Gordana Iličić - Peter Smeriga
The Influence of Institutional Design on the Democratisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Vplyv inštitucionálneho dizajnu na demokratizáciu Bosny a Hercegoviny)
Politické vedy, Volume 22, Number 2/2019, pages 115-136
DOI: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2019.22.2.115-136
Recommended form for quotation of the article / Odporúčaná forma citácie článku:
ILIČIĆ, G. - SMERIGA, P. 2019. The Influence of Institutional Design on the Democratisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Politické vedy. [online]. Vol. 22, No. 2, 2019. ISSN 1335 – 2741, pp. 115-136. Available at: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2019.22.2.115-136
ABSTRACT
The development of democratic transformation theories, put special emphasis on waves of democratisation and the breakdown of autocratic systems of government, which enabled the development of transformation theories and theories of institutional design closely associated to them. Article confirm that the transformational processes of post-communism show specific transformational issues, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina there is a significant deviation from the transformational processes issues of other post-communist regimes. Bosnia and Herzegovina faces a deeply rooted background of divided society, war consequences, different views on state constitution by the members of three constitutive national groups, outside solutions on political system constitution and therefore it has minimal democratisation possibilities at disposal. Inefficient structure of political institutions and lack of equality are mutually intertwined, and are therefore blocking the entire political system. Through several examples, the authors depict the impairment of legitimacy as a political issue dealing with the question of how a certain arrangement gains or loses public trust, and is connected to the most significant form of democratic confirmation, election process.
Key words: Bosnia and Herzegovina, consolidation, political system, democracy