'Being a Citizen the Bosnian Way': Transformations of Citizenship and Political Identities in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Igor Stiks

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In this paper I analyse transformations of citizenship and political identities in Bosnia-Herzegovina in four periods. First, it is necessary to describe how Bosnian republican-level citizenship was defined within socialist Yugoslavia, where citizenship was bifurcated into the federal and republican citizenships immediately after the Second World War. In the second part, I analyse how and to what extent the citizenship question played a role in democratisation and fragmentation of the Bosnian political scene between 1990 and 1992 and how it was used as a tool of nationalist mobilisation. Furthermore, I describe re-definitions of Bosnian citizenship during the war (1992-1995). Finally, I attempt to scrutinise the structure and current functioning of Dayton Bosnia’s multi-layered citizenship since the Dayton Peace Agreement introduced two-layer (state-level and entity-level) and multiethnic citizenship (ethnically-based political participation). The paper further explores the possible implications of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s eventual membership in the EU which would entail the introduction of European citizenship as an additional layer of Bosnian citizenship.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)245-267
Number of pages22
JournalTransitions
Volume51
Issue number1-2
Publication statusPublished - 2011

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