Bosnia’s Paradox: The Irony of External Pressure within Consociational Democracy

The merits of consociational democracy as a suitable approach in achieving stabilization in plural societies, especially societies deeply divided along ethnic lines, have come under fire in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper argues that the consociational approach enshrined in the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the Bosnian conflict in 1995, has been unable to fulfill the stabilizing potential due to the active interference of international institutions. Too frequently international actors have offered “quick fixes” to heal Bosnia; however, in attempting to reform, international figures undermine the existing consociational framework. This is the irony of prolonged intervention. A mathematical proof of accommodation by consociational logic further accentuates this claim by demonstrating that the problem is not with consociationalism, but rather with outside intervention