The political environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding power-sharing governance

Abstract

This study assesses trends of the political environment of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) between the period of 2004 and 2012 pertaining to contentions of two differing models of conflict regulation, the consociational and integrative, which apply to BiH. As each model has contentions pertaining to voting patterns, political elite behaviour, and on the workings of institutions, this study conducts an analysis through the assessment of election results, compliance with power-sharing arrangements and the nature of coalition building, and the workings of a consociational institution to reach its findings. The current system is deemed as being largely ineffective. In addition, since there is pressure to introduce more integrative measures to the power-sharing structure in BiH, the aim is to assess how the trends in the political environment have fared from the period a similar study was conducted in order to reach recommendations on whether or not to further support the utilization of consociational elements. The analysis in this study portrays that the trends hold more true for the contentions pertaining to the consociational model. Although the findings are not conclusive at first, new developments further favour the consociational model. Also, integrative measures were found to be the source of the problem when analyzing compliance with power-sharing arrangements. Therefore, the suggestion conveyed is that instead of diverting away from the use of consociational elements there should be an encouragement to improve them.