Abstract
This paper analyzes two key questions: first, why nationalist parties have been dominating Bosnian politics since its declaration of independence in 1992 and, second, why this republic has been in a state of prolonged paralysis since the end of the war in 1995. Based on an analysis of the post-Dayton era, this study demonstrates that the roots of ongoing difficulties in Bosnia-Herzegovina lie in arguments about Bosnian independence and administration of the country.
Because of these controversies, Bosnia-Herzegovina erupted in riots and eventually war in 1992. The Dayton Peace Agreement succeeded in reducing actual combats among the three constitutive nations, but the peacebuilding process failed to settle these arguments.
Bosnian society remains divided between those who support an ethnic arrangement of the country, and those who prefer a civic arrangement. Another division is between those who are socially marginalized and those who participate effectively in the post-Dayton political system.