How do you govern?
Let’s start with a name…. Bosnia and Herzegovina. One would think two countries joined
together.. Wrong! Two geographical areas maybe, but it is the
name of one country. Ok. Now that we
have that settled, let’s move a bit deeper.
It is kind of two countries, but not what you think. Bosnia and Herzegovina are one country, and the
Republic of Srpska is sort of another country within the borders of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and to mess things up a bit more there is an autonomous region
called Brcko which is governed by both “Bosnia and Herzegovina” and Republic of
Srpska. Each entity has their own
constitution, but are ruled by one common government. Got that?
Now as far as government goes, it gets real messy. Bosnia
and Herzegovina are mostly Bosniaks and Croats.
Republic of Srpska is mostly muslim Serbians. When the fighting was finished after the breakup
of Yugoslavia, the western nations and
UN established the government for the region under the Dayton Accord. This accord decided that there would be three
presidents to the country, one for each ethnic group. Each
president would hold office for 8 months and then pass it on to one of the
other presidents who holds it for 8 months.
The presidency revolves around between the three presidents for the
duration of their 4 year term. The
Serbs in Srpska elect one president. The Serbs can only vote for the Serb
president. The Bosniaks and Croats elect
a Bosnian president and a Croat president. But each Bosniak and each Croat get to vote for
both a Bosniak and a Croat president.
So now we have 3 presidents serving on a rotation of 8 months every two
years. These three presidents together
nominate and elect a prime minister who in turn appoints the executive of the
government from the house of representatives.
Just to throw one more item into the mix, the president can be over ruled
by a foreigner appointed by the western powers to keep an eye on things. Also,
any two of the sitting presidents can overrule the current President. Now
do we actually think that a president holding office for only 8 months every
two years, answering to a foreign bureaucrat, and answering to the other two
non current presidents, and to the prime minister and executive government can
actually accomplish anything? It sure
sounds like a recipe for deadlocked government on every issue…..
