GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Post-Industrial Society and the Authoritarian Temptation (ESI - European Stability Initiative, 2004)
In the summer of 2002, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) approached the European Stability Initiative to conduct a Governance Assessment of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Governance Assessment was designed to study the evolution of government in Bosnia, and to "assess more fully the constraints on positive decision-making" across all levels of government in Bosnia. Its goal was to promote an open debate within Bosnian society on what constitutes good governance, in order to build up democratic pressures in favour of change.During the second half of 2002, using a team of Bosnian researchers, ESI carried out investigations across Bosnia and Herzegovina on the social and economic challenges facing the country, and how Bosnian governments are responding to them. The empirical research was concluded in October 2003, and the conclusions presented to a range of different audiences during 2003 and the first half of 2004, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and outside. This paper now presents this analytical work to a wider audience. Additional background material on the governance assessment is also available on the ESI website (www.esiweb.org). The views expressed in this report are those of ESI, and do not express the opinion of either DFID or the government of the United Kingdom