Local Governance and the Development of Social Welfare Institutions: Prizren and Kamenicë

Abstract

This chapter, as the one before it, focuses on describing and analyzing the formation and implementation of social policy at the municipal level. In this case, the two municipalities being examined are Prizren in southwest Kosovo and Kamenicë/Kamenica in the northeast.¹ The emphasis in these cases is on the relationship between the development of the functional capacity of local social welfare institutions and demographic instability related to the conflict. I argue that Prizren, much more so than Kamenicë, underwent an intense process of urbanization over the period from roughly 1995 to 2005 that led not only to an increase in the population of Prizren-town, but also to increased political contestation as new groups of incomers challenge the well established elites.² Although urbanization is a long-term trend, the process was intensified in Prizren by the severity of the violent conflict in the area. In Kamenicë urbanization over the long term was less pronounced, and the violence of the conflict was also less intense locally. The differences in the urbanization processes directly affected the political stability of both municipalities, and by extension, the implementation of the social welfare programs.