2022 General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Competing Visions of Representation in a Consociational System

• Hulsey, John ^[1]
  1. [1] James Madison University

     James Madison University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Polis, ISSN 0872-8208, ISSN-e 2183-0118, Vol. 2, Nº. 6, 2022, págs. 247-251
• Idioma: portugués
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • The 2022 General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina were the ninth set of elections for state-level, entity and cantonal governments since the signing of the Dayton Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Dayton Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” 1995) that signaled the end of the war and established the Dayton constitution. The election itself resulted in incremental rather than radical change, continuing patterns of ethnic voting and party system fragmentation in a polity caught between a constitution built around ethnic representation and broad recognition that governance in Bosnia is not up the challenge of solving big problems and laying the foundation for prosperity. The election itself was overshadowed by attempts by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), representing the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina to push through election law changes in the country, resulting finally in the election night imposition of changes to the way members of the Federation and state-level upper houses are chosen. This article will contextualize the results of the elections, including the actions of the High Representative, within the framework of Bosnia’s consociational structure and patterns of party competition and representation within that structure. In a system characterized by perpetual crisis without meaningful change, the 2022 election reflects the fundamental conflict over the nature and future of the Bosnian state. We proceed by describing the political and constitutional structure of Bosnia, placing the results of the 2022 elections within the context of trends in party competition in the country, and analyze the OHR’s election law decision as a continuation of the struggle between liberal and corporatist visions of representation in the country.