Consociational Settlements and Reconstruction: Bosnia in Comparative Perspective (1995–Present)

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 656, Issue 1, p. 97-115

Abstract

Both Bosnia in 1995 and Northern Ireland in 1998 were extremely fragile in the immediate aftermath of brokered peace negotiations. Each instituted a form of consociationalism—a government that institutionalizes a voice for each ethnic group—as an element of brokered peace. In this article, I examine Bosnian postwar governance with comparative insights from Northern Ireland. Bosnia was the recipient of a large amount of international aid. While this aid was crucial to the initial state-building effort, the problems Bosnia now faces are due to its consociational governance structure. Some of the group-based aspects of consociationalism are in tension with individual rights, a problem that cannot be addressed by aid alone.