Abstract
Strengthening presidentialisation of political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the product of several factors. On the one hand constitutional structure designed in Dayton significantly contributes to presidentialisation of political parties in BiH. This structure is primarily founded on ethnic and territorial political representation and which systematically tends to profile leaders of main ethnic groups. In such a system ethnic political parties of three “constituent peoples” dominate, which function as three “pillars”, three “circles” in which competitive party process is going on. In absence of classic societal cleavages founded on ideological, economic, class and regional basis such a situation “of neither war nor peace” produced the need for leadership and undoubtedly leadership leads to enhancing power of the party president and to establishing control over party bodies, decision-making process, policy-making process and spending of the budget and public funds. The paper explains the reasons of presidentialisation of political parties that we primarily find in constitutional structure, electoral system and genetic features of ethnic political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Notes
- 1.
One Bosniak and one Croat are elected from the territory of Federation of BH. The voter registered in Federation can vote for one candidate only. The Bosniak and Croat candidate who won the largest number of votes amongst the candidates from the same constituent people/ethnic group are elected. One Serb is elected from the territory of Republika Srpska. Elected is a candidate with the largest number of votes by voters registered in RS. See more in Arnautović (2009).
- 2.
- 3.
SNSD-Milorad Dodik, Democratic Front-Željko Komšić, SBB-Fahrudin Radončić, BPS-Sefer Halilović and others.
- 4.
Namely, in order to secure formal candidacy of Bakir Izetbegović, the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), at the 6th Congress of the party that was held in May of 2015, there was an “official opponent” Irfan Ajanović put forward where he even publicly said that he did not vote for himself.
- 5.
https://www.klix.ba/vijesti/bih/politicari-iz-rs-a-zele-blokirati-rad-drzavnog-parlamenta-ali-se-ne-odricu-enormnih-placa/170215082, visited on February 16, 2017 at 11.45.
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Arnautović, S. (2019). The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Mitigated Presidentialism. In: Passarelli, G. (eds) The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in the Western Balkans. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97352-4_4
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