Suchergebnisse

First Nationalism Then Identity focuses on the case of Bosnian Muslims, a rare historic instance of a new nation emerging. Although for Bosnian Muslims the process of national emergence and the assertion of a new salient identity have been going on for over two decades, Mirsad Kriještorac is the first to explain the significance of the whole process and how the adoption of their new Bosniak identity occurred. He provides a historical overview of Yugoslav and Bosnian Slavic Muslims' transformation into a full-fledged distinct and independent national group as well as addresses the important question in the field of nationalism studies about the relationship between and workings of nationalism and identity. While this book is noteworthy for ordinary readers interested in the case of Bosnian Muslims, it is an important contribution to the scholarly debate on the role of nationalism in the political life of a group and adds an interdisciplinary perspective to comparative politics scholarship by drawing from anthropology, history, geography, and sociology

Most observers of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political situation have focused only on the problems that the Dayton Peace Accord created for the normal functioning of this Southeastern European state, but a workable solution is yet to be proposed. The Accord achieved peace by blocking any ability for effective governing and by diminishing the Bosnian state capacity through an excessive dispersion of power with an uncommon constitutional focus on internationalism, and an erroneous type of pluralism that undermines the normal functioning of a democracy. The solution for these problems is to be found by adjusting the procedural selection of the United Nations High Representative, who is the primary actor directly responsible for the implementation of the Accord, both in terms of the letter and intent of the document, and this paper explains how that change can be made and what problems it will resolve. ; Većina promatrača političke situacije u Bosni i Hercegovini fokusirala se samo na probleme koje je Dejtonski mirovni sporazum stvorio za normalno funkcioniranje ove jugoistočno-evropske države, ali još uvijek je potrebno predložiti izvodljivo rješenje tih problema. Dejtonski sporazum je postigao mir umanjujući kapacitet države, blokirajući svaku sposobnost za efikasno upravljanje BiH pretjeranim raspršivanjem moći, s neuobičajenim ustavnim fokusom na internacionalizam i forsiranjem pogrešne vrste pluralizma koji podriva normalno funkcioniranje demokratije. Rješenje za te probleme treba naći u prilagođavanju procedure odabira Visokog predstavnika UN-a, koji je direktno odgovoran za provedbu Sporazuma, kako u pogledu slova tako i namjere tog dokumenta, a ovaj tekst objašnjava kako se ta promjena može izvršiti i koje probleme će takva promjena moći riješiti.

The democratic transitions in multiethnic states are particularly challenging, especially at the time of the emergence of new states. The examples of the two such states Macedonia and Montenegro, provide the possibility to observe how those democratic and stateness transitions could be more or less successful. Both new transitional states had to deal with the significant ethnic Albanian factor, which looms large in several regional countries. Through the process-tracing method, this paper compares the impact of that factor in the political transitions of Macedonia and Montenegro by utilizing the most similar case design of comparative politics. It proposes three variables to explain the difference in the transitions between the two countries: (i) the border with Kosovo, (ii) the ethnic minority distribution, and (iii) the speed of stateness transition. Building upon the Mikasell and Murphy (1991) model for minority aspirations, paper observes how and why the demands of the ethnic Albanians rose and created political conflict and violence in Macedonia and prevented democratic consolidation, and why the same did not occur in Montenegro. The different outcomes suggest that, despite of the inherent differences, there is the possibility for both, conflict and cooperation between the different ethnic groups within the democratizing state.