scholarly journals Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies: Consociational Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sanne Hupkes
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Consociational Democracy

scholarly journals What is a Normal Democracy?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Brendan O'Leary
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Constitutional Design ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Practical Solution ◽  
Consociational Democracy ◽  
European Court

The author argues there is no such thing as a "normal democracy", and that the decision made by the European Court of Human Rights in Sejdić-Finci case does not pay enough respect to consociational democracy as one of the legitimate forms of democracy. As human rights have to be balanced against one another, they also have to be balanced against other values, including peace and stability. As the practical solution in the election of the three-person collective Presidency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author suggests three separate electoral colleges in the three territorial districts that would settle the tension between the politically viable power-sharing arrangements and the demand to respect human rights. The author concludes that more moral modesty is in place when foreign political advice in democratic constitutional design is issued for the divided societies.

“Does Džeko Live in Bosnia and Herzegovina?”: Demographics as a Hostage of Ethno-politics in the 2013 Census

2020 ◽  
pp. 088832542094111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondřej Žíla ◽  
Petr Čermák
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Ethnic Quotas ◽  
Post War ◽  
Republika Srpska

In ethnically divided societies and political systems organized according to the principles of consociationalism, demography plays a crucial role as a powerful tool for promoting ethno-political interests. The aim of this article is to evaluate to what extent the first post-war 2013 census in Bosnia and Herzegovina became a hostage to the principle of ethno-politics. This study is grounded in Horowitz’s analysis of censuses in deeply divided societies, which assumes that ethnic identity in fragmented societies provides an explanation of who people vote for, and the reverse. We use the data on ethnic voting in 2014 as an indirect estimate of the ethnic structure of the population to verify the 2013 census findings. To do so, we determine the extent to which people enumerated as residents in the 2013 census actually live at the places they were counted, as required by the census law. Although we found that the indirect estimate of ethnic demography based on ethnic voting is largely in line with the census results, we also identified specific structural discrepancies between census results and voting patterns that indicate possible flaws in the census data in general. The method we used revealed significant territorial discrepancies, bringing into question the validity of the census data about the presence of Bosniak and Croat returnees in the Republika Srpska, and especially for Croats across Bosnia and Herzegovina. We argue that these discrepancies may have significant political consequences for the fragile Bosnian power-sharing system based on ethnic quotas and proportionality.

Discursive democracy and the challenge of state building in divided societies: reckoning with symbolic capital in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Ivie ◽  
Timothy William Waters
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
State Building ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Discursive Democracy ◽  
Political Communities

Current approaches to democratic state building place serious conceptual limits on policy options. A democratic future for Bosnia's people will require far more searching engagement with identity formation and its politicization than reform efforts have so far contemplated. Theories of discursive democracy illuminate how this might be possible. We deploy the discursive idea of symbolic capital to show how one might identify the lines along which people in Bosnia could constitute meaningful, internally legitimated political communities - or that would indicate the experiment was not worth attempting. Unless advocates of democratic state building can articulate, rather than assume, a sufficiency of common ground among the populations’ multiple, overlapping and conflicting identities, they may have to revert to the default of separate political communities.

Bosnian Days of Reckoning: Review of the Sequence of Protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013–14, and Future Prospects of Resistance

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asim Mujkić
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Ethnic Boundaries ◽  
Political Structures

The purpose of this text is to explore the possibilities of civic resistance and struggle in the context of ethnonational, deeply divided societies such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the light of its June 2013 ‘jmbg’ (citizen’s identity number) and ‘February 2014’ protests. The 2013 and 2014 protests occurred not only in Sarajevo, but also elsewhere in the country, and, to some extent, crossed the entity and its ethnic boundaries. If viewed in the context of regional uprisings from Maribor (Slovenia) via Athens to Taksim (Turkey), the Bosnian sequence of protests shared with them some common ground, or a similar cause – that is, the protests were against social injustice and the system that produces laws and political structures that maintain their hegemonic privileges and hierarchy. The analysis of protests in Bosnia provided in this text will also offer insights into some alternatives in articulating the new democratic counter-power that go beyond ethnonationalistic confines.

scholarly journals The Mobilization for Spatial Justice in Divided Societies: Urban Commons, Trust Reconstruction, and Socialist Memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110051
Author(s):  
Chiara Milan
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Community Ties ◽  
Post War ◽  
Urban Commons

The article contributes to the urban studies literature and the study of social movements in divided societies by disclosing the distinctive features and mobilizing potential that the notion of urban commons retains in a war-torn society with a socialist legacy. Specifically, it investigates how urban space and urban commons are reclaimed in a post-conflict and post-socialist country such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. By using Sarajevo as a case study, the article explores several grassroots initiatives undertaken by local urban activists to reappropriate cultural buildings and public space in the city. The study discloses that in a post-conflict and post-socialist society urban commons can bear a unifying potential as acts of commoning favor trust reconstruction processes and strengthen community ties. While the erosion of social ties and the legacy of the war might not encourage mobilization for the commons, the reference to socialist-era practices and language can represent a vantage point to advocate in favor of collective governance. Throughout their actions, urban activists instrumentally referred to the historical experience of socialism to develop a discourse that resonates with the domestic cultural environment. The article points also to a generational difference amongst activists in their references to Yugoslav state socialism. While long-time activists strove to critically reappraise it, the younger ones born in the immediate post-war period appear to hold a more superficial and ambivalent historical knowledge of the socialist heritage, to which they had only partial access and no lived experience.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF THE ELECTORAL LAWS ON ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 73-88
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Weak Correlation ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
National Community ◽  
Electoral Laws ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Impact

Electoral laws governing the election of members to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina roughly follow the consociational model of institutional arrangements in ethnically divided societies. The existing laws have been widely criticized since its introduction in 1996. Most problematic is the restriction of passive and active voting rights of segments of the electorate. The legislation makes it impossible for voters to vote for representatives of their nationality or to run as candidates for their own national community. In this article, we want to investigate whether the dissatisfaction of this group of voter’s manifests in lower voter turnout and a larger number of invalid ballots. Analysis of election results in the 2018 election reveals a weak correlation between the share of “unrepresented voters” and voter turnout. Consequently, it can be argued that voter dissatisfaction with the electoral system is not reflected in reduced voter turnout. The opposite is true for the share of invalid ballots. The share of “unrepresented voters” and the share of invalid ballots shows a moderately strong correlation. Consequently, we can conclude that many voters, who are prevented by the electoral system from voting for a representative of their nationality, express their protest by casting an invalid ballot.

Reforming Belgium’s Federalism: Comparing the Views of MPs and Voters

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 460-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Reuchamps ◽  
Dave Sinardet ◽  
Jérémy Dodeigne ◽  
Didier Caluwaerts
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
Consociational Democracy

Consociational theory posits that political elites in divided societies will show a stronger ‘spirit of accommodation’ than the groups they represent, and that this prudent leadership on behalf of the elites explains why divided societies hold together. Belgium has long been considered to be one of the best examples of such a consociational democracy. Yet in this country the spirit of accommodation of prudent leaders was questioned and discussed publicly during the 2010–11 political gridlock. The question is therefore whether Belgian political elites are indeed less radical and hold less extreme views than voters, as suggested by consociational theory. To explore this question, this article relies on survey data gathered during the historically long government negotiations of 2010–11 between members of all six Belgian assemblies. This original data set on MPs is compared with data on voters gathered in 2009 and 2014 in order to contrast their views on the reform of Belgium’s federalism. The results show that voters are less radical than MPs on this question, but the data also reveal that MPs are strongly divided within communities and also within party. Neither communities nor parties are monolithic blocks.

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