Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-wph62 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-05T11:27:10.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Nonaligned Citizens”: Ethnic Power-Sharing and Nonethnic Identities in Bosnia Herzegovina. The Case of Sarajevo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2020

Arianna Piacentini
Arianna Piacentini*
Affiliation:
Institute for Comparative Federalism, EURAC Research, Bolzano, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ari.piacentini@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bosnia Herzegovina is a consociational democracy grounded on three ethnic constituencies. The postwar implementation of power-sharing mechanisms ended to favor ethnocracy and ethnopolitics, eventually compromising an inclusive democracy untied from ethnonational issues. This contribution explores the positive potential held by political parties and ordinary citizens “nonaligned” with the ethnopolitical scaffolding—therefore and consequently not explicitly included in the power-sharing system—because they hold and promote “alternative,” civic, and nonethnic forms of identification. Drawing upon interviews performed in Sarajevo, this article argues that citizens’ political disappointment and dissatisfaction are among the reasons contributing to the existence of a small, yet potentially critical, mass of citizens able to help adjusting an ethnically exclusive model of democracy.

Keywords

Bosnia Herzegovinanonalignedethnopoliticscivic identitiescitizens
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 4: Special Issue on Migrant Rights, Agency, and Vulnerability , July 2020 , pp. 707 - 720
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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

Agarin, Timofey, McCulloch, Allison, and Murtag, Cera. 2018. “Others in Deeply Divided Societies: A Research Agenda.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 24: 299–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bieber, Florian. 2005. “Power Sharing after Yugoslavia: Functionality and Dysfunctionality of Power-Sharing Institutions in Post-War Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo.” In From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies, edited by Noel, Sid, 85–103. Montreal: MacGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Bringa, Tone. 1993. “Nationality Categories, National Identification and Identity Formation in ‘Multinational’ Bosnia.” Anthropology of East Europe Review 11 (1 and 2): 80–89.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. “In the Name of the Nation: Reflections on Nationalism and Patriotism.” Citizenship Studies 8 (2): 115–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunce, Valerie. 2004. “Is Ethnofederalism the Solution or the Problem?” In Nationalism after Communism: Lessons Learned, edited by Mungiu-Pippidi , Alina and Krastev, Ivan, 179–197. Budapest: CPS Books, Central European University Press.Google Scholar
Dayton Peace Agreement. http://www.ohr.int/?post_type=post&p=63984&lang=en. (Accessed November 18, 2018.)Google Scholar
Džankić, Jelena. 2015. Citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro: Effects of Statehood and Identity Challenges . Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Freedom House. 2019. “Nations in Transit 2018: Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Profile.” https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/2018/bosnia-and-herzegovina. (Accessed November 18, 2018.)Google Scholar
Howard, Lise Morjé. 2012. “The Ethnocracy Trap.” Journal of Democracy 23 (4): 155–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulsey, John. 2010. “Why Did They Vote for Those Guys Again? Challenges and Contradictions in the Promotion of Moderation in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Democratization 17 (6): 1132–1152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulsey, John, and Stjepanovic, Dejan. 2017. “Bosnia and Herzegovina: An Archetypical Example of Ethnocracy.” In Regional and National Elections in Eastern Europe: Territoriality of the Vote in Ten Countries, edited by Schakel, Arjan H., 35–58. London: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IEFS). 2019. “Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oct. 7, 2018.” ElectionGuide: Democracy Assistance and Election News. http://www.electionguide.org/elections/id/3069/. (Accessed March 26, 2019.)Google Scholar
Jansen, Stef. 2008. “Cosmopolitan Openings and Closures in Post-Yugoslav Antinationalism.” In Cosmopolitanism in Practice, edited by Nowicka, Magdalena and Rovisco, Maria, 75–92. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kapidžić, Damir. 2014. “Ethnic Practice in Electoral Politics: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 1990 Presidency Elections.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 14 (4): 556–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapidžić, Damir. 2016. “Local Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Election Analysis.” Contemporary Southeastern Europe 3 (2): 127–134.Google Scholar
Keil, Soeren. 2013. Multinational Federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arendt. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1994. “The Social Requisites of Democracy Revisited: 1993 Presidential Address. American Sociological Review 59 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishler, William, and Rose, Richard. 2002. “Learning and Re-Learning Regime Support: The Dynamics of Post-Communist Regimes.” European Journal of Political Research 41: 5–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mujkic, Asim. 2008. We, the Citizen of Ethnopolis. Sarajevo: Centar za ljudska prava Univerziteta u Sarajevu.Google Scholar
Mujkić, Asim. 2015. “In Search of a Democratic Counter-Power in Bosnia Herzegovina.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 15 (4): 623–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of the High Representative. 2015. The General Framework Agreement: Annex 4. Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. http://www.ohr.int/?post_type=post&p=63984&lang=en. (Accessed July 16, 2016.)Google Scholar
O’Halloran, Patrick. 2005. “Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Constitutional and Transitional Power-Sharing Arrangements in Bosnia and Kosovo. In From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies, edited by Noel, Sid, 104–119. Montreal: MacGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
O’Leary, Brendan. 2005. “Debating Consociational Politics: Normative and Explanatory Arguments in Post-War Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo.” In From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies, edited by Noel, Sid, 3–43. Montreal: MacGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Piacentini, Arianna. 2019. “‘Trying to fit in’: Multiethnic Parties, Ethno-Clientelism and Power-Sharing in Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanovništva, Popis. 2013. Domaćinstava i Stanova u Bosni i Hercegovini Rezultati Popisa [Census of Population, Households and Dwelling in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013. Final Results]. 2016. Agencija za Statistiku Bosne i Hercegovine [Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina]. Sarajevo. http://popis2013.ba.Google Scholar
Reilly, Benjamin. 2004. Democracy in Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering for Conflict Management. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe C., and Karl, Terry Lynn. 1991. “What Democracy Is … and Is Not.” Journal of Democracy 2 (3): 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Šedo, Jakub. 2010. “The Party System of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” In Party Politics in the Western Balkans, edited by Stojarová, Vera and Emerson, Peter, 85–98 . New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Štikš, Igor. 2010. A Laboratory of Citizenship: Shifting Conceptions of Citizenship in Yugoslavia and Its Successors States. Working Papers 2010/02, University of Edinburgh, The Europeanization of Citizenship in the Successors States of the Former Yugoslavia (CITSEE).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touquet, Heleen. 2011. “Multi-Ethnic Parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Naša Stranka and the Paradoxes of Postethnic Politics.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 11 (3): 451–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touquet, Heleen. 2015. “Non-Ethnic Mobilisation in Deeply Divided Societies: The Case of Sarajevo Protests.” Europe-Asia Studies 67 (3): 388–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zukin, Sharon. 1975. Beyond Marx and Tito: Theory and Practice in Yugoslav Socialism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar