Crises of Bosnia

Abstract

Ever since its formation, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been considered a country of crisis and crises. However, the crisis is manifested in different ways on different levels, having also a different substance which cannot be reduced to the same. This must be emphasised, since Bosnia’s nature of crisis is often used as an argument for certain unjustified political demands which in themselves do not reflect the actual context of the crisis. In this paper we argue that the crisis in BH can be broken down into three basic crises which constitute it: crisis of BH as a state, crisis of the Federation of BH and crisis of the Republic of Srpska. The crisis of the state is primarily a crisis of legitimacy: the Dayton Constitution is not genuinely accepted and it is constantly denied and disputed by the political representatives of all three constituent peoples, which results in a permanent political crisis. The crisis of the Federation of BH is a crisis of an unnatural constitution under the scheme “three peoples and two entities”, which constantly produces situations of “tyranny of the majority”. The crisis of the Republic of Srpska is mostly manifested as a crisis of economic inefficiency – the political situation in RS is relatively stable and it provides a sound basis for addressing the key, economic problems. However, the Government has been showing the inability to cope with such demands. These crises are, naturally, intertwined, but they are still fundamentally different: BH as a state and the Federation of BH are also affected by problems of economic efficiency, while the RS faces challenges to its legitimacy. Nevertheless, the dominant aspects of crises in these three segments of the Bosnian society can be clearly marked and delineated. It is possible to use this diagnosis of crisis to develop an appropriate anti-crisis policy.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p539