Preface; Abbreviations; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: A Sectorial Contextual Approach to the Effects of EU Membership Conditionality on Eastern European Institutional Reforms; Chapter 3: Constitutional Reforms in Albania and Macedonia: Conditioning Consociational Practices for EU and Domestic Democratic Stability; Chapter 4: Local Decentralization Reform; Chapter 5: Judicial Reforms; Chapter 6: Asylum Reforms; Chapter 7: Beyond Reforms; Chapter 8: Conclusions; Appendix A: The Demographic Dynamic of Macedonia since 1981; Appendix B: Ohrid Framework Agreement; Appendix C: Analysis of the Fulfillment of the the European Commission's Recommendations to Albania, November 2010, According to 2011 and 2012 Progress Reports; Appendix D: Geographic and Political Divisions of Historical Macedonia; Notes; References; Index

This book analyzes the effects of European Union membership conditionality on institutional reforms in Eastern Europe, building on concrete examples from four sectors in Albania and Macedonia, two postcommunist countries that have yet to join the EU. The author discusses the theory of "consociational democracy," often considered the key to stabilizing deeply divided countries, and reapplies it on the international stage to argue for how the EU can better direct democratization.