Demokratizacija etnonacionalistinių partijų gniaužtuose: Bosnijos ir Hercegovinos atvejis /

Democratization is a typical peace-building strategy after violent ethnic conflicts. There is a consensus that democratic institutions, especially, power-sharing institutions are able to ameliorate inter-ethnic conflicts by peaceful means. However, power-sharing arrangements are also criticized because of its potential to encourage political parties to take a radical stance and compete along ethnic lines. The domination of ethnonational parties leads to both increased ethnic tensions and stagnation of democratization. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a good example of how ethnonational parties manage to overcome any attempts of international community to discredit radical ethnonational parties. Therefore, in order to understand what the impact of ethnonational political parties is on democratization as well as why they remain so popular despite the international attempts to reduce their powers, the case of Republica Srpska is analysed. Thus, the aim of the research is to explain what factors contribute to the domination of ethnonational political parties and what the impact on the democratization does it have. Here, four theoretical approaches explaining the drawbacks of democratization are discussed: state-building first approach; democratization as the process of both state-building and nation-building; the alternative of power-dividing; and elite transformation theory. It is concluded that all of these approaches are able to explain at least some of the aspects of the viability of ethnonational political parties. Yet, these approaches fail to provide a good alternative to democratization. The analysis arrives at the conclusion that it is necessary to seek for a balance between international intervention and independence of the local elite. This is mainly because an extensive international involvement lacks legitimacy among the citizens of the country and, thus, international efforts face certain resistance. On the other hand, the democratization is impossible without the help from the outside since there is no support for it from the local elite.

Grantor dc:publisher

Institutional Repository of Vilnius University

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Donauskytė, Renata,

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sirutavičius, Vladas

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

lit

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.vu.lt/VU:ELABAETD35558626&prefLang=en_US

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vu.lt:elaba:35558626