![]() All the while, the permanent role of the victim is reserved for the Bosniaks.ĭodik advocates for the establishment of parallel institutions under the veil of the ‘original’ Dayton Agreement. The Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, Milorad Dodik, advocates for, what he calls, the original Dayton agreement Dragan Covic, president of the Croatian Democratic Union, insists on the election law. The relationship towards the agreement is different for each faction. Dayton spawned a political system that is among the most complex in the world.īosnia’s electoral system needs reforming to address several European Court of Human Rights judgements, in particular a ruling that all citizens should be eligible to run for the presidency.įrom then until today, some major reforms have taken place, mostly on initiative and pressure from outside, creating new institutions at the federal level to have a more functional state. The Dayton Accords preserved Bosnia as a single state made up of two parts, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, with Sarajevo remaining as the undivided capital city. In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this is the original Dayton agreement. In the same spirit, unrealistic economic promises and, of course, their non-fulfilment, is easiest to ‘sell’ if they are accompanied by a strong ideological narrative. Their rhetoric runs along the lines of ‘we are successful, everyone envies us, and the great powers want our wealth and intelligence’, the guiding principle of almost every Balkan leader’s political repertoire. Their goal is to manufacture consent for an undisputed acceptance of the leader and his followers, who challenge the legitimacy of others often on religious, ethnic, cultural, or socio-economic grounds. Their tactics include a war against unsuitable media (those that give space to critics), ongoing efforts to control civil society, a siege of state institutions by loyal followers, and the ‘excommunication’ of critics. In the case of BiH, the government follows in the footsteps of ‘democratic’ countries such as Poland, Hungary and Turkey, by reducing the independence of parliamentarians and shifting the power over institutions to the top and into the hands of party leaders: Bakir Izetbegović, Chairman of the Party of Democratic Action (Bosniac party), Milorad Dodik, Chairmain of Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (Serb party), and Dragan Čović, Chairman of Croatian Democratic Union. It is generally associated with neo-patrimonial states, where a framework of formal law and administration exists, but the state is informally trapped by patronage networks. The distribution of public booty takes precedence over the formal functions of the state, severely limiting the ability of public servants to make policies of general interest. In political science, this term refers to the corrupt, autocratic, and often totalitarian rule of states by one person. The design of the institutions of all Balkan countries is the product of individuals, not large groups, which reflects the syndrome of the so-called ‘bigmanism’. After all, when irresponsible political leaders become increasingly autocratic, the average voter feels completely powerless. Their victories are half-hearted, as half of the voters do not want to go to the polls because they do not see a difference in the political offering. The best ‘campaign’ these elites can run is to fuel conflicts and encourage intolerance. ![]() For them, it is politically most profitable to talk about war and to manufacture crises to distract from the lack of results in economic development. ![]() How did it come to this? It has a lot to do with the BiH’s ruling elite. The best ‘campaign’ the local elites can run is to fuel conflicts and encourage intolerance. In the worst scenario, this could lead to its dissolution. This, together with other factors, has led BiH to be on the brink of a complete collapse of its political system after three years of gridlock. The recent threats emerging from the Serb member of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, contribute to BiH’s status as a powder keg, since they risk to upend the delicate balance achieved in the region after the war. The holiday had previously been declared unconstitutional by the country’s highest court. This weekend, Serb politicians were seen lighting matches on 9 January, which marks 30 years since Bosnian Serbs declared their own state in Bosnia in 1992. ![]() This year started – yet again – with the Balkans, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in particular, proving its image as a powder keg about to explode, or, to quote the New York Times, as a ‘tinderbox’.
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