Symbolic politics theory created by Stuart J. Kaufman attempts to give an explanation on what makes people engage in ethnic wars and genocide by combining some rationalist thoughts with social-psychological ideas. This study analyzes the symbolic politics theory by qualitive methods using the war in Kosovo and the peaceful declaration of independence in North Macedonia as cases selected thru strategic selection.
The result of this study shows that symbolic politics theory can help to understand what causes people to follow their chauvinist leaders into ethnic violence by referring to historical nationalistic myths with the use of symbols to create fear and hostility. The theory therefore helps to understand the sequence of events that eventually resulted in the war over Kosovo 1998-1999 thru this study. The result of this study also shows that symbolic politics theory can help to understand why the declaration of independence in North Macedonia did not result in violence or war, even though the premisses in the country where much the same to other war tourn countries in the Balkans at the time. Results show that elites in North Macedonia chose a different path to achieve independence unlike their neighbouring countries in the Balkans. By identifying the destructive ways of using symbols referring to historical myths to create fear and hostility towards another ethnic group, North Macedonia instead displayed an including path and an effort to meet the different needs of different ethnic groups within their own borders.