PROBLEMS AND CONTROVERSIES OF PUBLIC DECISION–MAKING IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

The pluralization of Bosnian society took place in 1990, when political parties were formed and the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held. Long rule without a coalition political agenda and agreements between the winning ethnic parties has strengthened ethnic pluralism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Instead of democratic decision-making and competition between the majority and the opposition, the representative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina have become an arena of competition between the parties that make up the majority.
The lack of consensus between the ruling ethnic parties was compensated at the state level by the High Representative of the International Community (OHR), who, on the basis of the Bonn powers, promulgated certain laws. This prevented blockages in the work of the state parliament. In the absence of consensus of the ruling ethnic parties, it is neither possible to develop nor strengthen the power of parliaments. Instead of parliamentary democracy, partitocracy is at work. The situation is similar at the entity level, and at the cantonal level in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. All this, along with heterogeneous and complicated decision-making procedures and processes, ultimately reflects on the adoption of laws and decisions of importance to society and the state. Complicated forms of decision-making and the existence of a mechanism for the protection of vital national interests are some of the obstacles to the development of the state and society. All of these are some of the key issues, but also the controversies that accompany the decision-making processes in the representative bodies in the country. Only decision-making at the level of local self-government units (municipalities and cities) can serve as a positive example.

The basis for strengthening the democratic decision-making capacities of the representative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina is contained in the application of the democratic principle on which parliamentary democracy is established and functions. It is about establishing a parliamentary majority based on the coalition agreement and the political program of that coalition.