NATION BUILDING AT THE SUB-STATE LEVEL

Abstract

The process of nation-building at the sub-state or sub-state level is a difficult and complicated process that, in addition to members of minority groups, includes a number of actors such as political elites, the home state and international organizations. The comprehensiveness and diversity of the actors involved in this process are not a guarantee of its success.

Nation-building at the sub-state level should be seen in the context of the majority nation-building process, because it arises as a reaction to it. The dialectic of majority building and sub-state building of the nation coincides in certain aspects, but there are also significant deviations. A limiting factor in both processes is the rights of minority groups. Guaranteeing minority rights is a necessary condition for the legitimacy of majority nation-building, while on the other hand, the rights of internal national minorities in certain territories or regions that insist on autonomy and independence are an indicator that shows the direction in which nation-building is going at the sub-state level. Kosovo, after the Declaration of Independence in 2008, represents an example of illiberal nation-building at the sub-state level, which aims to weaken the minority community of Serbs in Kosovo.

Multinational states face the problem of nation-building at the sub-state level. In political theory, the question is open: why in the process of globalization do sub-state nations gain importance when state sovereignty weakens? This is precisely the main argument, because minority groups maximize their political demands in crisis situations of the host country, i.e. in moments when its sovereignty is being challenged. The example of the Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as in the south of Serbia and in North Macedonia clearly point to this.