Center for European Studies

The political and economic transformations of peace-building and state-building efforts in post-Dayton Accords Bosnia–Herzegovina (BiH) have resulted in a dysfunctional, ethnically divided and impoverished country in social crisis. Articulating a demand for greater social justice, the 2014 protests and plenums in BiH emerged as a response rejecting both ethnic division and the corruption of post-Dayton political economy. While for most Bosnian politicians it was the biggest threat so far, it also appeared to represent an opening for a new reform agenda by the EU, visible in its ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’, pitched as the latest precondition which aimed to revitalize BiH’s path to European integration. I argue that the Compact and the responses to it offer a useful diagnostic to gauge how the post-Dayton political field has shifted since the events of 2014, particularly in terms of articulating left responses within ethno-nationalist context.

Dr. Majstorovic is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Banja Luka.