Constitutions Octroyées And International State-Building: The Macedonian Case in Focus

Abstract

This article critically examines international state-building efforts through (imposed constitutions) and constitutional revisions, a phenomenon that gains a reinvigorated significance in the modern world. The analysis differentiate the constitutions octroyées (imposed constitutions) and constitutional engineering. The empirical focus is on the peculiar Macedonian case study. The main hypothesis is that the recent constitutional history (1991–2021) involves both phenomena with a disastrous outcome of an unfinished state: what started as constitutional engineering has ended up with imposed constitutional changes, thus gradually diminishing and cancelling popular sovereignty. The process is ongoing, and the perspectives of the state are grim and paradoxical: more constitutional changes, fewer statehood elements.