ELECTORAL REFORM IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND CROATS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ELECTORAL LEGITIMACY

Abstract

The paper is based on empirical research structured on the claim that the current Election Law cannot fulfill the requirements of the segmented Bosnian-Herzegovinian society, especially the smallest Croatian segment. The research conceived on the basis of questionnaire and empirical analysis showed that the opinion of Croats on the overall social and political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is extremely negative. The Election Law has proved to prefer unitarization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is not appropriate for segmented societies such as Bosnian and Herzegovinian. Field research was conducted throughout entire country in order to obtain a complete and relevant empirical framework for opinion of the Croatian people, and the research structure followed the administrative-territorial organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking into account entity levels, cantons and Brčko District.

Keywords

• bosnia and herzegovina
• croats
• electoral reform
• legitimacy
• segmented pluralism