When non-nationalist voters support ethno-nationalist parties: the 1990 elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a prisoner’s dilemma game

In 1990, according to polls, 7 out of 10 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were against ethnic parties. Yet, 75% of voters ended up voting for one of the three main ethno-nationalist parties. In no other post-communist country, including other former Yugoslav republics, did ethnic parties receive such large support in the first democratic elections. In Croatia, for example, in the 1990 elections the Croatian ethnic party Hrvatska demokratska zajednica gathered 42% and the Serb ethnic party Srpska demokratska stranka gathered only 2% of the vote. Were Bosnians and Herzegovinians already that much ethno-nationalistically oriented in 1990? The article rejects this thesis and purports to explain the voting behaviour of the Bosnian electorate by using the prisoner’s dilemma theoretical framework. It concludes by arguing that the problem of collective action could have been addressed via a pre-electoral referendum on a ban of ethnic parties–a ban which had been actually adopted by the then-ruling Communist party, but was eventually overturned by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Nationalism and identity in post-Dayton accords: Bosnia-Hercegovina

The Dayton Accords, concluded in November 1995 following the recent bloody conflict in the former Yugoslavia, established Bosnia-Hercegovina as a country of two entities: a Croat-Muslim federation and Republika Srpska, dominated by Bosnian Serbs. The conflict created a substantial refugee problem and a transformation through ethnic cleansing of the mosaic of ethnically intermingled communities that was characteristic of pre-war Bosnia. Within this turmoil of dislocation, trauma and continuing distrust between the ethnic groups the new state is gradually being established. Reconstruction is progressing; new institutions are being created and new (or redefined) identities are emerging in response to the changing economic and political circumstances. This paper draws upon ethno-symbolic arguments and elements of banal nationalism to analyse contradictory aspects of evolving nationalist identities in Bosnia, especially within the Muslim (Bosniak) population. Drawing upon recent ethnographic field-work, it focuses both on visible elements of nationalism and identity within the urban landscapes of the capital, Sarajevo, and the city of Mostar to the south, and less tangible cultural signifiers as symbolised in the emergence of the term 'Bosniak' and the reconstruction of the national (formerly regional) museum. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.