Elections and Political Stability in Divided Societies: The Bosnian Post-Dayton Experience

Elections and Political Stability in Divided Societies: The Bosnian Post-Dayton Experience seeks to identify the mechanisms linking the consequences of the electoral system to the stability of political institutions, which embody the two primary characteristics of consociational democracy: power-sharing and group autonomy (federalism). The central argument of this study is that the electoral system in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina significantly shapes patterns of ethnic representation and political competition, thereby influencing the stability of political institutions. The analysis of the causal impact of the electoral system will be theoretically grounded in the existing body of scholarly knowledge on political systems in deeply divided societies.