Bosnia and Herzegovina’s eroding Dayton constitutional order

On the 25th anniversary of the Dayton Agreement, this article assesses the current state of Euro-Atlantic integration in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its starting point is that Dayton represented not a breach but a continuation of the politics which destroyed Yugoslavia and that salvaging the country’s democratic potential requires a paradigmatic break from virtually all its socio-political practices and institutions. In these contexts, the article’s central focus on the ‘Bosnian Spring’ which took place right across the country in (and in the run-up to) 2014 provides a salutary reminder of the ability of ordinary people to come together to demand socio-economic justice and, in doing so, to step out of the ethno-nationalist rigidities imposed by Dayton. While those protests ran out of steam, such events are the only ones by which elites can historically be persuaded to concede democratic ground. Dismantling the ethno-nationalist narrative remains the challenge and, when it becomes clear that change will not come from within the system, it becomes the task of ordinary citizens to create democratic institutions that are worth the label.