Volume L – Number 2
Mackenzie E. Rice
Abstract: Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the newly formed state of Bosnia-Herzegovina became embroiled in a brutal civil war between the state’s Serbian, Croatian, and Bosniak Muslim groups. To resolve the conflict, international representatives constructed the Dayton Peace Accords, a constitutional document that implemented Arend Lijphart’s model of consociational democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina in an effort to create power-sharing structures of government. However, the implementation of consociational democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina was short sighted, as the international actors failed to recognize the importance of several pre-requisites necessary to create a political environment conducive to Lijphart’s consociationalism. Furthermore, the Dayton Peace Accords facilitated the geographical segregation of ethnic factions within the state. As a result, Bosnia-Herzegovina has fallen into political and economic stagnation, and is almost entirely devoid of a collective identity or civil society, making the formal division of the state along ethnic lines the only viable option for the state’s future success and development.
Keywords: civil war, Bosnia-Herzegovina, ethnic segregation, democratization, Dayton Peace Accords, Serbia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, communism
About the Author: Mackenzie E. Rice has a B.S. in Political Science and Economics from Towson University and will begin studying for a Master’s Degree in Global Affairs at the University of Toronto this fall.
