Back to square one? An analysis of the 2014 General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper discusses the results of the recent elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2014. It does so by engaging with the results and what they mean for a number of selected policy areas in the country. The research is based on the statistics of the Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the experience of Drs Keil and Perry, who have been working on Bosnia for many years, Dr Keil as an academic and Dr Perry as a practitioner, including for the OSCE and the International Law and Policy Group

Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: mapping interactions and their impact

Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as their perceptions of and their reactions to external interference. Moreover, the patterns of external–internal interactions may explain the trajectory of state-building and democracy promotion efforts. These issues deserve more attention from both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peace- and state-building, democracy promotion, regime transition and elite research. Analyses of external actors and domestic elites in post-conflict democratisation should therefore address three principal issues: (1) the identification of relevant domestic elites in externally induced or monitored state-building and democratisation processes, (2) the dynamics of external–domestic interactions and (3) the impact of these interactions on the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation

The granting of territorial autonomy in the Balkans means that large scale violence is now near-impossible. But small scale conflicts continue.

Since the conflicts of the 1990s, various regions within the Balkans have been granted territorial autonomy in order to avoid further violence. Soeren Keil assesses the strategy, finding a great deal of variety in the implementation and effectiveness of territorial autonomy and power sharing across the region. While in most cases the likelihood of violent conflict is now very small, secessionist movements have been encouraged and functional states have not been created

Multinational federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina offers the most remarkable and extensive example of international peace- and state- building in recent times. This thesis will analyse the post-war political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the perspective of its federal features. By following the methodological distinction between federalism as an ideology and federation as a state, it will be argued that federalism is not an indigenous ideology of the Bosnian elites, but it was imposed on them by international actors, the results of the war and the circumstances surrounding the peace negotiations. None of the three Bosnian constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats) preferred a federal option in 1995. Furthermore, the thesis will demonstrate that as a consequence of this "imposed federalism," the Bosnian parties in post-war Bosnia were not willing to identify with or even accept the new state, and this resulted in a lack of decision-making and political process in the immediate post-war period. Consequently, it was the international community through the Office of the High Representative that had to intervene and take over decision-making competences. Key decisions regarding constitutional reform, identity politics, security questions and fiscal federalism were implemented by the High Representative as a consequence. These decisions have impacted on the relationship between the federal units themselves and between the federal units and the central institutions and this is why Bosnia and Herzegovina can be characterised as an "internationally administrated federation." Categorising Bosnia as a model of "imposed federalism" and "internationally administrated federation" contributes to the acknowledgment that we witness the rise and development of a new model of federalism and federation in Bosnia. The main challenge for the Bosnian model of federalism is that the Bosnian elites have to find a common definition of their state and its nature. The main challenge for the Bosnian federation is the reform and simplification of the political system to abolish discriminatory elements in the institutions and to make the system more flexible so that Bosnia is eventually able to integrate into European structures. The new model of federalism and federation that can be found in Bosnia has to become domesticated as its biggest challenge. However, other countries in the world have undergone similar developments to Bosnia, so the success of Bosnian federalism and federation is not only important for Bosnia and the international actors involved in the state-building and democratisation project, but also for a number of other countries in the world

Multinational federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Conclusion: The Politics of Numbers – Censuses in the Post-Yugoslav States

This conclusion poses a number of questions related to policy issues and the censuses in the post-Yugoslav states. It is argued that censuses are always more than just a technical counting exercise. Census discussions in Western Europe tend to focus on regional funding, infrastructure support and long-term policy planning, and can be as contested and heated as questions over identity, religion and mother tongue in the post-Yugoslav states. However, identity-related questions in an area in which identity is still in flux and in which fundamental demographic changes have taken place recently, prevent any focus on more policy-oriented discussions. In their EU integration process, all of the post-Yugoslav countries will have to concentrate on issues such as economic development, sustainable infrastructure planning, budgeting within the strict rules of the most recent EU agreements and hence policy discussions should be at the forefront of the debates about the results of the censuses. Instead, discussions over who is counted and how remain of key importance in all countries (even those that have joined the EU), and demonstrate unconsolidated nation-building projects

The Territoriality of Fiscal Solidarity: Comparing Swiss Equalisation with European Union Structural Funding

This article theorises the territorial solidarity and fiscal federalism and compares Switzerland with the European Union. While inter-territorial solidarity is a prerequisite for legitimate fiscal equalisation, such equalisation in turn also contributes to the legitimacy of and solidarity within federal political systems. By cutting across territorial and ethno-national communities, fiscal transfers often contribute to both a “civic” sense of belonging and a “cosmopolitan” identity. After placing types and degrees of (inter-)territorial solidarity at the heart of our conceptual perspective, we discuss the effects of such solidarity through an analysis of two different forms of “federal” equalisation. Comparing the recently reformed Swiss fiscal equalisation system with the EU structural funds allows us to infer if, and how, the fiscal dimension of federalism matters for feelings of solidarity, reciprocity, unity and, ultimately, for the legitimacy of the very (nation-state or Union) structures that are to contribute to the ever-growing prosperity and happiness of their people(s). In Switzerland, a civic understanding of nationhood and cross-cutting cleavages were necessary conditions for extensive, effective and legitimate fiscal equalisation. We infer that, for the EU, this means that strengthening the equalisation component of the structural funds would contribute to an ever closer Union in a political sense: because fiscal equalisation and inter-territorial solidarity are interdependent, reinforcing the one also means cementing the other. Future studies of the EU and federal-type arrangements are advised to pay more explicit attention to the solidarity-element of territoriality – or the territoriality of (fiscal) solidarity