Ottomans Into Europeans

Book excerpt: Wim Van Meurs and Alina Mungiu-Pippidi have completed the first book on the history of institutions in the Balkans, commissioning a host of experts to write on the bureaucracies, judiciaries, democratic elections, free media, and local and central governments that rule the region. The essays in this volume examine the selection, evolution, and performance of such entities within a post-Ottoman Balkan state and account for their regional variations. At the same time, they address the commonalities and differences between individual countries in Southeastern and Western Europe, deciphering their institutional arrangements and choices. Contributors pursue two key issues: Did the post-Ottoman wave of Europeanization and Western-style institution building fail in the Balkans, and does this explain the region's continuing political fragility? And will the underlying factors that contributed to this failure resurface in future attempts to reintegrate the region?