Paper short abstract:

How do those on the receiving end of governance provision engage with multiple sources of public authority? I find that in Kosovo, the language of ‘survival’ and ‘victimhood’ with regard to ‘parallel’ public services has both constrained individual agency and buttressed community solidarity.

Paper long abstract:

Recent work has highlighted that even in the most enfeebled state public goods and services are being provided, though often not by the state itself. Much of the literature has focused on the authorities providing these goods rather than the agency of those on the receiving end.

Less examined, however, is how governance, authority, and claims to legitimacy are experienced from 'the bottom up'. In cases where there is a plurality of actors, how do the supposed beneficiaries (or victims) of governance engage with these multiple sources of public authority? Why would they choose one over the other? These decisions are important. Whether individuals choose to engage or not with the public goods provided by competing public authorities is a crucial component in how these actors seek to legitimate themselves. This in turn has a critical role to play in determining the governance landscape and the particular contours of the state formation process itself.

The recent history of Kosovo provides an opportunity to approach these questions. This study focuses on how various public services were delivered over two broad periods of 'governance pluralism' in Kosovo, from the Kosovar Albanian 'parallel state' of the Milosevic era to the present state of Kosovo's independence and rise and persistence of the Kosovar Serb 'parallel institutions'. This study aims to understand the motivations and decision-making processes of Serbs and Albanians in interactions with health, education and justice providers. It finds that decisions were, and continue to be, mediated through metaphors of 'survival' and 'victimhood'.