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2. The EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Powers, Decisions and Legitimacy
- Author:
- Bart M. J. Szewczyk
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- This Occasional Paper analyses the issue of the Bonn Powers in Bosnia – whereby the Office of the High Representative (OHR) can enact laws and remove elected officials – by comprehensively assessing the legitimacy of past OHR decisions. Adopting an established theory of legitimacy developed by Harold Lasswell and Myres McDougal, it argues that empirical legitimacy is best conceived as serving common interests of effective actors within an authorised process, and normatively prescribes that such process should be shaped to maximise values of human dignity. Given this theoretical framework, it examines the process authorised under the Dayton Agreement, which created the political structure that currently exists in Bosnia. It discusses the origins of the Bonn Powers and surveys the various criticisms that have been levelled against them. It then develops an overall analysis of all OHR decisions to date and provides a critique of those categories of decisions that appear inconsistent with the Dayton order and its proclaimed organising principles. Moreover, it provides a focused assessment of a sample of the most problematic decisions, e.g. the removal of elected officials, to show how their empirical legitimacy can be analysed. Finally, the paper concludes with policy recommendations, focusing on the issue of whether the Bonn Powers should be renounced or retained in the future.
- Topic:
- Government, Treaties and Agreements, International Affairs, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Bosnia, and Balkans
3. Democracy in Slow Motion
- Author:
- Bryan N. Groves
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
- Abstract:
- Bosnia-Herzegovina's democratization is in slow motion. On the outside it appears that the framework for democracy is in place. A closer look reveals that it lacks the civil society to under gird its political institutions. As Piotr Sztompka points out, "building a house is not the same as establishing a home. The former is only the shell, the empty framework ... it is a concern for architects. The latter is the living arena of social actions and interactions ... it is the concern for sociology. The more or less explicit recognition of that distinction between the institutional and the cultural-civilizational spheres is also indicated by other terms, i.e. public sphere versus civil society" (Sztompka, 1996 in Chandler, 2000). Bosnia-Herzegovina-from here forward Bosnia-lacks the inner workings that distinguish a home from a house.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia and Balkans