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Democracy Updates
As ethnic divisions ease in the Balkans, political parties across the spectrum are finding the need for new approaches that focus on thoughtful policy debate rather than personality and ethnicity. Young leaders in particular will play an important role in these changes.
In partnership with the VMRO-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), NDI co-hosted a meeting Feb. 5-7 of 35 young leaders from center-right Balkan political parties. At the meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, participants focused on how to attract youth to conservative values in the 21st century as well as how to tackle a wide range of issues, including those not traditionally seen as conservative.
Partner Spotlight
Women in the war-torn city of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina have come together to build an advocacy network that is one of the few examples of multiethnic political cooperation in a country fractured by seemingly insurmountable ethnic divides.
In-Country Perspectives
A new NDI report on the democratic transition in Bosnia-Herzegovina highlights the country's post-war and post-communist legacies. It notes that governmental reforms under discussion, while critical, are not sufficient to address the challenges that Bosnia's political institutions and civil society must tackle to put the country firmly on a democratic path.
The report examines the post-conflict and post-communist legacies impeding Bosnia's democratic transition and presents recommendations on democracy assistance going forward.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
More than a decade after the Dayton accords ended the war by giving each ethnic group substantial self-rule, Bosnia-Herzegovina is struggling to cohere its political system in order to pursue Euroatlantic integration. Hopes for constitutional reform to unify the country have been thwarted by fundamentally incompatible views as to how the country should be governed. Bosniaks wish to see a strong central government in Sarajevo. Bosnian Serbs, by contrast, insist that Dayton’s decentralized system be maintained and that their entity, Republika Srpska (RS), not surrender any power to the central government. The Serb position has hardened in the wake of Kosovo’s independence declaration. The RS government has suggested a possible independence referendum, although with seemingly little public appetite for such a move, much less legal authority. Political space is increasingly taken up by mutual recrimination between Bosniak and Serb leaders, prompting growing international concern over the country’s political stability.
The electorate, although preoccupied by economic and social issues, showed in recent municipal elections that its primary political affiliation remains ethnic. Young people, for their part, are voting with their feet as the country now turns to state and entity elections in 2010 as the next opportunity to build political momentum for substantive reform. Political and civic voices for multi-ethnic cooperation are evident but need encouragement and assistance to grow.
Preoccupation with ethnic rights and entity status impedes government action on acute unemployment, poor healthcare, and pervasive corruption. NDI is supporting political and civic leaders working to alter public discourse toward solving problems facing all citizens regardless of ethnicity.
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