h
e
p
u
bl
ic an
d
civi
l
s
ph
eres,
which is a major
f
eature o
f
liberal
p
olitical thought.
I
t is this division that creates
t
he conditions
f
or the birth o
f
the modern conce
p
t o
f
the state, which re
f
ers to an
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