State Capture through Media Clientelism in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Challenges to Normative Power Europe (Politics, Media and Political Communication)

State Capture through Media Clientelism in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Challenges to Normative Power Europe contributes to the understanding of the rise of stabilitocracies and competitive authoritarian regimes in the Western Balkans by examining the case of freedom and independence of the media. State capture is explored through freedom of the media and capture of media outlets by the government in two candidates for European Union (EU) accession-Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.The book argues that this 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 Normativ