Decentralization as an Effective Tool of State-Building? The Cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo

Lana Srzić
Additional contact information
Lana Srzić: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

Chapter 7 in Decentralization and Local Development in South East Europe, 2013, pp 118-131 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Decentralization has appeared as the only option of governance in internationally led state-building projects in South East Europe. PostDayton Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the prime example, with its complex multilayered institutional arrangements, consisting of a weak central government, and two ethnically based entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina inhabited predominantly by Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, and Republika Srpska inhabited mainly by Bosnian Serbs. The experience of post-Dayton Bosnia poses the question of whether decentralization inevitably reflects and perpetuates ethnic divisions. Despite the commonly cited shortcomings of the decentralized form of government, including its failure to transform Bosnia and Herzegovina into a viable state and, in particular, a viable economy, post-Dayton decentralization can be defended as a last resort measure, and the only possibility of preserving and governing the country given its recent history. The Bosnian case provides many parallels to the post-independent Kosovo, where calls for municipal decentralization were justified as a means of providing the Serbian minority with a participatory role in the new state.

Keywords: Veto Power; Constitutional Reform; Constitutional Change; Ethnic Division; United Nations Security Council Resolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:stuchp:978-1-137-29565-1_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137295651

DOI: 10.1057/9781137295651_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Studies in Economic Transition from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().