Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.20901/an.18.02
The Structure of an Illicit Cohabitation: Analysis of the Decisionist Model of Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dražen Barbarić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
The paper deals with the analysis of decisionist paradigm of the political in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The frst segment of the paper sets a brief theoretical basis of decisionism on which the analysis is based. The second segment is focused on the clarifcation of two key causes of the decisionism matrix in B&H. It deals with a tripartite sovereignty as the foundation of statehood and its joint consociational elements which are built in a political system. In the third part of the paper, the four forms of manifestation of the decisionist model are analysed. The phenomenon of the decision-making legitimising without regard for the institutions is explained, as well as the neglecting of the role of legislative authorities which are, in the decisionist matrix, considered to be "chat rooms" without real power. Furthermore, the paper explains the feedback of the national communities which, through elections and other forms of expression of the public opinion, act as retroactive approvers of their own ethnopolitics. The phenomenon of coexistence of national political elites is then analysed, as they keep one another alive and complement each other on both symbolic and functional levels. They need each other in order to survive in the political sphere even though they act as political enemies. Finally, the paper explains the role of international community, primarily through the institution of the High Representative which does not only legitimise the decisionist model but often assumes an active role in it as well.
Keywords
Bosnia and Herzegovina; decisionism; consociational democracy; conviviality; ethnopolitics; High Representative;
Hrčak ID:
256163
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2021.
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