North-South and East-West Relations. Representation and Democratization in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper will consider the issue of representation and democratization in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a post-conflict and transitional society where different international major players impose notions of development, democratization and transitional justice. It is based on fieldwork in BiH in 2009, 2010, as part of my doctoral thesis at Faculty of Economics and CES, University of Coimbra and funded by Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT). The question of the number and heterogeneity of IC actors and their different interests in BIH is crucial to the representation of humanitarian and developmental aid, democratization, and transitional justice. At the same time as credibility of IC institutions decreases in BIH, images of the country as «forgotten», «Wild East» or as an «abnormal country» in contrast to «any normal European Country», persevere. The sensation of «stillness» or «not moving forward» has major consequences to participation and democratization. Moreover, nationalist discourse by ruling elites manipulates the representation of victimhood and human rights. But the question is also how IC actors contribute to these representations and how they themselves portray BIH. BIH, entity-level as well as international media have major influences on the issue of representation. And how are these reciprocal representations between BIH and IC players related to intersections between North and South and East and West?