Institutional Discrimination against the (non) Constituent Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Blocking the Europeanization Process
Institutional Discrimination against the (non) Constituent Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Blocking the Europeanization Process

Summary/Abstract: In spite of the fact that more than a decade Bosnia and Herzegovina has been going through deep European Union-related reform processes the country is still facing troubles in terms of its democratic progress. For instance, the post-Dayton public discourse has been characterised by ideological domination of the nationalist political elites which are doing very little to include the so-called non-nationalists and a members of several minority groups from public policy-making. As a result Bosnia is facing serious democratic deficit since one of the most fundamental objectives of Bosnia's EU reforms processes has been eradication of a dangerous politics of nationalists or 'ethnic fascists'. Thus, in this paper the main focus was on the theme of the post-Dayton ethnic projects which have brought about massive discrimination against the non-constituents and a so-called Others as they are referred to at the constitutional framework. Better to say, in the post-war Bosnia democratic inclusion has turned into a competition between the country's three biggest national communities, Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs, and Bosnian Croats. Overall, Bosnian citizens still live in the political system which is largely based on ethnic-nationalist paradigm or ethnocracy rather than democratic political system. Therefore, Bosnia which is largely discriminating against significant number of its citizens can not enter the European Union as such.

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