1.Karadeniz ve Balkan Ekonomik ve Politik Araştırmalar Sempozyumu

I. Black Sea and The Balkans Economic and Political Studies Symposium

Introduction

The tendency of ethnic and religious conflict and separation in the Post-communist democratization process

implies that the communist regimes in the region could not succeed in resolving historical tensions and cleavages

among different ethnic groups. Hence, the fact that the democratization process in Socialist Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia took a way of separation rather than entire democratization of the federation is a typical example.

The republics which had constituted the federation have gained extensive political rights and decentralization

after the constitutional regulations in 1974. Despite the fact that such a relatively free atmosphere led to crys-

talization of ethnic identities and subordination of Yugoslavian identitiy, such a development did not cause an

important problem under the charismatic leadership of Tito and his policy based on balance among republics.

However, the balance has broken down after the death of Tito. The absence of Tito’s unifying charismatic leader-

ship, increasing economic distress and finally the crisis caused by ethnic Serbian nationalism centered on Kosovo

have easily prompted the popular unrest and reaction towards the system to merge with the nationalist policies.

So, the victory won by the political parties which employed a nationalist discourse in the multi-party free elections

in 1990 can be interpreted as an indicator of this tendency.

Abstract

With the process of democratization the Post-communist countries have faced not only the duty of construction of democratic

political structures and institutions but also have taken on a long-running and hard task such as transition to a market economy

and setting up a corresponding social structure. Therefore, the concept which marked the academic literature on post-communist

democratization has been ‘transition to democracy’ or ‘transition’ rather than ‘democratization’. On the other hand, differences

in the level of the transition to democracy in these countries has drawn attention to the unique historical, cultural, political, insti-

tutional and economic characteristics of each country.

Bosnia-Herzegovinia which is the extreme case of ethnic and religious separation and hostility has occupied a special place in the

post-communist democratization process. Ethnic and religious civil war that took place in the region, has soon led to international

military intervention. Then, in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to build peace and democracy, a civilian government was established

under the supervision and control of the international community

The international involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina has contributed to the establishment of peace in the short term. How-

ever today, the consasiotinal model of democracy being implemented in bosnia-herzegovinia which is based on the equal repre-

sentation of ethnic identities at all levels of the state administration has been a major concern and debate in academic literature

as well as in the international environment. The main concern here is that this model would sharpen the ethnic and religious divi-

sions in the long-term, and would not contribute to the establishment of a democracy based on the consensus and the generalized

social trust. In the light of all these discussions, in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton system, the probability of transition

to a truly democratic government will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords:

Bosna and Herzegovina, Dayton Peace Agreement, Consociational Democracy, Internatiol Involvement, Ethnic Poli-

tics.

Assoc. Prof. Nuray BOZBORA

Marmara University, Faculty of Political Science, İstanbul, Turkey,

nbozbora@marmara

Post-Communist Transition to Democracy and

Problems in the Balkans: Case of Bosnia-Herzegovinia