Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T08:21:44.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Robert L. Ivie  and
Timothy William Waters
Robert L. Ivie
Affiliation:
Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. Email: rivie@indiana.edu;
Timothy William Waters
Affiliation:
Maurer School of Law, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. Email: tjwaters@indiana.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Keywords

discursive democracystate buildingBosniasymbolic capital
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , July 2010 , pp. 449 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso, 1983. Print.Google Scholar
Andreas, Peter. “Criminalized Legacies of War: The Clandestine Political Economy of the Western Balkans.” Problems of Post-Communism 51.3 (2004): 3–9. Print.Google Scholar
ní Aoláin, Fionnuala. “The Fractured Soul of the Dayton Peace Agreement.” Michigan Journal of International Law 19 (Summer 1998): 957–1002. Print.Google Scholar
Bakke, Kristen, Cao, Xun, O'Loughlin, John, and Ward, Michael D. “Social Distance in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the North Caucasus Region of Russia: Inter and Intra-ethnic Attitudes and Identities.” Nations and Nationalism 15.2 (2009): 227–53. Print.Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla. “Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy.” Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political. Ed. Benhabib, Seyla. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Bieber, Florian. “After Dayton, Dayton? The Evolution of an Unpopular Peace.” Ethnopolitics 5.1 (2006): 15–31. Print.Google Scholar
Bieber, Florian. “The Challenge of Democracy in Divided Societies.” Reconstructing Multiethnic Societies: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ed. Sokolović, Džemal and Bieber, Florian. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Bilefsky, Dan. “Bosnian Serbs and Envoy are at Odds on Powers.” New York Times 19 June 2009. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/world/europe/20bosnia.html?_r=1>>Google Scholar
Bose, Sumantra. Bosnia after Dayton: Nationalist Partition and International Intervention. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Bougarel, Xavier, Helms, Elissa, and Duijzings, Ger, eds. The New Bosnian Mosaic: Identities, Memories and Moral Claims in a Post-War Society. Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2004. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. Attitudes toward History. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. 1945. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1968. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action. Berkeley: U of California P, 1967. Print.Google Scholar
Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. 1950. U of California P, 1969. Print.Google Scholar
Caspersen, Nina. “Good Fences Make Good Neighbours? A Comparison of Conflict-Regulation Strategies in Postwar Bosnia.” Journal Peace Research 41.5 (2004): 569–88. Print.Google Scholar
Chandler, David. Bosnia: Faking Democracy after Dayton. London: Pluto, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. “Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy.” Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics. Ed. Bohman, James and Rehg, William. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1997. 67–91. Print.Google Scholar
Colletta, Nat J., and Michelle L. Cullen. Violent Conflict and the Transformation of Social Capital: Lessons from Cambodia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and Somalia. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
“Communique Issued by the Political Directors of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board and the BiH Authorities Following an Extraordinary PIC Session to Mark the 10th Anniversary of the Dayton-Paris Peace Accords.” PIC SB Political Directors, Paris. 14 Dec. 2005. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://www.ohr.int/pic/default.asp?content_id=36256>>Google Scholar
Connolly, William E. Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Constituent Peoples Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Case no. U-5/98 (1 July 2000). Print.Google Scholar
Dahlman, Carl T., and Gearóid, Tuathail. “Bosnia's Third Geopolitical Space: Nationalist Separatism and International Supervision in Bosnia's Brcko District.” Geopolitics 11.4 (2006): 651–75. Print.Google Scholar
Dahlman, Carl T., and Gearóid Ó Tuathail. “Broken Bosnia: The Localized Geopolitics of Displacement and Return in Two Bosnian Places.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95.3 (2005): 644–62. Print.Google Scholar
Donia, Robert J., and John V. Fine. Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Tradition Betrayed. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. Print.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John S. “Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies: Alternatives to Agonism and Analgesia.” Political Theory 33.2 (2005): 218–42. Print.Google Scholar
Stability Initiative, European. “Making Federalism Work - A Radical Proposal for Practical Reform.” 2004. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_document_id_48.pdf>>Google Scholar
Everly, Rebecca. “Assessing the Accountability of the High Representative.” Deconstructing the Reconstruction: Human Rights and Rule of Law in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ed. Francesca Haynes, Dina. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. 79–114. Print.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.” International Organization 54 (2000): 130–66. Print.Google Scholar
General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina with Annexes. Paris, 14 Dec. 1995, 35 I.L.M. 75 (1996), Annex 4 (Constitution). Print.Google Scholar
Gusfield, Joseph R., ed. Kenneth Burke on Symbols and Society. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. Print.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy, and Thompson, Dennis. Democracy and Disagreement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap P of Harvard UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry. “Explaining Ethnicity.” Comparative Politics Studies 37.4 (2004): 458–85. Print.Google Scholar
