Imagined Institutions: The Symbolic Power of Formal Rules in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Slavic Review ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 944-969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlo Basta
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Stated Preference ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Post War ◽  
Political Communities

Through a detailed examination of institutional discourses in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article demonstrates that formal political institutions may play a more layered role than is allowed by existing theories of nationalist and ethnic conflict. Competing institutional preferences of Bosniak, Serb, and Croat elites are not simply instruments for the achievement of collective or individual goals. They are symbolically salient expressions of collective identity as well. For Bosniak elites, the stated preference for a non-ethnicized territorial framework and majoritarian central government suggest the vision of a multiethnic, but not institutionally multinational,Bosnianpolitical community. Their Serb and Croat counterparts, by contrast, insist on the continued “ethnicization” of the territorial architecture and the central government apparatus. These preferences express an understanding of Bosnia as a state of three discrete political communities. Any attempts at comprehensive institutional reform must thus reckon with the opposing and deeply embedded visions of institutions-as-symbols. The theoretical implications of this work go well beyond the Bosnian case.

ANGER AND EMPATHY: BUILDING IDETICS IN INTERGENERATIONAL POLITICAL COMMUNITIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Y.A. Pustovoyt ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Emotional Component ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
New Generation

In the article are considered questions of modern political processes within the framework of concepts that focus on the formation of individual and collective identity, conscious or unconscious, expressed in concentrated form, correlation themselves to certain social groups on the basis of different criteria. Within the theoretical approaches of F. Fukiyama, J. Gold-stone, and A. Hockshild, the author examines the emotional component of the group identification process and its significance for self-determination. The analysis of empirical data (observations and interviews) collected over the past six years on power coalitions and protest communities in Siberian cities leads to a preliminary conclusion about the formation of a new type of political identity. Its characteristic features are an increased emphasis on individual and collective emotional experiences that take precedence over traditional class, ethnic and territorial demands and goals, a focus on empathy rather than anger, a search for allies by feeling, not the interests. In the coming years, political generations will change by naturally and since the new generation was formed in fundamentally different conditions, got a different socialization than their predecessors, another serious transformation of social and political institutions is possible.

scholarly journals Modern Political History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-39
Author(s):  
Ešref Kenan Rašidagić
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Political History ◽  
International Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Political Economic

Since Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence in 1995, its path has been a rocky one. Unwillingness by the international community to stand by the central government and stand in the way of the neighboring states of Serbia and Croatia’s territorial pretensions, produced a succession of ceasefire agreements, culminating in the final, Dayton Peace Agreement. Each of these agreements espoused the ethnic principle as the guiding philosophy for the organization of the state. The post-war period demonstrates that despite the passage of time, the principle of organization of multi-ethnic state along ethnic lines presents a stumbling block to the functioning of the political, economic and social life in the country. The political history of post-independence Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) therefore reads as a history of protracted political paralysis, with no hope of rectifying the problems without another forceful intervention of the international community.

Realism and Idealism in Avicenna's Political Philosophy

1979 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-577
Author(s):  
Miriam Galston
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Complete Form ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Political Decisionmaking

The legitimate goals of political communities and the proper objectives of law have been themes of political philosophy since its inception. Philosophers' disagreements about the nature of political life and law have occasioned divergent accounts of the best or ideal government and have generated an even deeper controversy as to whether the best case should be the measure of political phenomena in the first place. For the purpose of analysis, three kinds of political theories can be distinguished. Characteristic of the first kind is the belief that people can attain a wide range of excellences and that the function of a political community is to foster in a direct manner the best or most complete form of human excellence, regardless of how rare the individuals who profit from this guidance. Accordingly, a central concern of “idealistic” or “utopian” political philosophy is elaborating the nature of the absolutely best political order and the conditions of its emergence. Among the central activities of governments so conceived are moral and intellectual education, as presented, for example, in the works of Plato and Aristotle. A second kind of political theory shares the belief in a multiplicity of hierarchically ranked human ends but denies that the highest possibility for human development should serve as the foremost principle determining political institutions and governing political decisionmaking.

Institutions and Political Support

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Expectation ◽  
Using Data

This chapter analyzes to what extent variation in political institutions affects political support. The chapter observes that the existing research is not always clear on which institutions should produce what kind of effect, although a general expectation is that institutional arrangements improve political support when they give citizens an increased sense of connection to the political process. In general then, we should expect institutions that strengthen the quality of representation to strengthen political support. This general expectation is specified in six hypotheses that are tested using data from the ESS 2012. The chapter demonstrates that electoral systems that provide voters with more choice about candidates, multiparty governments, and “responsive” legislatures, correlate positively with political support. However, compared to other macro-level factors and individual characteristics, the effects of political institutions on political support are modest. The chapter concludes that the prospects for institutional reform to strengthen political support are limited.

Youthful victimization in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina: A multi-level analysis of a national sample

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082098882
Author(s):  
Carter Rees ◽  
L Thomas Winfree
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Group Threat ◽  
Peace Accord ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Post War ◽  
Threat Theory

Intra-national conflicts with racial or ethnic elements can complicate post-war reconciliation. From 1992 to 1995, much of the former Yugoslavia, a nation largely drawn from three distinct ethnic groups, was embroiled in such a conflict. After the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord, it was feared that schools would become a surrogate battlefield for school-aged children within the newly created nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Group threat theory and the imbalance of power thesis provide differing views on such conflicts. Group threat theory posits that as a population – in this case a school – approaches maximum ethnic diversity, the residents – in this case the students – will feel increasingly threatened, resulting in higher cross-group victimizations. The imbalance of power thesis suggests that a group’s decision to victimize another group depends on the relative lack of ethnic diversity: The extent to which one ethnic group dominates a school, the likelihood of victimization of any smaller groups increases. We explore which of these two theories best explains victimization levels within a sample of 2003 school-aged BiH adolescents born in areas dominated by Muslim Bosnians, Eastern Orthodox Serbians, or Roman Catholic Croatians. We find that there is an ethnic component to victimizations: students born in Serbia face higher levels of victimization than do their Bosnian-born counterparts under conditions that fit better with group threat theory than the imbalance of power thesis. We speculate about the significance of these findings for national ethnic harmony in BiH.

Community Building within a Festival Frame: Working-Class Celebrations in Germany, 1918–1933

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHIAS WARSTAT
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Cultural Performances ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Theatrical Strategies

The concept of festival can help to understand the framework within which political community building took place in Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the methods employed in doing so. Political communities were established within different kinds of cultural performances such as gatherings, demonstrations, party conventions, and – most frequently – political celebrations, which obtained a festival-like structure. Referring to examples from the labour movement, this article examines different techniques of creating communities and discusses the impact of theatrical strategies and certain types of theatre in this crucial field of modern politics.

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