It is a consequence of the very process of EU accession—vis-à-vis its democracy-promotion strategy—which has created the unintended consequences of state capture and rent-seeking. Rather than democratic institution-building, geopolitical interests such as the recent Russian war in Ukraine, Kosovo, lithium in Serbia and the migrant crisis have all been the catalysts for democratic backsliding.
This rise of state capture and media clientelism thus challenges the very idea of Normative Power Europe (NPE) as an exporter of democratic values and norms to third-world countries. Utilizing a range of interviews (with journalists, media experts, scholars of media studies and politicians) and documentary analysis of secondary and primary sources, the book “State Capture through Media Clientelism in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina” asks whether we can observe a similar trend of state capture—specifically political clientelism vis-à-vis the media—in the newly emerging illiberal democracies in the Balkans as a novelty, or if lessons can be drawn from EU members in the post-accession phase.
The Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities of Kaunas University of Technology invites all faculty members, students, and guests to a book presentation “State Capture through Media Clientelism in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