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Report on the Status of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Hoare, Marko Attila. The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. London: SAQI, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Honig, Bonnie. Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. Bosnia: A Test of Political Maturity in Mostar. Sarajevo and Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Ivie, Robert L. Democracy and America's War on Terror. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Joseph, Edward P., and Bruce Hitchner, R. “Making Bosnia Work: Why EU Accession is Not Enough.” United States Institute of Peace. June 2008. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://www.usip.org/resources/making-bosnia-work-why-eu-accession-not-enough>>Google Scholar
Knaus, Gerald, and Martin, Felix. “Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Travails of the European Raj.” Journal of Democracy 14.3 (2003): 60–74. Print.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995. Print.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan J., and Stepan, Alfred. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southeastern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Lippman, Peter. “Promoting Return of Refugees: Sarajevo and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Managing Hatred and Distrust: The Prognosis for Post-Conflict Settlement in Multiethnic Communities in the Former Yugoslavia. Ed. Dimitrijevic, Nenad and Kovács, Petra. Budapest: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, 2004. 5–20. Print.Google Scholar
Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A Short History. New York: New York UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Marjanovic, D., et al. “The Peopling of Modern Bosnia-Herzegovina: Y-Chromosome Haplogroups in the Three Main Ethnic Groups.” Annals of Human Genetics 69.6 (2005): 757–63. Print.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. The Return of the Political. London: Verso, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Muldoon, Paul. “Reconciliation and Political Legitimacy: The Old Australia and the New South Africa.” Australian Journal of Politics and History 49.2 (2003): 182–96. Print.Google Scholar
Mus, Jan. “The Bosnian Interregnum and its Consequences.” EUobserver.com. 3 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://euobserver.com/7/27522>>Google Scholar
O'Loughlin, John. “Inter-ethnic Friendships in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Ethnicities 10.1 (2010): 26–53. Print.Google Scholar
O'Loughlin, John, and Ó Tuathail (Gerard Toal)., Gearóid “Accounting for Separatist Sentiment: Bosnia-Herzegovina and the North Caucasus of Russia Compared.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32.4 (2009): 591–615. Print.Google Scholar
Perelman, Chaim, and Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucie. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Trans. John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 1969. Print.Google Scholar
Pickering, Paula. “Generating Social Capital for Bridging Ethnic Divisions in the Balkans: Case Studies of Two Bosniak Cities.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 29.1 (2006): 79–103. Print.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Riedlmayer, Andras. “Banja Luka's Ferhadija Mosque Rises Again.” Bosnian Institute. 3 Mar. 2008. Web. <http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2373>>Google Scholar
Rothchild, Donald, and Roeder, Philip G. “Dilemmas of State-Building in Divided Societies.” Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars. Ed. Roeder, Philip G. and Rothchild, Donald. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2005. 1–26. Print.Google Scholar
Schaap, Andrew. “Agonism in Divided Societies.” Philosophy and Social Criticism 32.2 (2006): 255–77. Print.Google Scholar
Sebastián, Sofia. Leaving Dayton Behind: Constitutional Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. FRIDE Working Paper 46. Madrid: FRIDE, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, ECHR App. nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06, Judgment. 22 Dec. 2009. Print.Google Scholar
SETimes. “Nationalist Parties Dominate Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” SETimes.com. 6 Oct. 2008. Web. 26 May 2010. <http://www.setimes.com/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2008/10/06/feature-01>>Google Scholar
Sudetic, Chuck. Blood and Vengeance: One Family's Story of the War in Bosnia. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Tuathail, Gearóid Ó (Gerard Toal) and O'Loughlin, John. “After Ethnic Cleansing: Return Outcomes in Bosnia-Herzegovina a Decade beyond War.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 99.5 (2009). Web. 26 May 2010. <www.colorado.edu/ibs/pec/johno/pub/AnnalsBiHreturns.pdf>>Google Scholar
Tuathail, Gearóid Ó (Gerard Toal), O'Loughlin, John, and Djipa, Dino. “Bosnia-Herzegovina Ten Years after Dayton: Constitutional Change and Public Opinion.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 47.1 (2006): 61–75. Print.Google Scholar
UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “2006 Return Statistics: Statistics Package”. Sarajavo. 31 March 2010. <www.unhcr.ba/return/pdf%202006/SP_09_2006.pdf>>Google Scholar
UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “2010 Return Statistics: Statistics Package”. Sarajevo. 26 May 2010. <http://80.65.85.77/unhcr/images/stories/Stats/sp_03_2010.pdf>>Google Scholar
UNHCR Representation in Bosnia and Herzegovinca. “Briefing Note on UNHCR and Annex 7 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Sarajevo. 2007. Web. 26 May 2010. <www.unhcr.ba/updatedec07/DPsOct07.pdf>>Google Scholar
van de Vliet, Sebastian. “Addressing Corruption and Organized Crime in the Context of Re-establishing the Rule of Law.” Deconstructing the Reconstruction: Human Rights and Rule of Law in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ed. Francesca Haynes, Dina. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. 205–34. Print.Google Scholar
Waters, Timothy William. “Assuming Bosnia: Taking the Polity Seriously in Ethnically Divided Societies.” Deconstructing the Reconstruction: Human Rights and Rule of Law in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ed. Francesca Haynes, Dina. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. 53–78. Print.Google Scholar
van de Vliet, Sebastian. “Contemplating Failure and Creating Alternatives in the Balkans: Bosnia's Peoples, Democracy and the Shape of Self-Determination.” Yale Journal of International Law 29.2 (2004): 423–75. Print.Google Scholar
Wolin, Sheldon S. “Fugitive Democracy.” Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political. Ed. Benhabib, Seyla. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996. 31–45. Print.Google Scholar
Zavod za statistiku. Bosne i Hercegovine. Bilten no. 234. Sarajevo: Zavod za statistiku, 1991. Print.Google Scholar