The Political Economy of Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Twenty Years After Dayton: Bosnia-Herzegovina (Still) Stable and Explosive

“…In practice, however, they are misused by the leaders of the three constituent ethnic groups (Divjak and Pugh 2008), who via nationalist rhetoric have the chance to block decisions and impede reforms allegedly for the benefit of their own people (McMahon andWestern 2009, Belloni andStrazzari 2014). Thus, political institutions remain blocked and unsuited for the conduct of dialogue on even everyday issues, frequently condemning the country to a detrimental standstill (Gordy 2015).…”

“…Certainty premised on the rule of law is a prerequisite for investment and pervasive corruption has long-term consequences for the country's economic development. Corruption has played a pivotal role in driving foreign investment away; most foreign companies have refused to set up operations after demands by officials to pay bribes and do business exclusively with local party officials (Divjak and Pugh 2008). Corruption is one of the predominant factors that has led to a stalled economy, where unemployment is over 27 per cent, and youth unemployment in particular reaches 62 per cent (WB 2015).…”

“…In the post-conflict era this process was characterised by a persistent lack of transparency, where many public assets have been sold off without public bidding or through dubious deals (Slavnić et al 2013). In particular, political parties penetrated and controlled industries and enterprises, whether state-owned or recently privatised (Divjak and Pugh 2008), rewarding their wartime allies with businesses, factories and access to natural resources in their territories of control (Tuathail and Dahlman 2004). Thus, political parties have indirectly managed and guided the process of privatisation to their advantage by appointing their own people to run those enterprises establishing peace-time local power structures led by war-time leaders (Pugh 2005, TI 2012, Kurtović 2015.…”

“…This way the research seeks to find out whether and which of the predominantly cited causes of intra-state conflict can be found in BiH and to what extent their existence threatens peace in the country. Although there are numerous studies on BiH examining different aspects of the challenges the country faces (inter alia, Divjak and Pugh 2008, Clark 2009, Toal and Maksić 2011, this article is, to the author's knowledge, the first systematic review of theories of conflict and their application to this case. Therefore, the originality of this paper lies in the systematic juxtaposition of theory of ethnic conflict with empirical evidence on the ground in order to reach a conclusion on whether BiH is as fragile as significant amount of academic literature claims.…”

Avatars of Eurocentrism in the critique of the liberal peace

“…Even where these go beyond the broad structural level and into the details of particular economic spaces or systems, there is a tendency in the writing to skip over the interpretations given by people of their own situations, and to narrate these issues with the voice and gaze of the economist. In one particular article Divjak and Pugh (2008) do exceptionally go beyond this through engaging aspects of Bosnian public opinion around corruption.…”